# 12 mm tee-bolt and clamp set expensive, any cheats?



## ome (Aug 27, 2013)

Can i take my grizzly 1/2 inch tee bolt and take a thou off each side until it reaches .47"?
I can scratch it with a drywAll screw, but it says it is case hardened. 
What type of endmill,hss or carbide and whT speed mill is 124-1970rpm
thanks for any info because the cheapest price was travers at 220. Plus shipping and msc at about 202.
compared to my 56 piece 1/2 teebolt and clamp set fir 44. At grizzly plus tax and shipping. It is a big increase in the price. What do you guts advise?
Thanks,
jon


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## Tony Wells (Aug 27, 2013)

If the slots in the table will accept the 1/2" stud, then your risk is only in having a very thin section of the tee nut, the upper half, roughly.

As far as cutting them, if they are case hardened, HSS won't likely do any good. Carbide will have a tough enough time. No need to go only 0.001 at a time. If they are case hardened, then you need to cut as deeply as possible so as not to just wear out the end mill. 0.001 DoC will wear the edges down rather quickly. 

The speed depends on what size end mill you use. Hardened material, and especially work-hardening material needs a healthy cut to stay in the softest section. That also means a pretty fast feed.


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## ome (Aug 27, 2013)

Tony Wells said:


> If the slots in the table will accept the 1/2" stud, then your risk is only in having a very thin section of the tee nut, the upper half, roughly.
> 
> As far as cutting them, if they are case hardened, HSS won't likely do any good. Carbide will have a tough enough time. No need to go only 0.001 at a time. If they are case hardened, then you need to cut as deeply as possible so as not to just wear out the end mill. 0.001 DoC will wear the edges down rather quickly.
> 
> The speed depends on what size end mill you use. Hardened material, and especially work-hardening material needs a healthy cut to stay in the softest section. That also means a pretty fast feed.


That is the problem, this table has 12mm slots or .47" and .5 tees just are not getting in  
Thanks<
jon


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## Old Iron (Aug 27, 2013)

Why not just make some, If you don't have a way to hold the vise down them get some carriage bolts and use them. There soft enough the cut or file down, If you have the mill it should be easy.

Paul


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## SEK_22Hornet (Aug 27, 2013)

Could you use a 7/16" set?  That works out to be 11.1 mm.  Here is a 7/16" set for $48. http://www.cdcotools.com/


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## SEK_22Hornet (Aug 28, 2013)

SEK_22Hornet said:


> Could you use a 7/16" set?  That works out to be 11.1 mm.  Here is a 7/16" set for $48. http://www.cdcotools.com/



I just noticed that Little Machine shop has a small mill Tee slot table that they sell that also has 12 mm Tee slots.  They recomend the 7/16 clamping kit for it.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1664&category=


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## Ray C (Aug 28, 2013)

My mill came with a 12mm set and I ordered one more at the time and it was on the order of 49 bucks or so.  I've sent an email to Matt at Precision Matthews to see if he still carries them and if so, how much.

Don't do anything drastic until I find-out if they're easily available.


Ray


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## Richard King (Aug 28, 2013)

If you have the time, you can make some that look like a regular Tee nuts or just a square nut out of some cold roll plate.  Drill and tap a hole in the center be sure you measure the width of the bottom of the T-slot so when you tighten it doesn't turn. Many times people will have one long flat bar with several holes drilled in it to look like a  long tee nut.  As long as your table T-slots  go out the side of your table you can slide it in.  Then go to a hardware store and buy some hardened ready rod / threaded rod. You can cut it with a hack saw and grind off the burr.  You can use regular ready rod or cap or hex head bolts too.  Up here in MN we have 2 companies that sell good used tooling, one is called Tried and True Tools and another is Polar Tool.  Why spend a ton of money on new ones when you can buy used or make your own.    Rich


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