Right angle brackets

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lesrhorer

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I have a 10-inch bar of angle Aluminum, 2" x 2" x 1/4" thick. I need to cut it into 8 pieces, each 0.995" +/- 0.005" wide. The rough cuts will be done on a bandsaw. The leaves are of course not quite perfectly parallel on both sides, but the two leaves are very perpendicular on their outside faces. I have considered facing the edges in the 4-jaw chuck on my lathe, and I have considered a couple of fixtures that would allow me to mill at least two at a time to the required width, but I am not quite satisfied with any of my ideas. The finished pieces will have a 3/8" hole right in the center of each face, so these could be used for attaching to a fixture.

Any good ideas out there?
 

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I hold brackets like this in a vee block with a round bar in the internal bracket angle and face off using a face mill. Then deburr and repeat on the other side. Many can be held at the same time if stacked.
 
Parlo said:
I hold brackets like this in a vee block with a round bar in the internal bracket angle and face off using a face mill. Then deburr and repeat on the other side. Many can be held at the same time if stacked.
Click to expand...
This is how I do it, sometimes without the round bar, just clamping the moving jaw on the legs of the angle.
 
That's a great idea! Unfortunately, I don't have any V-Blocks. I will have to order some. These won't stack easily, because there is a 1/2" radius on the inside corner, and as I mentioned, the leaf faces are not parallel, but it won't take that long to do them individually.
 
Moves a bit but try this order, we do this.

First move is place in mill, clamp on a face, use a parallel to insure inside radius is above the vise, let it stick out the side.

If faces not parallel you use something like a 3/8 lathe steel between the inside face and the vise jaw to rorce it against the outside face.

We make things using old radio racks and these are same. Tapered sides as well as not square on the feet.

With a long end mill shave the end to make it square.

Flip around and do opposite end.

Now take to band saw and cut on part from each end.

Back to mill and square the ends, repeat cut to band saw.

Repeat above until you have all parts loose.

You have all with ONE good end or side.

Now place in vise on parallels such that the good side is on bottom. And bad side up.

You can place it in a "V" looking down where the corner is on one jaw and opposite on opposite jaw and with proper process carefully true opposite side.

Locking depth you simply swap the parts and all will be exact same size.

If you need to make larger cut to get square do multiple passes.

Scratch mark all, center punchfor hole.

Once that is done fixture in vise that is repeatable, drill one hole, then swap out and drill rest.

Easy but mundane.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
lesrhorer said:
That's a great idea! Unfortunately, I don't have any V-Blocks. I will have to order some. These won't stack easily, because there is a 1/2" radius on the inside corner, and as I mentioned, the leaf faces are not parallel, but it won't take that long to do them individually.
Click to expand...
You could make a temporary vice jaw with a small vertical vee, it doesn't need to be fixed, just against the fixed jaw. Using a round bar will take care of any taper in the leaf faces and the temporary jaw will hold the part square in both directions. Pop two springs between the jaws to hold a parallel and the vee in place, this will allow the vice to immediately open without backlash and also keep everthing in place when cleaning with the airgun.
 
The V-Blocks arrived yesterday, and I happen to have a 2" diameter piece of Aluminum round stock just under 1" thick, which will be perfect for holding the brackets while milling with my 3" face mill.

Once the pieces are faced to length, drilling the holes is SOP with a vice stop and a pair of parallels.

Thanks, everyone!
 
Please share photos of the setup… difficult to visualize the recommendations…
 
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