I am looking for a source for what we used to call at the lazy , a table key. A hardened steel pin 1.000 dia X 1.5 inches long with a pair of parallel flats on one end .875 across and .75 across. They were inserted in one inch tooling holes in a fixture and the flats keyed the fixture parallel to the keyways on the mill. I need a pair for the .625 T-slots on my machine. Jim
Hey Jim,
That's a kinda neat but elaborate idea/trick/hint. I just use 3" long hardened .625 round pins, and after inserting they can be "laid down" to accommodate the height if less than ~2" protruding is desired.
I also have a pair of 2 X 3 flat plates .625 thick. The flat plates are tougher to get in and out of the slots as easy as the rounds, but they have an advantage in that you can C-clamp something to them if needed. I've thought of putting a "pry hole" through them to aid in removal, but never got around to it. Never tried it because no holes, but I suspect placed correctly these pry holes might allow an angle plate to be bolted on instead of clamped. The angle and flats combination gives a nice square corner for some jobs.
Take care.
Brian Laws>I am looking for a source for what we used to call at the lazy , a table
Try MSC and search for either fixture keys or sine keys. They've got some really slick set ups to do what you want. There's quite a variety of options, some of which may be even better than you used in the past.
For the newbies here....
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