Gallery, Projects and General > How to's

Ideas for a VERY simple indexer

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daz:
I don't really need an indexer, but quite often I have to make the end of a round bar square. I have always just done this by sight, put the round bar in vice or V block, mill the top surface and then rotate through 90 and mill again. Obviosly repeating the process a couple more times until I get my square. I there a simple way of doing this so that the flats are all exactly square? It would be nice to be able to do 45 degrees as well but not really essential. I have been racking my brains trying to think of something I can make but just can't come up with anything.

cheers
daz

andyf:
Would it be practicable to have a length of square section stock, with a hole down its length to take the round bar and several setscrews to secure the one inside the other? Grip square bar in the vice, mill the first flat, rotate 90 to mill the second flat and so on. Unless grubscrews are used, the heads of the setscrews would need to sit in counterbores so they are below the surface of the square bar.

Andy

daz:
Thats exactly the kind of simple thing I am after and it never occurred to me :doh:
I thought I was going to have to make some kind of tool to do it but this would be ideal.

thanks
daz

BillTodd:
How about a simple collet block?

e.g.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blue-Tooling-5C-COLLET-BLOCK-FIXTURE-SYSTEM-/260875333221?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3cbd61ae65

jiihoo:
Hi Daz,

How about the following algorithm to squaring the end of round stock:
1. Mill the first side
2. Turn 90 degrees. Check with engineer's square or spirit level that the side that you just milled is now vertical.
3. Mill the next side
4. Repeat 2. and 3. 2 more times

I.e. do just like you have done so far, but use an engineer's square or spirit level to make sure that the sides are at 90 degrees to each other.
This is not as accurate as what Bill and Andy have suggested, but it is more accurate than the process you have used so far and it might well be accurate enough depending on what you are doing.

Jari

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