How do you organize your milling fixtures/hold downs?

[Janderso]

Moving my 10" C Gorton rotary table to the mill table is always preceded by a question, is there another way?
This thing hurts me! It has to weigh 80 lbs. or more.

Once I got it up there, caught my breath, I had to find some hold downs.
This started another project. I need to organize this mess.
Those mill hold down kits come with the hanging organizers. I find them to be a royal PITA. You can't get the T nuts out and the hex nuts get stuck down in their slots.
There has to be a better way.

 

[brasssmanget]

I agree.....I've moved most of my sets to smaller boxes like you show....just seems easier than using the factory compartment racks...

 

[mmcmdl]

I have a dedicated drawer in one of the Vidmars Jeff . All organized believe it or not . I'm still finding them down the other basement so I may have to go to a larger drawer . I buried quite a few of these in the past , they multiplied when I wasn't looking and had way too many . And like you , I tossed all those original holders . PITA .

 

[maspann]

Heavy lifting. I recently had to replace the bearings in my Enco milling machine motor. After seeing Joe Pie's video when he had to remove his, I knew I didn't want to lift it by myself. My solution was to attach a piece of unistrut across several trusses in my shop ceiling and mount a unistrut trolley and small pulley system to hoist and hold the motor.
That worked so well that I am in the process of expanding the use to my 10" rotary table and 90 deg dividing head. I am building a rolling cart to store them under a work table where they can be pulled out and lifted to the milling machine without breaking my back. It is still a work in progress, but here is a photo of the basic setup.

 

[Provincial]

I like to put nuts and t-nuts on 1/4" rod columns. That way they take up little room, and you can keep track of inventory at a glance. If you mount the base plate to a wall or other vertical surface, and bend the tip of the rod up, they can be kept within arms reach, and don't fall off the end of the rod.

I'm thinking of making a variation on the standard storage rack, mounted to a vertical surface, that has angled holes for the studs (so gravity will help keep them in place), laid out in a pattern that sorts them by length. I hate rummaging around looking for the proper length stud.

I have two mills and a drill press that use 1/2" studs, and a shaper block (box) that uses 3/8" studs. I keep the 3/8" set in the factory rack because I don't use it often. I keep one set of 1/2" studs at the drill press, because it is located pretty far away from the mills.

I'm working on modifying a rolling rack to hold tooling. It will have a shelf about chest height for the rotary table and dividing head so I can set the table to match that height and just slide the heavy stuff on and off the table to the shelf. It will have the hold-down equipment racked on one vertical surface, with collets, end mill holders, and other tooling racked above and below the shelf. I can roll it to whichever machine I working with at the moment.

 

[Larry$]

.just seems easier than using the factory compartment racks...

I'm the opposite! I hate digging through boxes, bins or drawers. I've got 3 of the plastic racks mounted on the wall by the mill. Two different sizes and a third size in a home made rack. I can see at a glance all the parts. I almost always put everything back as soon as I'm done. That includes all the tools and paraphernalia that I used that day. As I get older I find myself "misplacing" things so it is much easier to just always have stuff in the same location. Chips are cleaned up and floor swept before I go home.

I tried to maintain the same in my woodworking/manufacturing business. Shadow tool boards at each assembly bench, each machine had it's own set of wrenches etc. Cleanup at the end of every shift. Some people were very difficult to train that way.

We made parts for a large Japanese manufacturer. Their plant was always beautifully organized and clean. We made their office furnishings also. When the head of the local plant retired he had us make the interior for his new Japanese restaurant. Neat, quiet guy. I was surprised that he hadn't gone back to Japan when he retired. I'm babbling off track, sorry.

 

[RJSakowski]

I have a 12" Enco H/V RT that the catalog says has a ship wt. of 300 lbs. It has been more or less permanently installed on my RF30 clone for the past fifteen years. It was a struggle getting it up there then and I wouldn't even attempt to strong arm it now. I thought about a sky hook. It would work if rotated the mill head but then I would also need a means to slide the RT to a cart. Another thought was to buy a hydraulic lift table.

As it is, I have my CNC mill where I do most of my milling so there hasn't been a pressing need to remove the RT. A good thing as I really don't have a place to store it when not on the mill.

I have two sets of step clamps and keep them in their original racks. The 3/8" set is the one I use most of the time and the rack consists of a piece of plywood with holds drilled for the studs and pockets for the clamps and step blocks. I have extra hardware which I keep in stacking parts bins. I use my 1/2" set rarely but haven't experienced any inconvenience with the hanging rack. It resides on the end of my rolling tool cart where it is pretty much out of the way.

 

[C-Bag]

I'm the opposite! I hate digging through boxes, bins or drawers. I've got 3 of the plastic racks mounted on the wall by the mill. Two different sizes and a third size in a home made rack. I can see at a glance all the parts. I almost always put everything back as soon as I'm done. That includes all the tools and paraphernalia that I used that day. As I get older I find myself "misplacing" things so it is much easier to just always have stuff in the same location. Chips are cleaned up and floor swept before I go home.

I tried to maintain the same in my woodworking/manufacturing business. Shadow tool boards at each assembly bench, each machine had it's own set of wrenches etc. Cleanup at the end of every shift. Some people were very difficult to train that way.

We made parts for a large Japanese manufacturer. Their plant was always beautifully organized and clean. We made their office furnishings also. When the head of the local plant retired he had us make the interior for his new Japanese restaurant. Neat, quiet guy. I was surprised that he hadn't gone back to Japan when he retired. I'm babbling off track, sorry.

+1 ! I don‘t like the pile method either. The wall organizers are the perfect solution for me as I can see what I need and most importantly whether something is missing. I also do cleanup at the end of the day/job with specific tooling on magnets with easy access like on my bandsaws. I got used to having a 24” magnet on the top of my rollaway for nuts and bolts etc so I have them mounted to different machines with the necessary wrenches, allen wrenches etc The other machines have their own tooling in drawers underneath them so no searching.

I also have a stupid heavy 10” RT and use a HF small chain hoist in the rafters to lift in place. They were only $50 and are rated for 1tn. Super easy safe way to move it.

 

[rabler]

I have been moving toward those plastic bins rather than the original organizers. I use the wall hanging racks. Although current prices are discouraging. One row for hold downs. Another row for inserts and HSS. Another row for endmills. I personally like being able to see what is in each bin without having to open drawers, and can move a whole bin to a table (even the mill bed) to use.

 

[Winegrower]

It never occurred to me to not like the hanging style organizers. I like that the surface area is small, and I agree that sometimes the parts are a bit hard to get out. I keep a rare earth magnet on the organizer, just stick it on the end of a stud and pull the parts out that way.

I have another set that the previous owner had routed out a wood base and holder for the same size kit. He added a bunch of vertical rods for nuts and washers, and drilled holes for the studs. It's OK, but uses up a lot of area.

Edit: I keep my 12" Bridgeport brand rotary table on top of a roll around toolbox, and can slide it directly to the mill ways. Works ok, but have to be careful of chips underneath.