[Gamble]

I have a small maxnc 15 cnc mill. Was cutting some .250 plate and it moved on me. I had it held down with 2 L brackets into the T-nuts.

What would a better option be?
I have a sherline vise but it seems pretty small, so would like something bigger. Thought about a vacuum table but I'm a total newbie at this so I'm sure I will run into that.

The plate I am practicing with is 3 or 4" tall and 10 to 14" long.

[Jim Dawson]

Can you post a picture of your setup? Maybe adding a couple more clamps or end stops would be helpful. Most of my work is done with the work bolted to the table, normally not a problem.

[Gamble]

Can you post a picture of your setup? Maybe adding a couple more clamps or end stops would be helpful. Most of my work is done with the work bolted to the table, normally not a problem.

Just have these two little clamps that came with the sherline vice

I also want to know how to make a jig for under the plate. So I can mill out 2 holes then bolt the piece down to the plate

[Jim Dawson]

Figuring out how the hang on to the work is about 1/3 of machining. You are only limited by your imagination. Having lots of extra T-nuts helps. Easy to make, or available from many vendors.

Here are a couple of pictures on one setup I did to profile a number of parts out of 1/2 steel plate for a project I was working on. The holes in all of the parts will be used in assembly. The large cap screws are screwed down to T-nuts, the small screws are in drilled & tapped holes in the 3/4 thick MDF spoil board. I have a drawing of my table that I use to layout the parts so I have the large screw holes in line with the T-slots when I do the part layout.





In other instances, I bolt the spoil board down with flathead screws and use deck screws to hold the part to the spoil board.


Or maybe double up the spoil board to get more bite on the screws



For other work I might use an aluminum plate under the work and drill & tap hold downs as needed.

This is a picture of another project I did, a bit more robust fixture because I was doing about 500 parts.