Big Tool Rack ( Pics )

[Scott_M]

I finished my big tool rack today and thought you guys would like to see some pics.

This gets all my tools off the top of my mill table and puts it under it , out of the way of flying chips and dust.

53 .775" holes

4 rows of 11 for standard TTS holders.
1 row of 9 with a bit bigger spacing for drill chucks and such.

now I need more tool holders !

This is the second setup through some previous holes. The plate is 9 1/2" wide so I skipped the middle row on the first setup and drilled some cheater holes to clamp through to the middle T-slot. And the second setup milled the cheater holes out.

I am .020" off the limit switch on the right and .050" away from it on the left. I would say that is using all the X.



Under and out of the way




Slide out on some heavy duty drawer slides





Scott

[Switcher]

Great job!

[TOTALLYRC]

Nicely done.

Mike

[tobyaxis]

Nice Rack !!!!!!!!!

[Scott_M]

Originally Posted by tobyaxis Nice Rack !!!!!!!!!

Thanks Toby. The wife says I have a cute butt too......

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by Scott_M Thanks Toby. The wife says I have a cute butt too......

I was referring to your tool rack, but if that work for you too, LOL.

[BobWarfield]

Very slick!

Cheers,

BW

[jestism]

Extremely nice set up... especially with how you set it up as a slide out under your bench.

Here is the approach I took. (Note: I just have the tool holder pulled out front to get everything into the picture)

[compunerdy]

Very nice guys..

Jestism, would you mind sharring what you did to your table..did you make that fixture setup?

[jestism]

Originally Posted by compunerdy Very nice guys.. Jestism, would you mind sharing what you did to your table..did you make that fixture setup?

Not at all. What the object was, was to modify my table so that no matter what fixture(s) I used, that I would be able to keep the entire machining area of the machine available for use.

That started with machining the original table with (3) sets (A, B, C) of alignment pin / 3/8x16 holes as seen in the picture below.

After that was accomplished, then I got a piece of 1/2" 4140 hardened (In hindsight annealed or normalize would have saved me on the tooling costs of putting all of the holes in it) blanchard ground to within .005" flatness.

First step was to mount the plate (raised up on alum blocks off the table) to where it was where I wanted it and machine a set of mating alignment pin holes (to match the table) and machine holes for low profile socket head cap screws to go through to mate with the 3/8x16 threaded holes in the base. Once that was done, the plate was removed, alignment pins put into the table and the plate tested to verify that it could be lowered down on the table and everything match up. (since both the table and plate were machined with the same program with only a tool change so the bolts would got through the plate it was a pretty good bet).
It fit like a glove. I also checked to verify that I could shift the plate to the left (putting plate hole group B on table alignment group A) and to the right.

Once I new that, the plate was removed, longer alignment pins were used, and the plate lowered back into place (this time sitting on my alum. stock to hold it up 3/4" above the table for tooling/tap clearance.)

Then the base plate was machined to give me a 11 rows of holes (front to back) with 30 holes in each row. (Rows are Lettered and columns are numbered with the lower left hole being "A0" {when the plate is in the center or normal location}, giving me negative columns numbers to the left and positive to the right)

The holes are on a 1" grid, alternating between an "alignment" hole and a 3/8x16 tapped hole.

Now I can mount my 6" rotary table and tail stock and still have full machining area.

Each fixture (once setup) has a set of "Alignment" coordinates stamped on the left end. There is a work offset created for use with that fixture and saved in the work offset table. So repeatability is greatly enchanced because the fixture for the part I am making is always installed in to the exact same location (unless I miss read the row/col marking) each time.

The splash guard is mounted directly to the plate, so when the plate is shifted, the splash guard shifts with it.

I make a very large amount of "different" parts and setup time as we all know can eat you alive... this pretty much eliminates it.

Note: I also setup and machined alignment holes in my milling vise, rotary table, and tail stock. (Good thing I had a right angle adapter for one of my manual knee mills) so that they to use the alignment pin system.

Here is a picture of the base plate installed. (you do end up with about 5 holes that you can not thread for use to bolt something down because of where they are at in relationship to the base plate to table holes, but you end up with plenty of use able ones to make up for it.


I am sure that I am not the only one who has done this (and definitely not the first).. It took a lot of time (as I was working on other work on other machines and could only squeeze in a little time each day for doing the plate).

Now that it is all done, it is a great time saver.

[TOTALLYRC]

Very nice.

Mike