Mill Tip

I might need to get a couple more parallels ...

**LINK**

Ha, I watched that video last night and thought "I'm so going to try that!"

Squaring stock on the mill today, didn't leave enough excess material when band-sawing, so had to do it the old way.

Ah well, there's always tomorrow...

It certainly looks an easier way of squaring a block on the mill. I’ll be trying it next time.

What a brilliant video, many thanks for sharing.

I'm definitely going to try that technique.

David

Tried this and it really works.

I had to watch the video a few times to be sure I understood it. It uses some lateral thinking and the basic geometry of the machine, rather than fiddling about with squares and "round parallels", and it seems to save a lot of time as well as giving a more accurate result.

Definately worth watching if you mill and have to square up blocks before doing anything more interesting.

Rod

I gave it a go and it worked well (sample size of one). I just need to remember to allow a little more excess stock, as you effectively face four of the surfaces twice.

I didn't break out the surface plate to check accuracy, but just judging by how consistent and tight the parallels were as I rotated the part, it's at least as good as other methods I've tried. 

Edited By Jed Martens on 28/08/2020 20:45:32

Did those trying it have fully sawn or irregular block or like in the video have the two extruded parallel sides to a decent first grip of the work?

I would have thought that if the block does not have two close to parallel sides to grip initially then you may not get a secure grip without a packer on the moving jaw, with the climb cuts shown a poorly griped workpiece could come loose.

There would also be a limit to size as the longer the cutter needed to reach down the sides the more prone it is to deflection, though if cleaning up all sides completely with the second pass there is no reason to make the initial cuts so deep as you just want enough to rest on a parallel.

I had a go at this with a reasonably small piece and it seemed to work quite well. I shall be using this in future!

Iain

As usual Joe Pie has done a cracking video. Obviously cannot be used every time but a very useful tip!

Tony

In his latest offering he goes to great lengths to show how it can still work even when using a very out of whack vise .

Jason, agreed, but even a rough block can be improved. Viz - grip the block deep in the vice using packers if needed. Take a small step out of one edge. Invert block and grip again, deep in the vice, resting the step on a narrow parallel. Take a second step on the edge above the first step. These 2 steps must be parallel and can be used to grip the block shallow in the vice for the first stage of the squaring up process. Seems to work Ok.

I agree about the limit on size. I found that I had to use a conventional end mill ,whereas I usually use a face cutter with inserts for facing, but it's no use for this method.

Rod

I gave it a go and it worked very well. This will now be my preferred method. Not surprising really as Joe does this stuff for a living - when he’s not passing great stuff on to us on YouTube!

Ah Ha, another way!

**LINK**

Vic

This seems like another good way to square up blocks. Not tried it yet but I will, as I will be able to use my replacable carbide inserted tip face cutter, or even a fly cutter, rather than an expensive and difficult to sharpen HSS end mill.

Amazing how these new ( to me) methods keep being invented.

Rod

A fly cutter is my preferred tool so I’ll try this method out as well.