A common arrangement is to fix a round table on the mill, move the ram of the mill out to start the center of the table. Turn the table and slowly move the Y out while turning until you run out of Y. Then move the Y back, the ram in and start all over. The use of the round table by itself doubles the Y range of a mill.
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Milling a plate of Al., larger than mill table
- Thread starter timbertoes
- Start date
"4 square sides" 
although...6" is my longest machinist square. I cant believe I got the thing squared up.
fisrt set it upright, clamped to an angle block. ran the face mill, two edges.
Layed it down on 123's clamped it, tappped it in with a an indicator - Y direction, as far as possible on a good edge.
ran an end mill on it . it was good
then set it upright again on the new edge, and face milled the last edge.
cant believe it worked. for once. lol.
now I am ready for some paper doodling and layout scratching!
thanks all for the help and interest. Y'all.)
although...6" is my longest machinist square. I cant believe I got the thing squared up.
fisrt set it upright, clamped to an angle block. ran the face mill, two edges.
Layed it down on 123's clamped it, tappped it in with a an indicator - Y direction, as far as possible on a good edge.
ran an end mill on it . it was good
then set it upright again on the new edge, and face milled the last edge.
cant believe it worked. for once. lol.
now I am ready for some paper doodling and layout scratching!
thanks all for the help and interest. Y'all.
)Hi
to clamp it flat on the table, try this.
Put a bead of panel beaters bog on one surface. Mix the bog with some clean bandsaw chips to make it stronger. An inch wide around the edge and 1/8" thick would be fine.
First pass, support the job on 3 flat washers or parallels, bog upwards, clamp it lightly on the 3 washers and machine the bog. The bottom is now flat.
Flip it, machine it then remove the bog.
Carry on as suggested by other readers.
I love the idea about using a rotary table, cool!
Alan
to clamp it flat on the table, try this.
Put a bead of panel beaters bog on one surface. Mix the bog with some clean bandsaw chips to make it stronger. An inch wide around the edge and 1/8" thick would be fine.
First pass, support the job on 3 flat washers or parallels, bog upwards, clamp it lightly on the 3 washers and machine the bog. The bottom is now flat.
Flip it, machine it then remove the bog.
Carry on as suggested by other readers.
I love the idea about using a rotary table, cool!
Alan
Progress...
first off, I wont be face-milling the bottom. No actual reason to do so....
I will be sanding and polishing the milled top surface when done with machining.
So far almost done with the base.
whats left is to round-over all the edges. I think I will use a Router bit with bearing for that.
first off, I wont be face-milling the bottom. No actual reason to do so....
I will be sanding and polishing the milled top surface when done with machining.
So far almost done with the base.
whats left is to round-over all the edges. I think I will use a Router bit with bearing for that.