hmmmm.. have you hit on a way to fund the forum? a forum shop. with forum made stuff.
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Tool Do I need a Machinist Clamping Set?
- Thread starter StevSmar
- Start date
Tool
hmmmm.. have you hit on a way to fund the forum? a forum shop. with forum made stuff.
DPittman
Ultra Member
I'll buy one of them from you then you'll only have 19!
Chicken lights
Forum Pony Express Driver
I’m still looking for a forum member with a 3D printer, looking to make a couple dollars.....
little ol' e
Jus' a hobby guy
They are a little pricey for sure.
I think the savings come with set-up time - In my case, they really do pay for themselves.
I tried the knock-offs to save a little $ several years ago. That cost me a 2" shell mill and holder ( well I drilled the dog pins out and pounded a couple 1/4" dowels in to save the holder), but... James Morton/Bessy clamps are worth it IMHO.
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I saw your add, my mill uses 16mm (5/8” nominal) T-nuts according to the manual.
I didn’t know that they could use nominal dimensions... Thanks for pointing that out!!!
I checked TE-CO’s catalogue, and the 5/8” T-nuts in the set I’m looking at (41410’s) should fit into the 16mm slots my mill has.
I knew there was a risk in asking the question here, amongst a group of people who are addicted to shiny things like I am…Bahahaha "Do I need a <insertmachineaccessory/>?"
Well of course you do, what a silly question to ask a bunch of enablers!
The background to my question is I have a friend (who’s trying to help me not spend unnecessary money…) who said “you can get by without them” and I kept on thinking of scenarios where it seemed like they would be really handy.
I think the enablers here on this forum have convinced me…
little ol' e
Jus' a hobby guy
Do you still feel as thou you can get by without them, or did the enablers convince you otherwise lol...
@StevSmar - you can get by without them by making your own T-Nut Clamps. But it will be a pain in the butt. One of those kit sets comes with a versatile array of Clamps and T-nuts. You would be very hard pressed to buy the steel for the price of a set on sale.
I STRONGLY vote in favour of watching for a decent sale and in the interim figure out what will fit your T-slots perfectly so you can pounce when a sale presents itself.
They are also regularly available on Kijiji, eBay, and Marketplace.
So ya, it would be silly (IMHO) to avoid getting a set.
Start searching now and devote some quality time to figuring out what you need. If you need help, measure your T-slots in several locations and then post the measurements here. We will help you make sure you get the right ones.
I STRONGLY vote in favour of watching for a decent sale and in the interim figure out what will fit your T-slots perfectly so you can pounce when a sale presents itself.
They are also regularly available on Kijiji, eBay, and Marketplace.
So ya, it would be silly (IMHO) to avoid getting a set.
Start searching now and devote some quality time to figuring out what you need. If you need help, measure your T-slots in several locations and then post the measurements here. We will help you make sure you get the right ones.
I haven't checked prices in a while but if you after specific sizes in smaller quantities, TECO is a good brand. They publish dimensions so you know what you are getting. The fit & finish is better that most of the offshore kits IMO. I've had to make T-nuts for specific purposes, maybe a custom size or thread. They aren't horribly difficult & a good way to increase skills, but they are time consuming for what you end up with. If you go down that path my advice is to mill a single strip of say 6 of them, do the entire section step profile & holes all on one bar. Then slice them & finish the ends.
gerritv
Gerrit
What PeterT said, I made my own clamp bars, and bought TECO studs, nuts and blocks. All from https://ktstooling.com/ the TECO blocks are a joy to use as are the studs and nuts. I bought what I need instead of a set that wouldn't fit my Atlas Mill
Well, me asking for an opinion here would have been similar to if I was attending one of my regular Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, with several bottles of wine, and asking for an opinion on what goes best with braised duck and glazed roasted vegetables.
Yes I purchased a set. But I’m now also wondering about what wine would go best with the duck. And I am a sucker for roast vegetables.
The other part of the story is that KBC sent me a “we miss you, here’s a coupon for $25 off” and the machinists clamps would enable me to get free shipping too…
I suspect that they’ll be on sale soon, for more than $25 off and with free shipping…
But that’s Ok if and when that happens…
Got the same coupon. They miss a lot of us!
I never bought a set at KBC. I did buy some T-Nuts from them though. A few through thread and a few part thread. Better quality than my other cheapo sets.
Glad you are all set.
PS - never thought about myself as an addict attending AA with you. Prolly best to avoid the mirror for a while. Besides, there is a real ugly guy inside there and he scares me sometimes.
little ol' e
Jus' a hobby guy
I would stuff that duck back up with the glazed roasted vegies, glue the feathers back on and re-gift it to 1 of the regulars at the meetings.
I heard, Cracklin' baby duck and duck went together back in the day. They say, Wild Turkey 101 is the new wine for 2022, goes with just about anything except hard water cubes, opinions and braised duck
You can get to the meeting quicker since you don't need several bottles to weigh the trip down.
Kill 2 birds with 1 stone at that point.
I was looking at the prices on kstooling for TECO ... holy. I can't afford $461 for a clamp set. That's list but assuming 30% off it's still a lot. https://ktstooling.com/catalogue/product/466459
Making your own is making more sense. 3/8 ready rod. a bunch of 1x3/4 square bar for clamps. T nuts ok. The trickier part is the blocks with the nice interlocking teeth. I suppose one could just use stack blocks. A pile of 1.5 x 1.5 by 1/2 flat blocks with a hole in the middle for a threaded rod.
My Chinesium set is ancient. Maybe budget brand offshore quality has improved? I use mine so infrequently but that's probably more a function of my own projects. Actually my serrated blocks didn't look horribly bad & if I recall, they worked reliably. Same with the fingers. It was mostly the threaded hardware that was rather crude. Not completely unusable, just, you know... un-satisfying LOL. On something similar I was able to clean up the threads with a die but it all depends on their as-received condition. Sometimes the issue is wacky sizing a die cant fix, sometimes its hard material which doesn't re-thread too easily...
The block serrations are kind of nice for speedy setups, otherwise you are always looking for the right height block & shims... They would be kind of a pain to make for a full set. I need to look at them more closely again. I thought I read somewhere the steps are actually slightly more than 90-deg so they self stabilize & don't slip? Or maybe that's what they are supposed to be & mine aren't? LOL. But I may be hallucinating there. Also note studs have flats milled on them which is a desirable thing.
The block serrations are kind of nice for speedy setups, otherwise you are always looking for the right height block & shims... They would be kind of a pain to make for a full set. I need to look at them more closely again. I thought I read somewhere the steps are actually slightly more than 90-deg so they self stabilize & don't slip? Or maybe that's what they are supposed to be & mine aren't? LOL. But I may be hallucinating there. Also note studs have flats milled on them which is a desirable thing.