A Useful Milling Square

[aeroHAWK]

My vice has removable jaws, therefore I cannot depend on the TOP of the jaw being parallel to the base of the vice. In fact, every time I have checked, it's been out a thou or two. Many may find this fine for their work. I prefer to eliminate the known areas where my setup may lead to errors, since I seem to run into enough that I don't know about.

I see your vice also has removable jaws, it may be worthwhile to check the top of the vice jaw too....

 

[mikey]

It's late Sunday morning here and I am going to make one of these NOW. If the church group nextdoor complain about the noise I'll tell them I am making a cross. This will be a great improvement over my old cut down square.
John.

Yeah, but it will only be a little noise!

Rex, unlike John, it took me well over 5 years to build this one. Now I wonder how I ever got along without it. I think it helps me more than most because I like to fly cut things square; less deflection vs an end mill. Maybe it isn't for everyone but it sure helps me to start off with a truly squared work piece.

 

[mikey]

My vice has removable jaws, therefore I cannot depend on the TOP of the jaw being parallel to the base of the vice. In fact, every time I have checked, it's been out a thou or two. Many may find this fine for their work. I prefer to eliminate the known areas where my setup may lead to errors, since I seem to run into enough that I don't know about.

I see your vice also has removable jaws, it may be worthwhile to check the top of the vice jaw too....

The top of my jaws are square to the base. I checked before I built this square, Hawk, as I recognized the potential for error. So far, its working out okay.

 

[brino]

mikey,

Thanks for the great detail; pictures, great text descriptions, references, even a parts list and detailed instructions.
I really enjoyed the post!

-brino

 

[chips&more]

My vice has removable jaws, therefore I cannot depend on the TOP of the jaw being parallel to the base of the vice. In fact, every time I have checked, it's been out a thou or two. Many may find this fine for their work. I prefer to eliminate the known areas where my setup may lead to errors, since I seem to run into enough that I don't know about.

I see your vice also has removable jaws, it may be worthwhile to check the top of the vice jaw too....

That was my thought/concern as well. When I need to square up a project, I just use a small solid square referenced from the base of the vise. If the part is too thin for the solid square, I have a Starrett square (pic below) that I use…Dave.

 

[mikey]

mikey,

Thanks for the great detail; pictures, great text descriptions, references, even a parts list and detailed instructions.
I really enjoyed the post!

-brino

Thank you for your kind words, Brino.

 

[mikey]

That was my thought/concern as well. When I need to square up a project, I just use a small solid square referenced from the base of the vise. If the part is too thin for the solid square, I have a Starrett square (pic below) that I use…Dave.
View attachment 106406

I totally agree with your concern. Believe me, I tried everything I could think of to square a piece but if the work is wider than the vise then it presents problems. Since my vise is so small, many things I made are wider. A square on the mill table would be the answer but in most cases the base of the vise gets in the way. Rather than pulling what hair I have left in frustration I opted for this square. Yeah, your fixed jaw needs to be square to the base of the vise and luckily, mine is.

This square may not work for everyone but if your vise allows it then you might consider one. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to work on a piece that is out of square.

 

[aeroHAWK]

Mikey,

I hope you don't feel like I am invalidating your nice tool. If it is working for you... GREAT! There is a lot of interest... also GREAT!

I just wanted to make sure others knew there could be a pitfall. But you checked your vise to make sure you didn't run into it. I think it is really nice, and I wish my vise jaw was parallel... I may look into making it so....

 

[FOMOGO]

Thanks for posting. Definitely going on the list. Mike

 

[mikey]

Mikey,

I hope you don't feel like I am invalidating your nice tool. If it is working for you... GREAT! There is a lot of interest... also GREAT!

I just wanted to make sure others knew there could be a pitfall. But you checked your vise to make sure you didn't run into it. I think it is really nice, and I wish my vise jaw was parallel... I may look into making it so....

No, I didn't feel anything of the kind. You and Dave raised a valid concern, one that I also considered. I should have put a caution in there but its been so long since I made it that it didn't occur to me. Not an excuse but, well, there it is.

It raises one possible work around. Instead of using a reference square to align the body and blade, could you not put the T-square in place in the vise and then square the blade to the bed of the vise with the reference square? That would allow you to get stuff vertical relative to the bed of the vise, regardless of the accuracy of the top of the fixed jaw. This assumes that the top of the jaw is flat, even if it is sloped a small amount.

Anyway, that's probably what I would do.