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Cutting a vee groove with basic equipment

I wish to cut a 90degree vee groove about 5/16" / 3/8" deep across a piece of flat steel about 3" wide. I have a small lathe with a fixed vertical slide (its table can rotated in the vertical, but NOT the horizontal). I do not have either a 45degree or adjustable angle plate. I have a small collection of ordinary slot and end mills up to about

12mm. I cannot think of a satisfactory way of setting this job up without an appropriate angle plate, but even if I had one I'm abit concerned that the amount of overhang that would result might be a bit much for a relatively light milling set up. If I try to manually mount it with packing pieces etc Its going to be v. difficult to clamp to the slide, and how accurate the final angle would be is debateable. I cannot mount everything on the cross-slide as it isn't slotted. (the vertical slide bolts on directly), so cannot do it that way. Any suggestions anyone?
Reply to
MikeH_QB
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I don't know whether it would work, but how about using a 45/90 degree countersink with the work at right angles to the lathe axis?

You might have to cut a few slots with smaller milling cutters first.

Are 45/90 degree milling cutters available?

-- Peter Fairbrother

Reply to
Peter Fairbrother

Yes, I suggest:

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If you go to the J&L website and look at the current special offer flyer, you will see they are on offer this month - £17.17 + VAT for the

1/2" size.

I have done this using an ordinary countersink cutter, but they are not optimised for milling and struggled a bit - did work, wore the cutter out a bit. As you suggest, best to use a slot drill, and I would then add, cut each side separately in turn. Best anyway to leave a small slot in the bottom of the V-groove to avoid the risk of bottoming - see how it's done on commercial V-blocks.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

if you've the time, why not mark the v out, hacksaw the centre to depth, mark both sides of the v with the saw and then saw to the centre then finish with a file? you describe the finished size as "about", its suprising how close you can file when you have to!

Reply to
willowkevin

Thanks for all the comments guys. Although the actual size isn't critical, it needs to be accurate (parallel to base and straight etc) as it is part of a jig to hold small section bar stock for machining.. I'm afraid my filing just isn't that good these days! Also funds are a bit limited to buy new cutters just for a one off. I'll probably hack it out as near as and just try to mill to finished size as best I can! - Sometimes you can actually see a solution when you physically try to set it up and do it, when it has not been obvious 'in theory' beforehand.

regards, Mike

Reply to
MikeH_QB

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