Milling Plate for a Sherline

[sportandmiah]

I'm making a tooling plate for my Sherline lathe with optional milling attachment. Is there a standard in regards to the tapped hole spacing? How far should they be spaced from each other?

[Bernd]

Hi Sport

Here's a pic of a tooling plate I made for my Sherline. It's 3" X 6" and has 1/4-20 holes spaced on 1/2" centers. You can make any hole spacing to fit your needs. There is no standard. A tooling plate is just that. You make holes in it to fit your needs.



Hope this helped.

Bernd

[Dean W]

Bernd shows a good example of how to do it, Sport.  You can start out with any spacing you find convenient
and since it's a tooling plate, you can put more holes in whenever you like. 
I think you'll like having one of these plates.  I have one on my Taig mill, and have found I don't
want to be without it now.  Nice bit of extra protection for your mill table, too. 
Be sure to pick a thread size for the holes that compliments your existing tooling.

Have fun!

Dean

[Brass_Machine]

Here is a how to for a Chinese mini mill (x2). Not quite the same, but it can give you some ideas for building one for your machine.

link HERE

Eric

[sportandmiah]

Thank you gentleman, great info! 

[sbwhart]

hi Sport Welcome

Just made a jig plate for my mill its something I've had on my to do list for quite a while picked a piece of 30mm ally plate up at the scrappy a couple of years ago for it only just got round to making it.

This is it.



When making a bit of kit like this remember you will be transfering its accuracy to any work you do on it  so try and make it as square and flat as you can.

I've used 25mm hole spacing 10mm deep with an off set row in between tapped M6 as I know you can get nice M6 clamping sets, I've also put the clamping groove down the middle on all sides that way I can turn it round or flip it over to use the underside, which I havn't drilled, I'll add holes as and when I need them. Also to help setting it square on the table I've got a plate along the front that when pushed tight against the face of the table bring the plate square, and another plate at the back so that I can use this to set things square up against it.

Hope this helps

Stew

[PTsideshow]

Will take a photo of an official milling plate, that I picked up at a show a couple years ago at a great price will post it latter
 

[sportandmiah]

So I made my first plate, 1/2" 6061 aluminum, but have run into a problem: once the plate is screwed to the table, the crossfeed locks up. To try and fix the problem, I have:
-Made the holes for the screws a little oversized for a little play or movement if needed.
-Countersunk holes were made using an endmill, so the inside is flat, allowing the screw to sit flat.
-I have 6 mounting holes, and no matter what combination I use, the table locks up.
-Loosened the gib with the small pin at the very end.
-Tried the Sherline sized t nuts, as well as some A2Z tnuts, hoping to spread the force out a little.
-The screws are not hitting the bottom of the table...10-32 screws btw.

And when I say it locks up, it's stuck...and that's with barely even tightening the screws. My last hope is to make a longer gib pin (the L shaped bar that holds the big in place) which might allow the gib to sit back a little farther. It's apparent that when the t nut are tightened, it's pushing the v slot out, causing it to bind. That's my theory at least. I haven't tapped the holes yet, as I'm waiting to see if this will work or not.

Any help is appreciated.

[kwackers]

Is your plate flat? Like *really flat*? Alternatively is there a high spot on your table?

Only time I've had issues with cross slides locking is due to trying to bolt down something that isn't flat, causes the cross slide to bow slightly and bind on the gib strips.

As an experiment, put a small washer under each bolt (to prevent the bottom of the plate touching) and see if that fixes it, if it does then it would definitely point to a bowed plate.

[sportandmiah]

Is your plate flat? Like *really flat*? Alternatively is there a high spot on your table?

Only time I've had issues with cross slides locking is due to trying to bolt down something that isn't flat, causes the cross slide to bow slightly and bind on the gib strips.

As an experiment, put a small washer under each bolt (to prevent the bottom of the plate touching) and see if that fixes it, if it does then it would definitely point to a bowed plate.

Also forgot to mention, as soon as I tighten one screw, any screw, in any hole, it locks up.
I will try the washer method tonight, thanks.

[DMIOM]

Is your plate flat? Like *really flat*? Alternatively is there a high spot on your table?  .........As an experiment, put a small washer under each bolt (to prevent the bottom of the plate touching) and see if that fixes it, if it does then it would definitely point to a bowed plate.

or a crown on the table.

Another possible cause for the plate distorting the table would be if the hole spacing didn't match (could have same effect as just veneering one side of a piece of wood).

Dave

[Bernd]

My money is of either the plate not being flat or the table not being flat.

Run a fine toothed file over the table to make sure there are no burr's on it. Also check the bottom of the plate on a piece of glass to see if it is flat.

Bernd

[sportandmiah]

Is your plate flat? Like *really flat*? Alternatively is there a high spot on your table?  .........As an experiment, put a small washer under each bolt (to prevent the bottom of the plate touching) and see if that fixes it, if it does then it would definitely point to a bowed plate.

or a crown on the table.

Another possible cause for the plate distorting the table would be if the hole spacing didn't match (could have same effect as just veneering one side of a piece of wood).

Dave

Bingo. Even though my screw holes were over sized, I enlarged them even more. The holes were not precisely lined up (barely), and a couple of the screws were hitting the edge of the hole, just enough to cause the cross slide to bind. Problem solved! Thanks to all for the help!