Desirable Tooling/Accessories for a Milling Machine

Peter A Forbes · 2005-03-16T20:15:15+00:00

We have been looking at various accessories and 'goodies' for the new Beavermill, and have had lots of 'nudges' from the more knowledgeable on the newsgroup(received with thanks!)We did get a lot of stuff when Bob West closed his workshop down, so havealready got a decent rotary table (10" Victoria) a dividing head (5" Elliott butless tailstock) and so on, but what in the eyes of the newsgroup are those itemsthat would be on 'their' machine?The Beaver has X and Y axis DRO BTW, it is a Bausch & Lomb system.Peter

Mar 16, 2005 24 Replies

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Kevin Steele 21 years ago

This is probably a bit obvious, but a claminping set would be number 1 on my list. If you're going to hold lots of odd shaped objects maybe a couple. And packers to support things, I use a couple of pairs of cheap 1-2-3 blocks which have been handy for supporting jobs. And, if you haven't already got one, a good quality DTI for clocking jobs up and locating from datum holes -and a suitable adaptor for holding it in the machine. I don't have one but I particularly like the double-elbow ones that slacken off and lock all the joints with one screw, very easy to use.

Regards

Kevin

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Tim Leech 21 years ago

Agreed, but don't end up doing what I did - I got one set specifically for the slots on my Town Woodhouse mill (14mm IIRC), then later another el cheapo 16mm set for the Elliott etc. The first set have M12 threads, the second 1/2" UNC, I've been cursing them ever since.

Yes those are good - J&L sometimes have them, good quality, on an offer with a cheapo indicator. The indicator works perfectly well for most jobs.

Cheers Tim

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JG 21 years ago

Kevin Steele said

I'll second that !

I recently bought one on eBay (a double elbow magnetic base) - never having seen one before - and it is a godsend.

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Dave Jones 21 years ago

Probably the most usefull set up clock we have is a 3D clock available at Fenn tools. Can be used for measuring/probing the workpiece before during and after manufacture in X,Y and Z axis. Wouldn't be without ours. Cheers Dave Jones

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