Making a Pair of HEAVY DUTY V-Blocks | Shop Made Tools
how you going guys Kurtis from Cutting Edge engineering so today we are going to be making a new set of precision V blocks for our milling machine so I use v blocks quite a lot when it comes to setting up the milling machine in order to do certain features on a lot of the bigger pins we're making these days not only do we use the V blocks for pins we also use it for shafts that need keyways and stuff like that milled into them but I've been having a lot of problems with the cast iron V blocks that you can buy from the different tooling suppliers around Australia and the problem with those is they are just not heavy duty enough for the work that I'm doing the cast iron just doesn't put up with the amount of weight that's sitting on them some of the pins that we have been making recently are up to 500 kilos per pin so they are quite heavy and them sitting in a standard set of cast iron v-blocks once you've clamped them down I've noticed that one of my V blocks has actually formed a crack on the inside of the V so that's problem one problem two is the 90 degree angle of the V they're just not wide enough at the top in order to hold all the different size materials that we use so an 80 mil pin fits really well in the v-block it is nicely supported and it is secured once it is tied down but then we step it up to 150 mil pin which is very common in here and it point loads the top of the v-block but then we get pins up to 200 mil in diameter and they just don't fit in the block at all they're not supported when you do try and clamp a pin down that size it's quite sizable so you do put a bit of weight on it it point loads the top of the V block which then opens up the block and forces a crack to occur down in the middle of the V so I did have a set of 300 mil V blocks for doing the bigger diameter stuff but they are now in the bin when I was milling the groove I did notice one end of the job was getting loose and I actually found a crack through the bottom of the V and the job was starting to move around in the machine and the issue with the bigger V blocks is not only do they get wider and deeper they also get a lot taller and when they get taller that eliminates head height between the bed and the head of the machine and problems three we're not always just machining one pin it's always a batch of pins for a certain machine and in that batch the pins will be different diameters different lengths and have different features like grease grooves being milled into them for grease to travel down the pin while it's in operation or it could be a hole through the pin for a retaining bolt or a hole into the pin to allow grease through it and the problem with that that means multiple setups in order to achieve accuracy on the job with a standard V block you do need to dial them in every time you change the setup and that's where there is a lot of time wasted on the job so we're going to make our own which are going to be very strong they're going to be very precise they're going to accommodate the different diameter pins we do and they're going to allow fast easy setups our v-blocks are going to be made out of solid high tensile plate they are 120 mil tall which makes them very low profile and they are 250 mil wide so we get massive support over the bed so a 90 degree v-block they are more suited to round materials and square materials in order to hold everything so it's nice and true we have actually changed the angle of the V so rather than it be a standard 90 degree V these are now 120 degrees which will offer a lot more support and strength for doing our large and heavy pins so I've got a bit of work to do to these I've got some milling to do some facing I've got to cut a slot through the base and I need to drill some holes so let's get on to it damn it so I was about to set my V blocks up so I can then start the milling and my vices don't open wide enough to hold both parts in the one setup ideally you do them together because they are going to be a matched pair I'm going to take one of the jaws off the clamping part of the vise so I can then fit them in I will put a piece of sacrificial material in there so I don't damage the face of the vise and that means we'll be able to do two in one setup to keep as much precision as possible so I've got them set up the first thing I need to do I need to mill the top of the v-block down to give me a parallel surface for when I turn them over to then machine the bottom side of the v-block so I've faced the bottom of the v-blocks off that looks really good I am going to come down on each end and just mill a true reference area so then I can find the center of the block and then it's there for future setups if I ever need to use a straight edge or a square to align the blocks to the bed it's always good to have a true area to go back to then after that we're going to mill the slot through the center of the V Block in order to put our piece of key steel to align the V blocks into the bed now that we've got that 16 mil slot machined what I need to do is drill and tap the two holes in each block to retain the piece of key steel that is going to be used to align the blocks into the bed righto so I'm about to drill the four holes through the V blocks that we'll be using to attach the V blocks onto the table they will go down into the t-slots and then be clamped into place if you're going to do a project like this make sure you check that your table spacings for your t-slots are accurate because on my table the three T slots are not evenly spaced apart between the t-slot centers there is a two and a half mil difference if you don't check those sort of things out before you do this you could end up having a job that doesn't fit righto guys so we've got the bottom of the V blocks completed we have it machined true we have the slot machined in for our key steel we have the four bolt holes drilled and tapped that hold the key steels in place we've got the four holes drilled that will hold the V blocks to the table what I need to do now is flip them over and we're going to counter bore those 13 mil holes I just drilled so the socket head cap screw can go into the v-block when it is being tightened down onto the bed of the machine so we've got those holes bored to depth now I still need to machine the faces and cut a relief through the center of the V but I'm not going to do that while it's set up in the vices I do want to clamp it down on top of the bed but before I can do that I need to machine up the keys that fit in the bottom of the v-blocks law down roll over [Laughter] good boy chomp chomp chomp so we've got our v blocks bolted down to the bed of the machine so we've used our key steel to align the blocks with the t-slots in the table so now everything should be running nice and straight what I need to do now I'm going to put a 12 mil wide relief in the bottom of the V so then when I go and cut the faces of the v-block I've got somewhere to run the cutter into where it's not going to be interfering with itself so ideally I would use a big shell mill in order to clean those faces up before I then fly cut them unfortunately my largest shell Mill for this machine is only 125 mil and across that face is 130 so rather than do two different setups and alter things to try and make this work I'm actually going to use a boring head which I've sort of converted into a fly cutter so I will use that to do those faces and just take it real steady on it so we've got the first side faced what I'm going to do now I'm going to flip the blocks around in the machine so I don't have to change the setup on where the head is even though the t-slots in the table don't share the same centers they are slightly different by about two mil there is enough room in the t-slots and around the t-nuts in order for us to still be able to bolt down our V blocks into the table righto guys so that is our V blocks now completed considering they came from a flame cut part they turned out really well I'm not going to go around all the surfaces and machine them down it doesn't really achieve anything but where they are now they've got the key steel machined through the bottom so they align back into the bed we have the bolt holes that go through them to then tie them down to the bed and we have the important faces machined to a nice surface finish so everything can be set up very quickly and very easily and we're going to show you how quick and easy they are to set up now righto guys so those V blocks worked exactly the way I hoped they would the gauge didn't even move 0.01 of a mil and I don't even think bananas measure that low this is going to make life so much easier for setting up these multiple pins that we do we can simply slide the V blocks up and down the bed to suit what length of pin we're doing they're fast and easy to set up and they are as solid as a rock so to get a heavy duty set of cast iron v-blocks they're going to cost you nearly a thousand dollars to get a decent set but they still limit you for your heights and you still need to go through the process of setting them up for each individual job where what I have here this cost me about 150 dollars in material and a couple of hours of time now I have myself a super heavy duty set of v-blocks that are already dialed in and will be able to handle any amount of weight I put on them and it's just going to save so much time for future setups so that's how I made our custom heavy duty V blocks thanks for watching righto so we've got the bottom of the V box [giggle] V box righto so we've got the Vottom pfft the vottom [Laughter] righto so we've got the bottom of the V blocks complete [giggle] what what the train [Laughter] oh right do you want to lean more over there right okay I'm just gonna start again so s uh [ __ ] me [sigh] we've just got alot of work to do let's just do it okay right are you ready now [giggle] make it all the way through can't see [ __ ] in there it looked like it did drills walking around something [ __ ] chronic no that isn't [ __ ] right WOAH how much is left in there hopefully enough wow that's shiny wait you hold it still oh my goodness it's very hot oh you son of a mm-hmm helps if it's goin in the right direction considering they came from a flame cut part and we managed to ugh oh so because they were oh hmmm wow this is so good [giggle] you're amazing [Laughter] ready let's just do this one one take [giggle] ready yeah right so even though ugh [Laughter] so there is enough clearance in the t slots in the table for the t-nuts to move left and right oh there is enough clear oh [ __ ] me [giggle] i'm gonna say it like this right you ready yeah right so even though the tape oh [Laughter] so to have a heavy setty oh heavy setty [giggle] I just can't get the words out ohhh I can tell right you ready I think I got this all right let's see are you [ __ ] ready I'm ready one take okay sure right for 150 dollars worth of material and a couple of hours of my time at 150 dollars in material and a couple of hours of my time to make them but I'm gonna make that back [squirrel] so for 150 in material and a couple of hours in my time ugh and it's just going to save so much time for future setups okay what now what thanks for watching ah ah oi sit sit sit hey hey no hey drop it
2022-12-05 05:43
