Looking for t-nuts

[LMerrill]

Greetings to the forum. I have a Grizzly G0769 lathe/mill combo that I picked up used and have been refurbishing the lathe portion. Now I want to concentrate on the milling unit. The cross-slide table has 2 t-slots but I cannot find any information on the t-nuts that will fit it. The manual doesn't even mention the slots.. I've contacted Grizzly customer service who were at a loss on what might fit that. They had no suggestions on how to mount any type of vise onto the table.

The slot has the following dimensions:
wide slot ~0.603"
narrow top slot ~ 0.308"
overall depth ~0.515
depth of shoulder ~0.256

I've looked at Little Machine Shop and other sites on the Internet with no luck. Looking to this group for help.

The image below is from the manual and shows the 2 t-slots.

Lloyd Merrill

 

[matthewsx]

McMaster-Carr has them.

 

[ChazzC]

Most T-Slot Nuts that you will find for sale from machinery & tooling suppliers are sized to fit milling tables. It looks like you need an M6 nut for 8mm slots:


Search McMaster-Carr for "T-Slot Nuts"

 

[LMerrill]

Greetings to the forum,

That's excellent information. Now I know that I'm looking for t-nuts for 8mm slots. I went back and looked at Little Machine Shop, which I found also carries a similar product. It appears that the McMaster Carr will be a tighter fit which I guess is better. Regardless of what I end up with, the small area and limited slot dimensions on the cross-slide table will be a challenge to mount anything. I'm sure that I will be posting future calls for help with this.

Thanks,
Lloyd Merrill

 

[WobblyHand]

Greetings to the forum,

That's excellent information. Now I know that I'm looking for t-nuts for 8mm slots. I went back and looked at Little Machine Shop, which I found also carries a similar product. It appears that the McMaster Carr will be a tighter fit which I guess is better. Regardless of what I end up with, the small area and limited slot dimensions on the cross-slide table will be a challenge to mount anything. I'm sure that I will be posting future calls for help with this.

Thanks,
Lloyd Merrill

You want the tee-nuts to be able to slide freely in the slots, so just big enough, but not too tight. When the tee-nut is pulled up by the stud, the top of the tee-nut should never be above the table, or in your case, your cross-slide surface.

 

[ChazzC]

You want the tee-nuts to be able to slide freely in the slots, so just big enough, but not too tight. When the tee-nut is pulled up by the stud, the top of the tee-nut should never be above the table, or in your case, your cross-slide surface.

I heartily agree.

@LMerrill - I suggest that you reach out to McM & LMS and ask that they both confirm the width of the top of the nut; although LMS calls this out at 7.7mm, McM's drawing just says for 8mm Slot Width. McMaster has an "Email Us" link (which sends an internal message) and seems to have people working around the clock. You can email Little Machine Shop for an answer within a business day or two.


Charlie

 

[LMerrill]

I heartily agree.

@LMerrill - I suggest that you reach out to McM & LMS and ask that they both confirm the width of the top of the nut; although LMS calls this out at 7.7mm, McM's drawing just says for 8mm Slot Width. McMaster has an "Email Us" link (which sends an internal message) and seems to have people working around the clock. You can email Little Machine Shop for an answer within a business day or two.


Charlie

Charlie,

Thank you for your additional comment. I did go back and remeasured the slot width and it is ~8.03mm. So the McM nut will fit.

Lloyd

 

[markba633csi]

You might also see if a 5/16" carriage bolt will fit after trimming the head, then you would have threaded "T" studs.
With T nuts you have to be careful not to run the bolts in too far and hitting the bottom, possibly damaging or cracking the slot

 

[WobblyHand]

You might also see if a 5/16" carriage bolt will fit after trimming the head, then you would have threaded "T" studs.
With T nuts you have to be careful not to run the bolts in too far and hitting the bottom, possibly damaging or cracking the slot

That's why you should get the kind that are not fully threaded. Or take a punch and malform the bottom thread or two to prevent the bolt or stud hitting bottom. When I made mine, I just didn't fully tap the hole.

 

[markba633csi]

That's a good idea- there may not be a lot of threads left tho