Making a micrometer stop for a Clausing lathe

Recently, I was in the bidding for a micrometer stop for a Clausing 12" lathe. I dropped out when the price soared well above $200. Why? Because I was thinking that for that kind of money, I can buy a special-purpose endmill that will mill the 70-degree (included angle) groove to fit the bedway V-rail. If as-milled isn't quite precise enough, I can always scrape it into perfection.

It isn't obvious that I need a micrometer stop versus a plain old stop, and I plan to make a clamp to hold a 0-2" dial indicator such that it will indicate carriage location, and having the 70 degree groove endmill makes it easy to make all such things.

So, I ordered a pair (main plus backup) of V-203 conical endmills from the Conical Tool Company in the frozen wastelands of Michigan, Grand Rapids to be sure. The endmills cost $122 each, through MSC's special-order process.

It will be a few weeks before the endmills arrive. The first two projects will be the stop and the dial indicator holder.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn
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Any reason you can't use a regular endmill and tip the part 35 degrees to cut the angle?

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Or a standard, more acute angle like 60 degrees and tilt the blank 5 degrees?

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MSC doesn't like my Cookies setting.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Hardly frozen lately. Temp just hit 94 deg and it has been hovering around 90 for over a week now. Suppose to stay that way, maybe get a bit hotter for the rest of the week, sigh...

Wasn't familiar with that company so I looked at the website. They are within spitting distance of the old GM Stamping plant that used to be on 36th St.

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Good shaper project, too. That's how I did mine.

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Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

We are in the middle of a heat wave right now. Supposed to be near or above 90 all week. I'm in Muskegon, hate to be inland, no offshore breeze.

Reply to
Steve Walker

Sure, I could do all that. I have the sine bar and the gauge blocks. But it's a lot of trouble, and the special tool makes sense to me on an available-time economy basis.

The other problem is that the min distance (which governs the endmill diameter) is a bit small.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

It's my mental picture of Michigan (where my Mother came from), and mere facts will have no effect.

There must be a million such companies up there. In Germany, they would be called the Mittlestand.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

One can, but it's very slow, with all the setup, and the fact that one cannot use a big mill because of the 1/4" groove bottom dimension.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

One can, but there is no speed advantage over a straight endmill - the setup time is the same.

It does that to me also. If I just try again, it usually becomes happy.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Looks good. But I no place to keep a shaper. Which is a shame, as they can be had for small dollars.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

You need a real ocean.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Don't let them razz you too much about buying that cutter, yes there are lots of other ways to do the job but if it matches your lathe bed and you take good care of it then it will come in VERY handy over the years if you ever need to make a steady rest or if you ever want to adapt a old bed turret from some other lathe onto it etc...

One thing you need to realize, is that the pointy end has no surface speed and so you want to hog out most of the material first, using a regular cutter, ALWAYS cuttting a small "relief slot" at the very center of your vee first..and only cut with one side or the other with your angle cutter...otherwise, you'll have nothing but problems and you'll probably even break the very tip off of it before you even finish your first job...

Something that's good to know, is the exact depth of the Vee on your lathe, this can be a hassle to initially determine, but once you've established it accurately, there is no end to the special tooling etc that you can make up to fit your lathe.

The way I do this is with a test block in a mill--first flycut it flat, and then mill your vee depth to where you think it's close, but just a tad bit deeper. Then, set it on the lathe bed and check the gap with feeler gages, using trigonometry or cad to determine exactly how much more material needs to to be taken off your flycut surface in able to get a perfect fit...it might take a couple of trys, but once you get there, you can use bluing and slide your test block on the bed, making sure you have a good ampount of contact area on both the vee and the flat...

After that, drop a pin in the vee and measure from your flycut surface to the pin, writing down your pin diameter and height above flat, and save this info for future reference.

Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT

These make milling angles easy:

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Cut the blank longer than the width of the blocks so the vise jaws will grab the ends. Otherwise the work is difficult to hold down

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

One of my old books suggests filing a sheet metal template to fit the cross-section of the ways. Another uses sheet lead, such as flashing, cut close to shape and pressed onto the ways for the final exact fit. Then scribe it onto the sheetmetal.

I start with the cardboard from a six pack, scribe and trim it close and trace it onto the sheetmetal. That works well for fitting irregular patches into car rust holes too. A couple of magnets hold the edges flush while I tack weld the patch

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Yes, they are a good approach, and I have an adjustable version of the same, and it would not be difficult to adjust the block to the desired angle. This will come in handy for one-off jobs, but for the Clausing V-rail grooves I decided that a specialized tool was worthwhile.

Joe Gwinn

PS: Bought used for maybe 10% of listed price; don't recall the details. Nor do I know who sells this in the US.

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

That's my thinking as well. And the endmills are on the way, so the razzing is ex post facto.

Yes, and I notice that people rough the groove out first, unless they are using a horizontal mill. If one is scraping, the slot is also essential.

Clausing has published the exact dimensions of the bedway in relation to the spindle et al, so no experimentation is needed. They also specify the diameter of the rod to nest in the groove, and how much the nestled rod must protrude.

This sounds like a good approach.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

You did write that you had already ordered them, but it's a good opportunity to discuss alternatives for similar jobs, including those you could use for fine adjustments if the Clausing's angle doesn't exactly match the end mill's.

I bought an expensive new angle cutter while I was unemployed to recut the ways on an old worn lathe, on the trade school's horizontal mill.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Yet another way, would be to offhand grind a single point form tool that matches your tailstock vee and then mount it into a boring bar type of arrangemnet sort of like this:

Here is a good picture:

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This one is even better :

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Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT

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With a 70 degree included angle, and a normal 90 degrees between the tip and the side of the mill?

Granted -- 70 degrees seems a lot narrower than on my Clausing lathe -- a 12x24" model 5418/

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

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