I need some ideas

[RJ.]

Ken,

I had a similar situation needing to drill and tap holes 90 degrees to each other, one needing to be directly above a keyway. My instructor told me to put the key (in your case an appropriate sized key or piece of flat stock) in and have part sticking out to rest on top of the vise jaw to orient the flat of your square recess parallel to the top of the jaw, clamp the faces in the jaws, edgefind the center and centerdrill. Turn 90 degrees and repeat. Hope it helps.

Regards,
Rick

[IJ.]

Ken: Agreed the Cad side of things is a breeze, working out how to hold the workpiece you've designed is the black art !

For your 8 pieces I would make a square peg 10 mm longer than the hole in the parts.

I would use a 9mm parallel strip under this in the vice to give me the 90 degree indexing.

You can bore a receiver hole in the square peg for drill clearance.

[Ken_Shea]

Just as I suspected, lots of good, yet different information for me to consider.

[fractal]

I would mount the piece in a square collet chuck with enough protruding from the end to drill your hole afterward. Then, square the collet chuck up in your vise, mill your square pocket. Next, lay the chuck down, find distance from edge and drill hole. Done! These chucks are about $30 from enco and supremely useful. Get some more value out of those 5C lathe collets to boot.

Joe
www.gardnerguns.com

[Ken_Shea]

I have been looking at those for months Joe, and imagined their usefulness, there is a hex version as well. Too late on this job but I think I might just get a set for later use. I like your idea.

I had been to your site sometime back and looked at the neat manual machine gun you manufacture, it tweaked my nostalgic interest enough that I went web looking for other reproductions and I could not believe it when I saw there is a place not 10 miles from me (Lexington, Ohio) that makes some version of a Gatling gun. (forget the name, or model, sorry, remember the price though $5000

Thanks
Ken

[fractal]

Hi ken,
Don't hesitate on getting the collet blocks, they are supremely handy little tools.

There are a lot of guys doing the Gatling, but almost no one doing Gardner, Nordenfelt or Hotchkiss guns. I'm hoping to do some others as I get going, but the Gardner is my real passion at this point. I've wanted one for over 13 years now and I'm finally in the home stretch.

Joe