A clever idea

[techno ludite]

Hi All

While reading through next months issue of EIM pg83, I did spy a clever idea for making sure your work piece is roughly set up in the chuck. I thought it was clever enough to share with you all, even if you don't/can't get 'Engineering In Miniature' were ever you all are in the world.

Any who behold the genius that is Anthony Mount



I'm probably gonna get my wrists slapped for posting the image on my flickr, so enjoy whilst you can.

TL

[jim]

another simple tip!

excellent, thank you

[techno ludite]

I've been pondering this, in that it would only be useful for ferrous metals, but if you had a strong enough magnet i.e 1 from a broken computer hard drive 'cos they stick like s**t to a blanket. Mount that to a spindle and have a steel disc behind the non-ferrous metal you want to clamp, then do up the chuck jaws hmm me thinks this needs a C o C to show it I'm trying to explain  .

TL

[Stilldrillin]

That's a good 'un! 

Thank you! 

David D

[techno ludite]

Tested a theory to-nite to see if hard drive magnets will work through non ferrous material, as you can see there's 2 redundant hard drive magnets jury-rigged to a bit of steel bar, with a piece of 3/16" gunmetal and a piece of 1/8" steel plate, it also works with 1/4" ally as well  ( not all at the same time though ).

So the hunt is now on for a suitable piece of ally bar to sacrifice to the god of swarf production, epoxy that of magnets into a recess do it don't fall out and then were in business.


TL  

Now to settle down and watch 'The Patriot'

[Blade]

HMM, cool idea, when I first looked at this I didn't quite see the reason for it but after looking again I can see that it would make getting thin pieces square to the face of the chuck very easy. The nice part is that you don't have to search for a spacer that is just the right thickness to put behind your work. You can get the rare earth magnets at most hobby stores anymore, I have some that are 1/2" dia. so I will make one of these.

[Blade]

I had another thought on this. If you made the magnetic holder round you could make a cup to go over the front of it,  bore a hole in the center of the cup and you could use it to center work. As an example, if you had a plate that you wanted to offset bore a hole in, you would just need to locate where you want your hole and drill a pilot hole in the plate. Then you make a pin that fits in the pilot hole that can be screwed to the center hole in the cup, slide the plate onto the pin on the cup and place it on the magnetic holder, allowing you to quickly locate the work and mount it in the chuck.

This is most likely too much work for a single piece but if you make a lot of flat parts it could save you time. Or for people that struggle to set up the four jaw chuck this should place the work almost perfectly centered if you fit the parts for the magnetic holder together so they are true. Hope that all makes sense.