4" parallels

I just bought a nice abwood vice for my milling machine, the jaws are 4" wide but any parallels sets i have seen are 6" wide , does anyone know who supplies 4" parallels ?

Hi There

6 inch parallels will be fine.

regards David

4" x 1/2" HSS ?

Cheep as chips

You get what you pay for with parallels. Holding any two of my cheapo set together and up to the light is ... err.. enlightening, unless I pick a pair where the curves match.

Andy

From my limited experience, Andy is 100% correct. Mine are "supposed" to be matched within .0002, they may well be, but their certainly not ground flat and true on the working surfaces.

You could plastic wrap your mill to guard against the grit, and then install a fiber cut off wheel in the mills spindle, then set each parrallel vertical and locked in the mill vice, set that cut off wheel at the 4" elevation, and then just cut each parrallel to the size you want. A 4" tall angle plate might work better. I agree with David though. The full length will work fine.

Pete

Hi Ronan

Try here

Probably not super precision - but not super price either! There again are you making parts for the aircraft industry? As with all things in life you get what you pay for. I have a set and find them OK for lots of things - they also have the advantage, useful at times, of being thin. As David says though 6", with a bit hanging out each end, will be fine.

Regards

Norman

At the Bristol show I saw some sets around in a red plastic case that were particularly crap. Look like they were filed to size with a brick.

I think Amadeal had a 4 inch set in a wooden box. By the time I had decided I would get it in preference to a Warco set it had gone and it's not on their website.

When I purchased my first mill I made my own set of parallels following the method outlined by Harold Hall in his book "Milling a complete course" and I've been using them ever since. Easy to make in whatever size you need and much cheaper than bought sets.

Russell.

Hi There

I often used to use gauge plate as parallels.

Cheap and if cut from the same length, usually accurate on the width.

regards David

Before I got my curvaceous ones, I often used some steel box strapping that came round something or other. It proved surprisingly consistent in width, and got many jobs to the right height in the milling vice, where it would stand upright if a gentle bend was put on it. Had to be careful when tapping the work down on it, though.

Andy

I personally don't have the ability to work to super-fine tolerances. Would it be too simple to use silver steel rods of about 12mm diameter? I can't see why parallels have to have a square or rectangular section - except for stability. No doubt someone will put me right before I try it!

John

I have some 1/4" quare stock that came out of an old dot-matrix printer; it appears to be ground to size, very accurate and I copped it up to make four parallels. Only one size, but very handy.

Neil

Depends what you are using the parallels for. I often use a single narrow one under work in the vaice. It has to be narrower than the work and you need a range of heights.

Sinver steel sections are however very useful. I also use a pair of old Rover 2000 gudgeon pins which are very accurately ground to 1" dia.

Russell.

For single spacers the outer ring of old ball races are fiished to a high degree of parallelism, although they aren't very narrow..

Neil

Yes, I have a few of those in my spacer drawer as well. Never throw anything away!

Russell

Oh Russell!

| " Never throw anything away ! " -

That way lies chaos !

Believe me I know - I have a collection of years and years worth of everything and, when I want it, I search and search and can find nothing!

The trouble is how can I cure myself? Whenever I steel myself and take a load to the tip I find, just a day or so later, an urgent need for something I have just dumped. In consequence I am rapidly getting to the stage where it is next to impossible to get into my garage (which is the home for all those things that I have removed from the workshop in order to have, at least, SOME room to operate!)

Anyone got any good tips or is it an incurable "Model Engineers Disease" ?

Norman

Edited By NJH on 01/09/2012 11:53:07

Edited By NJH on 01/09/2012 11:57:45

After separating out the stuff designated 'tipfodder' invite some of your model engineer friends around to help themseives (being sure to lock and bolt the actua workshop door for safety). When it has all gone and you need a bit of it after all you will know where uou can get it back.

.

Recently had a good sort out and was faced with the same dilemma. Boxes upon boxes of 'useful stuff'' on the back of benches that in truth hadn't been touched for years.

Problem is, sort it out and scrap some and you will need it the following week.

Solution:-

Place large scrap bin at front of bench. Close eyes and sweep everything into said scrap bin. This way you have no idea what has been scrapped so you can't miss it.

I recently got rid of an old lathe, big monster not worth much except as scrap. Dragged about 10 tote tins use useful bar ends out from under the lathe, again never seen the light of day for 10 years.

Started to sort this lot and thought "What the hell" all that will happen is they will go back into some dark corner for another 10 years. Threw then into the Donald and straight down the scrap yard.

These 8 tins, kept 2 back, made £83 but more importantly the space is now taken up by a new bench with 3 working CNC's on it that get used and earn money. 10 tins of scarp don't.

Even in a home shop floor space costs money whether you realise it or not.

John S.

Trouble is, especially with the rising awareness of scrap value, many vital parts that got separated from their parent machine have gone for good. 10 years ago I was given a rusty 'kit' lathe to save the owner the trouble of moving it. to the tip. I recently dug out the boxes and gave it to a friend.and it turned out to be a rather rare C.A.Mann different from the one on Tony's site.

So John S I read on an old forum that you had a spare set of K&T change gears - not still got them by any chance?

Norman,

I have discovered a way - stop looking at things as 'treasures' and start actually using them. I used to hoard but had a problem taht I was alweays waiting for the 'right moment' to use things. Then I realsied I would be dead and all my bits would go in the skip one day, so now I say use it or lose it!

But don't throw anything out. I threw out a washing machine hose.

Then my steplad bought a washing machine that needed two hoses and only had opne. I gave him the spare from behind our machine, that only has one hose a month ago.

last week the hose on our dishwasher started leaking at teh jojt and I had to buty a brand new one

Neil