SS shims

Epoxy it to a sacrificial block, machine to size and shape, remove from block with heat.

What Bob said, except use Super-Glue cyanoacrylate. Epoxy doesn't stick to steel nearly as well.

Start with an aluminum backing plate the same X and Y size as your shim stock blanks. Clean and degrease shimstock and backing plate, interleave layers of copier paper between each piece of shim, all glued up with Super-glue. A 4 layer sandwich will give you 4 shims per operation.

Use a thick aluminum sheet to clamp the sandwich to cure each lamination flat.

HINT! Before gluing, exhale to fog the shim. The condensed water really speeds up the curing process.

Adjust the direction of mill cutter travel clockwise on the ID and counterclockwise on the OD so that the ragged edge appears on the scrap material rather than your top workpiece.

A propane torch on the backing plate will cause the shims to release from the backing plate. Use Lots Of Ventilation! Promptly blow out the flame produced by burning superglue.

They turn out very nicely. Use a random orbit sander to clean off charring on the back of the top most shim, should it appear.

--Winston

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Besides SS shim stock, McMaster also has SS shim washers, like at ,

74 or 72 cents each for .012 or .015 thick, 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD. I don't see much of a match at McMaster for your other size, but you could have a look at suppliers of metric shim washers.

Given the thickness of the material and the few that you need, it may be possible to chemical or electro-chemical mill these at home. What sort of accuracy do you need on the ID/OD and is some slight undercut on the edges OK? Resist, etchant and possibly a battery charger are all pretty cheap. It may be possible to get one of the sheet plastic lettering machines [like a plotter but with a knife to cut the plastic sheet] to produce your "donut" resists in some sort of stick on plastic. Or if you have a steady hand just paint the resist on with a fine brush. see

Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

Since you have a lathe & mill, make a shim die? Seems like just as much work gluing clamping burning off? Plus you'll have it to make future replacements if needed?

Nobody has shim stock anymore??

Gunner

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." -- Benjamin Franklin, /The Encouragement of Idleness/, 1766

Wayne, I have a sheet of peelable SS shim stock. It peels in .002" sheets. It comes as a .035" sheet. I make a cutting die on a lathe and a 60 ton hydraulic press. You would not need 60 tons. I would guess ten tons is fine. Steve

F. George McDuffee laid this down on his screen :

Don't need any special accuracy. I think I'd like to stay away from chemicals though.

Wayne D.

I couldn't see the diagram clearly until I started the reply. Different font I guess. Usually I use Courier New for text diagrams since it isn't proportional.

I still wouldn't know how to make a die though, or what material to use.

Wayne D.

What kind of cutter are we talking about here? I've mostly have used end mills, or occasionally a counterbore.

Wayne D.

Got no press. Best I can do is a bench vise, mill vise, or BFH.

Wayne D.

Steve Lusardi wrote on 1/18/2010 :

I might as well make my own. That way I'll have shim stock leftover if needed for something else. Got the shim stock in today. I just love next day delivery from McMaster.

Wayne D.

End mill. I used a 1/8" 4 flute center - cutting type. Lots of superglue; saturate the paper or coolant will cause delamination. Use coolant or the end mill will melt the super glue and bind in the slot. Cut SS aggressively to stay under the work - hardened area.

--Winston