Millrite knee gib locks

I was at Brothers Machinery Exchange (North Andover, MA) today, and they have a Burke/Powermatic Millrite MVN (which looks like a slightly scaled down version of the MVI that I have). I had always wondered what the original knee gib locking screws looked like, as my MVI didn't have them and so I improvised using Holochrome 3/8-16 hex socket cap screws and hex wrenches. This works, but the hex wrenches fall out from time to time.

The MVI still had the original gib locking screws, so I took one out and looked it over. Very simple. They were machined from a bit of 5/8" square steel (1018?) bar machined to have a 3/8-16 threaded shaft ending with a full dog point. The dog point part is about 3/8" long, with a dished tip (so the brass ball will center properly).

The 5/8" square is the same as in used on the drawbar and on the knee Z-axis (up and down) crank, so one can use the one crank handle to perform all these functions.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn
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Or you can replace the hex keys with a couple of the adjustable handles on McMaster pp. 2181 thru 2184.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Yeah these would work, but they wouldn't look right - too pretty...

Actually, I'll probably stick with the cap screws and hex wrenches for now, as they don't annoy me enough. But I had wondered what the original gib clamp screws looked like, and now I know.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Or, you can make up your own screw with a captive wrench.

Make the screw from a piece of 3/4" or larger round rod. Mill the square or hex, but leave some of the round at the very end. Leave the screw shank long enough to allow the wrench to turn on it.

Similar to the nuts often used to keep wrenches captive on lathe tailstocks.

John Martin

Reply to
John Martin

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