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Thread: Finger Plate

  1. #1
    Supporting Member rossbotics's Avatar
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    Finger Plate

    I made this Finger Plate mainly for holding small gun parts to be milled, drilled, filed, ground Etc, most gun parts are very intricately shaped and difficult to hold with conventional tooling, a fixture of some kind is used in factories to hold these intricate parts, with this tool you clamp your work to the plate whether it be round or flat then take your work to the drill press, milling machine or surface grinder, all surfaces of this plate have been ground flat, parallel and square.

    I’m in the process of building my second 50 BMG single shot bolt action rifle, I wish I would have had one of these when I built the first one, so before I get too involved in this next one I decided to make this tool, it’s going to come in real handy drilling or reaming holes and light machining in odd shaped pieces such pieces as the trigger, sear, safety components and disconnect just to name a few.


    It’s a very simple tool in design and only consists of six parts, one Plate, two Fingers, one Drill Bushing and two ThumbScrews, the plate is made from O-1 tool steel hardened and ground, one finger is made from 360 brass and the other finger is made from 4140 hardened steel, the drill bushing is made from O-1 hardened steel and both thumb screws weremade from 4140 pre-hard steel.


    The plate has two 90° V-Grooves, one small groove and the other a bit larger for accommodating different diameters of round materials, plus several holes of different diameters and a notch for thru drilling, driving pins, reaming Etc, there are two fingers one made of 360 brass and the other made from 4140 hardened steel, the brass finger is for holding something lightly without marring the surface of the work piece, the 4140 hardened finger is for holding something with a bit more clamping power if needed, the drill bushing fits into a reamed hole in the center of the largest V-Groove, this is for drilling top dead center of a piece of round stock up to .250” in diameter, different bushings can be made to drill any size hole I desire, this particular bushing I made will allow me to drill a .094” hole thru the work piece, I will make other bushings when the time arrives.


    This would be a nice tool for model builders, people who build steam engines, or for anyone who needs to hold something you just can’t clamp in a vise.


    I have included some photos of the machining process along with the completed tool being used and a photo of my first 50 BMG bolt action rifle, I have also included the cad drawings for anyone wanting to make one of these tools


    As always thanks for looking


    And happy machining


    Doug



    Finger Plate-7.jpg

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    Finger Plate-3.jpg

    Finger Plate-4.jpg

    Finger Plate-5.jpg

    Finger Plate-6.jpg

    Finger Plate-8.jpg

    Finger Plate-9.jpg

    Finger Plate-10.jpg

    Finger Plate-bushing.jpg

    Finger Plate-finger-plate.jpg

    Finger Plate-finger.jpg

    Finger Plate-thumb-screws.jpg

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    Comments are always welcome
    Doug

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  2. The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to rossbotics For This Useful Post:

    Daturat100r (Oct 20, 2017), high-side (Jun 4, 2020), HobieDave (Apr 12, 2020), Jeff Michel (Jul 20, 2018), Jon (Oct 19, 2017), JRock (Mar 23, 2018), kngtek (Oct 21, 2017), LMMasterMariner (Oct 19, 2017), Moby Duck (Mar 23, 2018), olderdan (Oct 19, 2017), Paul Jones (Oct 19, 2017), PJs (Mar 24, 2018), Seedtick (Oct 20, 2017), Tuomas (Mar 24, 2018)

  3. #2
    Supporting Member LMMasterMariner's Avatar
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    Nicely done small tool. Big one as well.

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  4. #3
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    Thanks rossbotics! We've added your Finger Plate to our Workholding category,
    as well as to your builder page: rossbotics's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:




  5. #4
    Supporting Member olderdan's Avatar
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    I am going to make one of these (thanks for the drawings), I think I will add a removable bar underneath for bench vise work.
    BTW that is a mighty gun, what do you shoot at with it, I understand it will stop a truck engine. I used to do full bore pistol shooting with a Ruger 44 Magnum but not allowed to own one now in the UK.

  6. #5
    Supporting Member Ralphxyz's Avatar
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    Nice, thanks for posting need to add one to my list.

    Ralph

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    rossbotics (Mar 24, 2018)

  8. #6
    Supporting Member editor@glue-it.com's Avatar
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    Hi, great post and just had a go:

    Finger Plate-fingerplate-12.jpg

    with a bracket on the bottom to clamp it into a vice

    Finger Plate-fingerplate-13.jpg

    Article on making the parts is here: Watchmakers Finger Plate – glue-it.com

  9. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to editor@glue-it.com For This Useful Post:

    high-side (Jun 4, 2020), Jon (Mar 25, 2018), Paul Jones (Mar 28, 2018), PJs (Mar 24, 2018), rossbotics (Mar 24, 2018)

  10. #7
    Supporting Member rossbotics's Avatar
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    Nice job, I like the attachment for mounting it into the vise

    Doug
    Comments are always welcome
    Doug

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  11. The Following User Says Thank You to rossbotics For This Useful Post:

    Paul Jones (Mar 28, 2018)

  12. #8
    Supporting Member mklotz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rossbotics View Post
    Nice job, I like the attachment for mounting it into the vise
    Yes, being able to clamp small tools like this in the vise really improves their utility. On one of mine I made the attachment "lug" octagonal in shape. Being able to clamp in eight different attitudes can make filing jobs much easier.
    ---
    Regards, Marv

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  14. #9
    Supporting Member Ralphxyz's Avatar
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    That's great Marv I probable will use a piece of 1 1/4" Hex, just because I have it on hand. But being able to set the approach angle really can make work easier.

    Ralph

  15. #10
    Supporting Member mklotz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ralphxyz View Post
    That's great Marv I probable will use a piece of 1 1/4" Hex, just because I have it on hand. But being able to set the approach angle really can make work easier.
    If you want the finger plate to have infinite adjustability about the vertical axis, make the tenon on the bottom cylindrical and make a clamp like the one I made for this multi-angle collet indexer...

    http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/5...ng-table-27308

    The split clamp held in the vise is squeezed tight by the action of the vise and clamps the cylindrical tenon at whatever angle you desire.
    ---
    Regards, Marv

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  16. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to mklotz For This Useful Post:

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