Latest Project: A Universal Milling and Grinding Fixture (see pics)

[lockstocknbarrel]

Hi John,
What A great start, this is a project that is high on my priority list.
Looking forward to the next set of drawings to study.
Well done and thank you for taking time to share.
Kindest Regards
Beagles

 

[Tony Wells]

John, I'll make some annotations on that one and shoot it to you. It appears that by default, all your tolerance zones are noted to be circular, but that is not the case when dealing with flat surfaces, as in flatness and parallelism specifications.

 

[jgedde]

John, I'll make some annotations on that one and shoot it to you. It appears that by default, all your tolerance zones are noted to be circular, but that is not the case when dealing with flat surfaces, as in flatness and parallelism specifications.

I finally figured out what you were talking about... It seems Alibre, by default, inserts the diameter symbol in front of feature control box tolerances. I simply didn't notice them!

So, here are the current drawings so far for everyone's review... I'll post them all as a complete set when they're oll korrect. When a drawing is "Rev A", that will be a "released" version.

View attachment Axis 1 turret clamp.pdf
View attachment Axis 1 Turret.pdf
View attachment Base.pdf

John

 

[Tony Wells]

John,
I apologize for not getting your redline drawings back to you yet. Been pretty busy the last few days, but I am working on it.

 

[jgedde]

Progress... About 50% of the drawings are now completed.

Here it is with a square workholder installed:


Here are pics of the machining and progress so far...


The base rotates freely and smoothly with zero side play. The turret lock device using the two dowel pins and the center clamp worked even better than I hoped. The idea was to prevent bolt tightening from moving the turret. Close tolerances were required, so as to have no play, but it all worked out on the first try with careful mill table positioning using a dial indicator. This thing rotates smooth as a baby's you know what with the bolt loose and locks tight with minimal torque. See the exploded view in the first post for details of how it goes together.

A few drops of way oil makes it roate real nice, but it's a bear to get apart with the oil in there! I have to use compressed air between the turret and the base to get the two parts to separate!

John

 

[gmoushon]

Beautiful work John....definately on my bucket list. Wish it was in native Solidworks; I've heard that it is difficult to convert files from Alibre.
gm.

 

[jgedde]

I have the "advanced import/export" module for Alibre. I can't export Solidworks native files. I can, however, do STEP, IGES, Parasolid and a few others...

John

 

[gmoushon]

STEP/IGES would work. Is that something you would be willing to share?
Thanks
Gaylan.

 

[bvd1940]

I will be watching with great interest in this build.
Real nice job.:man:

 

[easymike29]

John

Your design has one axis too many.

The base is needlessly weakened with the excessively elongated slots and the track for the t-slot key.

Gene