Does anyone use quill spacers on their mill?

[Parlo]

I've just made a new set of these for my Bridgeport as my current ones are over 35 years old. Does anyone still use these instead of the quill stop nut?

The recessed one sits permanently on the casting, bypassing the screw & providing a solid base. The longest one sits on top of it and is used for milling, the others are used to determine the amount of travel. I've completely removed the nut and lock nut and use a clip on depth stop for tripping the boring feed.

 

[twhite]

Yes I use those at work still. Great stops. Very positive no slipping of quill.


Cutting oil is my blood.

 

[aliva]

Never seen them before, simple idea but you'd need a lot of various sizes. Mr. Pete has a couple vids on a making a push button quill stop

 

[ErichKeane]

You can buy those push button ones, they are great! I've got one and it has some graduations on it as well that make it easy to adjust depth.

 

[Parlo]

Never seen them before, simple idea but you'd need a lot of various sizes. Mr. Pete has a couple vids on a making a push button quill stop

I only have 5 sizes. One is a permanent base & another is only for milling with the quill fully retracted.
There are just 3 interchangeable ones used singly or in combination to give 16mm steps of travel from 13mm to 125mm. Any adjustment between these depths is set by the knee.
As twite posted, they are far more rigid and repeatable than the threaded nut, especially the push button type. Even with the threaded bar locked there is still about 0.005" flex. Demonstration of the flexing shown here -

QUILL STOP 22.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[Parlo]

Here is my youtube video with full explanation.

 

[Eyerelief]

Yes I do. They are handy to have

 

[PNW_Guy]

I've not seen those before - interesting idea