Clamping long tall stuff

In article , Peter Fairbrother writes

Peter,

Could you do it in the lathe? Remove the tailstock, if necessary, then shim it up to the right height and use the cross slide for travel.

Otherwise you could be looking for a very big angle plate...

David

Nice idea, but I only have a minilathe at present - too small, no slots on the cross-slide.

BYTW if anyone knows of a slotted cross-slide for the minilathe I'd be interested.

Angle plate, that's the phrase. Found a gazillion for sale now, thanks.

-- Peter Fairbrother

Actually Peter, I misread your first post, thought you wanted to mill a slot in the small (6x1") end. Now that *would* have needed a big angle plate.

David

Can you surround it by angle plates to keep it rigid?

AWEM

If I have it right, you wish to machine someting 6" tall and do not have a machine with enough daylight to get this under the vertical head, I asume your oit is rather samll, however you should be able to hold it down to the bed and attack with a tool in the horizontal spindle or hold it clamped to an angle plate with conventional clamps. Tell us more about your kit and its sizes and we can help more. As a last resort bring it to me and I will do it for you! Peter

I could, if I had any angle plates, and if they kept it rigid ..

-- Peter

No I have plenty of daylight - I was just wondering how to clamp the workpieces [1] to the mill bed in a semi-upright position so I can work on it.

I suspect the magic words here are "angle plate".

[1] which are the slides from the BCA, which I have to machine so it accepts it's new ballscrews.

X3 mill, M10 clamping kit, some ordinary clamps (good idea there) - just no angle plate or similar. Will probably buy an angle plate, it's the kind of thing that will come in useful later.

On the subject of buying an angle plate, is a Vee angle plate worth a little extra money? Would the Vee ever get used? How about an adjustable one?

eg:

Thanks, but I'll manage.

Incidentally, where are you? Where are you all? I'm in Trowbridge, Wilts.

-- Peter too

An alternative that you may find more generally useful for setting up work on the table is a set of rectangular blocks like this:

jsw

I've seen stuff clamped to the side of the bed on a large mill,

Regards Jonathan