Which tool to use?

[Maplehead]

How you perform it is up to you . It's a one shot cut in an indexer vs . how many .005 cuts to finish them in the bar . What's faster ? I just know how I would do them .

Can you explain how to do that please? I'm not getting it.

 

[mmcmdl]

Set your indexer up at a 45 degree angle in your vise on your mill . You could probably get by holding onto the thread alone , or use a collet stop to chuck onto the 3/16s diameter . Run a cut , index , run another cut . Remove and replace part . Repeat . I don't see any need for a fixture for these parts . I'm assuming the indexer is a 5C btw .

 

[Maplehead]

Set your indexer up at a 45 degree angle in your vise on your mill . You could probably get by holding onto the thread alone , or use a collet stop to chuck onto the 3/16s diameter . Run a cut , index , run another cut . Remove and replace part . Repeat . I don't see any need for a fixture for these parts . I'm assuming the indexer is a 5C btw .

Hi mmcmdl
My apologies for the ignorance but I still don't quite know what that process you are describing is. Remember, this is a beginner forum so I don't have that much machinist lingo. I never heard of a collet stop. I think 5c is some kind of holder type like R8 but I'm probably wrong, and most importantly I don't see how using the indexing method minimizes the amount of cuts I need to make. It's still the same amount of metal I need to remove. Below is what I call my "indexer", but maybe it's just a dividing head only. The last pic shows my saddle blank on the left and the final on the right, after a bit of filing to round off the 45 degree cuts.

 

[mmcmdl]

I fully understand , let me get a pic in a second or two . You have a dividing head shown in your picture , not exactly an indexing head . There are no dumb questions on this site so don't feel slighted or ignorant . We're here to help and we like having fun also . Gimme a minute or two for a couple of pictures .

 

[mmcmdl]

Pics . Indexers , not dividing heads . Go from 0 to 180 in a second at the most . 5 C collet . Collet stop and 5 C collet block . The Hardinge indexer on the right has been ground true to the slot grooves on the bottom and collet axis . Easy to throw up in a vise with no need to indicate it in . The reduced cuts are because your holding onto the large diameter and not the threads . It's a one cut operation . Does this help ? These should take less than a minute per piece .

 

[Maplehead]

Pics . Indexers , not dividing heads . Go from 0 to 180 in a second at the most . 5 C collet . Collet stop and 5 C collet block . The Hardinge indexer on the right has been ground true to the slot grooves on the bottom and collet axis . Easy to throw up in a vise with no need to indicate it in . The reduced cuts are because your holding onto the large diameter and not the threads . It's a one cut operation . Does this help ?

Yeah, never seen one of those before. No idea what it does or how it works. BTW, although I am screwing the saddles into the little brass bar, in the vise I am holding the saddles by their 3/8" body. The nuts were just added measure and the bar is just to get all the saddles at the same height. However, even with holding the body I still make small cuts, 5 to 10 thou. I've made cuts up to 20 thou but mostly on my lathe. I always get nervous about making bigger cuts. Maybe I'm completely wrong and my mill and lathe are way more capable. Each one is about 1100 pounds.

 

[Illinoyance]

I think you need to mill the flats on the 3/8" rod, then hold in collet and turn & thread 6-32. An indexer as shown in the first photo above would work nicely for milling.

 

[Maplehead]

I think you need to mill the flats on the 3/8" rod, then hold in collet and turn & thread 6-32. An indexer as shown in the first photo above would work nicely for milling.

So is the collet for holding rods instead of the jaws of the 3 or 4 jaw chuck? I've never done that. I think my lathe may have come with that capability and I've always wondered how you hold finished rod parts without making jaw indents. Also, when a rod is really short its very hard to put in the lathe chuck and have it spin on axis. Is that another use for the collet?

 

[mmcmdl]

Just an order of operations choice . Sure , mill the 3/8s angles and put in a collet with stop and face to length , turn and pop the threads on with a geometric die head . It all matters on what tooling is available .

 

[Maplehead]

Just an order of operations choice . Sure , mill the 3/8s angles and put in a collet with stop and face to length , turn and pop the threads on with a geometric die head . It all matters on what tooling is available .

This thread is introducing a lot of new things to me. So I'm assuming the collect stop sits behind the collet and allows you to set the depth for how far deep the rod goes into the collet. Never knew about any of this stuff. Now I need to look up what a geometric die head is. That Tapomatic tapping head I was introduced to earlier was a game changer for me. Of course my bank account keeps shrinking.