[widgitmaster]

Squaring up plates on a mill!

After cleaning the table off, I placed a piece of brown paper on the table to keep from scratching the soft MIC-6 aluminum plates, also to keep the moisture in the cast iron table from discoloring the aluminum!

Then I stacked three plates in the center of the table, and strapped them down on all four corners. To keep the straps from damaging the plates, I placed little pieces of lexan under the straps! Then I used my Combination Square with the scale set to 2", to get one edge of all three plates parallel to the mill table. Then I tightened all the clamps.

Using a 5/8 dia 2-flute end mill, I took of as little material as necessary from the front edges parallel to the table. This leaves the bulk of material on the opposite edge. The plates were ordered to be cut at 12 1/4", but they vary by 1/16 and are not square or parallel from the supplier!

Next, I milled the remaining material off the opposite side, by moving the table and the ram on the mill. By machining two surfaces in one setup, the plates are precisely parallel! The finish size of 12.000" was done on all six plates!

Then I cleaned off the mill table, and placed my 6" Kurt vise perpendicular to the table. Then I added soft aluminum jaws on the outer ends of the vise. I roughly dialed in the jaws, tightened the clamps holding the vise, and proceeded to machine the steps in the soft jaws. By doing this, I will be able to hold the 12" wide plate exactly perpendicular to the mill table!

Next I machined one edge, removing the minimum material on all six plates, then I finished machining the remaining edge of all the plates to exactly 12.000"

Now I have six plates that are perfectly square and parallel and measure 12.000" x 12.000"
The next operation will be making the T-Slots in all the plates, which will be for sale on eBay when completed!

Be patient, the video files are large and take a while to download!
VIDEO1, VIDEO2, VIDEO3, VIDEO4, VIDEO5, VIDEO6

[Jason Marsha]

Great work. Thanks for sharing you knowledge.
I'm off to watch the videos

Jason

[DDM]

Great explanation, I usually don't take that much time to make sure that I don't mar the surface. Where do you get your Mic-6 material, I'll have to be getting some here in the future.

Carl

[widgitmaster]

Great explanation, I usually don't take that much time to make sure that I don't mar the surface. Where do you get your Mic-6 material, I'll have to be getting some here in the future.

Carl

Thanks!

SPEEDY METALS 1-888-744-4140

Eric