Mini Pallet for Sherline 2000 Mill and others

I already had this little 4" rotary table which is a bit different than the one Sherline sells but I wanted to use it on my 2000 mill.
Many other clamping needs with other fixtures was also a driving factor. The mill table has two long T-Slots 1.5" on centers.
Once the pallet was trammed in I wanted to be able to quickly index a flat part that would be clamped using step blocks and strap clamps.
The .250" dia holes in a 1" square grid are just for the alignment dowels.
Main features are the .5" hole spacing for most of the 10-32 tapped holes for the clamping of fixtures to the pallet.
The pallet is .500" thick and 5.125" by 13.250"
A few fixtures needed some holes with .250" spacing(rotary table and milling vise rotary plate. These can be seen
in the center section of the pallet. Holes for dowel pins are spaced 1" apart. Handy for quick indexing a part on the pallet.
Six counter bored .196" holes for 10-32 allen cap screws for holding the pallet to the mill table using it's T-slots.
Screws are selected to be long enough but also not too long so they touch the mill table, only the T-nuts.
Small notch in one end is for access to the oil cup for the xy axis. Nice feature that my other mill does not have.

One more note about tapping so many holes. I used a gun tap so the chips were pushed out the bottom of the holes.
Works fine but a bit slow when running the tap by hand. So I made up a short set of power tapping tap holders.
Reduced a days worth of tapping to 2 hours of tapping. These power tap adapters can be used in a portable drill motor
or the mill or drill press. I found it very fast to use the battery powered drill motor. Saved my shoulders from a lot of hurt!
Here is a link to the power tap adapters.
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/p...567#post107829

A few pictures showing some of the fixtures that I will clamp to this pallet.

See post 10 for a copy of the DXF file.
Cheers, JR

Hi JR
Yet another nicely made and very useful bit of kit from you.
The taps you used are called spiral point and spiral flute here in the UK. Also known as machine taps. For through holes the spiral point are used, like you say pushes the swarf forward and out of the bottom of the hole and for blind holes spiral flute which drives the swarf upwards. Please forgive me if I am telling you stuff you already know. These are the first taps I always try to use (if I have the correct size) as there is no backing off, like there is with hand taps.
Thank you again for sharing the post
The Home Engineer

JR,

The mini pallet shows your well designed engineering and very versatile for the Sherline 2000 mill. You mentioned your other mill. What is the model?

Regards,

Paul

P.S. I like your beautiful photography using the blue cloth.

Thanks Paul, My other mill is the "mini mill" from Micro Mark model 84630. It is the one with the tilting Zaxis. When I bought it I did not want the tilting feature but that was the mill I wanted. So, I added a .500" inch thick by about 5" wide and 16" long piece of hot rolled plate. Made some adjusters and was able to tram it in to just about perfect. https://www.micromark.com/Milling-Machine-R8-500W

When I bought the Sherline I wanted a bench top tool that could go "in house" and when I saw that 8 axis Bridgeport like movement I knew that that was the one. Seriously considering the lathe also for "in house" bench top use also.

The blue cloth was just a piece of cotton material from my wife's sewing supplies.

Cheers, JR

Thanks Homeengineer, I do prefer the spiral taps most of the time, they cut with so much less force. However most of mine are standard 3 or 4 flute taps.
I have used them for "power tapping" but the spirals are soooooo much better.

Actually spiral tap fits names the tap a lot better than "gun tap". Over on this side of the pond they seem to be called by both names. Why they are called "gun taps" is not known by me but I am sure someone knows!


Cheers, JR

Great tool. I bet I could make one for my Atlas Horizontal Mill.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zarembak

Great tool. I bet I could make one for my Atlas Horizontal Mill.

---

I suppose one could be made for just about any power tool. I like them since they provide more options for holding parts.

Cheers, JR

Really well thought out and executed JR. Nice write up too. Lots of options for sure. Can you please tell us what the small Orange degree clamping piece is? I haven't seen one like that but looks real handy for small non precision jobs and likely a cheerful price. For a possible future project...maybe a tail stock to go with your rotory table...would give you a lot more options if you have the height. Thanks for sharing another fine design and build.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PJs

Really well thought out and executed JR. Nice write up too. Lots of options for sure. Can you please tell us what the small Orange degree clamping piece is? I haven't seen one like that but looks real handy for small non precision jobs and likely a cheerful price. For a possible future project...maybe a tail stock to go with your rotory table...would give you a lot more options if you have the height. Thanks for sharing another fine design and build.

---

Sure can PJ;

Here are two pics showing how it is made and a link to the Sherline product info sheet.
I bought one in Feburary at a rather high price for what it is however it is quite precise.
The rotary portion is a very close fit. It was on sale in Feb but even the sale price is a bit high.
Unlike some of the import stuff this part is finished and complete without any mods.

I bought one, but will make more and use the design for other tools.
The principal is the same as the cross slide mount on my mini lathe, but functionally this one works better.
Does not take much on the two clamp screws to lock it down since there is such a large area for friction between the rotor and base.

https://sherline.com/Wordpress/wp-co...2/3570inst.pdf

Cheers, JR

Here is a copy of my dxf file pulled from CamBam. Should be exactly like the one I made.

While an outline of the plate is not shown, the one I used was 13.250" long and 5 1/8" wide
cheers, JR

<!-- BEGIN /var/www/html/homemadetools/protected/modules/zeus/views/tool/postUpdate.php -->
Thanks jjr2001! We've added your Mini Mill Pallet to our Milling category,
as well as to your builder page: jjr2001's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-mini-mill-pallet"> <img src="/uploads/210985/homemade-mini-mill-pallet.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-mini-mill-pallet">Mini Mill Pallet</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/jjr2001">jjr2001</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/mill'>mill</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/fixture'>fixture</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/pallet'>pallet</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
<!-- END /var/www/html/homemadetools/protected/modules/zeus/views/tool/postUpdate.php -->

Thanks for the additional pictures and links. For some reason it didn't dawn on me that it was for the mill vice sitting next to it. Thought it was for clamping small parts. Pricey little devil but it is laser engraved and anodized. I had been working on a similar design for my spare 3" chuck for the mini to make a poor mans Angle Rotory table. I had worked with Mic6 plate before and cheaper than 7075 and more stable which are available at McMaster (cheaper) and Online Metals. It never came to fruition because I don't have a back plate for the mini. Think they would be pretty simple to make and look forward to seeing what you come up with. Thanks again for the extra detail and posting your DXF file for everyone!

Thanks PJ, The prices from Mcmaster remind me why I buy from the cutoff bins at Southwest Metals. I pay 2.25 per pound of aluminum.
Whatever they have at the time. I have rounds,squares,plates. Mostly 6061. A few times some T7075. All for the same per pound price.
Man, this stuff is expensive when you buy it on line!

I have bought some 12L14 and cast iron from Speedy Metals on line. My local steel shop only has cold rolled 1018 and hot rolled.
Hot rolled and 1018 if they have any in their cut bins is 69 cents per pound. That is why I use so much hot rolled in my projects!

Cheers, JR

I totally agree JR, about the local places but around here the main guy thinks his stuff is gold. He gets stuff from going out of businesses...like a full sheet of .5" AL plate he cut into 2' squares and wanted $140 per and it was all dinged up from his people and his outdoor yard. Only $200 for pristine online. His steel and brass are mostly mystery metal. He does have the largest supply of fasteners (any you can think of) at reasonable prices though. The local shops are more conservative about going through the scrap bins/barrels anymore too. Most don't want to even bother with it and save it for the haulers. In the old days I could get scrap or even cuts from their stock from them (and knew most of them) for cheap or free sometimes but that is an hour away now. Mainly look to my S-i-L or friends and Garage Sale and such...always have my eyes pealed even along side the road. The closest big metal places is 3hrs away (6hr RT)...lucky and glad you have SWM close enough.

I get a lot of rounds/hex and even fast thread from the local Fastenal (wholesalish prices) and they have 01 up to 1" on hand in 3' lengths which lasts me a long time.

For a good project though I don't mind spending $25-$50 for some good stuff...just don't have a lot of access anymore for quality stuff. I used the mic6 on my Drill machines headstock plates (~3'x5'x3") and for the mounting blocks for the 4 drills each...worth it for something like that as it's still running after 18 years now and Straight.

Cheers, ~PJ

We use off cuts of optical plates to make ours, and drill table tops Attachment 42050Attachment 42051

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jjr2001

Thanks Paul, My other mill is the "mini mill" from Micro Mark model 84630. It is the one with the tilting Zaxis. When I bought it I did not want the tilting feature but that was the mill I wanted. So, I added a .500" inch thick by about 5" wide and 16" long piece of hot rolled plate. Made some adjusters and was able to tram it in to just about perfect. https://www.micromark.com/Milling-Machine-R8-500W

When I bought the Sherline I wanted a bench top tool that could go "in house" and when I saw that 8 axis Bridgeport like movement I knew that that was the one. Seriously considering the lathe also for "in house" bench top use also.

The blue cloth was just a piece of cotton material from my wife's sewing supplies.

Cheers, JR

---

Have you shown the modifications to your Mini-Mill? I've got one here I bought very used, and for a goodish price, but it has the tilting column. I'd really like to tram it, and freeze that joint myself. I've seen a couple of ways to do it, would be interested in how you did it, too.

Thanks!

Bill

Spiral flute taps eject chips in same manner as a drill bit. Not suitable for every material, but within those 'we' use.
Gun taps eject (shoot) chips forward, also good for general work within one limitation, they don't like bottoming in blind holes. If you are big on cleaning out tapped holes, those are more difficult to pick out as well. They haven't any relation to firearms work.
They work fine on holes with a bit of extra drilled depth, and ideal for through holes.