Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8
Machining on the Table
Some jobs are too big to hold in the machine vice so you will have to clamp
them down to the milling machine's table.
PROTECTING THE TABLE
When the job is clamped down, you should have some sort of packing under-
neath to protect the table from cutters or drills marking the table. Either clamp
a parallel or a strip of metal under the work or clamp the work on a bit of MDF
or plywood. A piece of MDF or plywood on top as well will also cut down on vi-
bration. If the job is really big and difficult to clamp down perhaps it has some
holes or a cutaway that you could put some studs through.
If the job is quite long, rather than clock it up push it against the dovetail
slide, if the milling machine has one, to line up the edge of the work with the
edge of the table. Once the work is clamped down, you may be able to mill
both sides of the work parallel at one go. This is especially easy on a large
turret milling machine where you can move the ram in and out to get at both
sides of the work.
If the workpiece is too wide, you may be able to machine one edge and
most of the two ends at the same time; then flip the workpiece over to finish
the other side and the remainder of the ends.
With a bit of forethought, quite large workpieces can be held on the ma-
chine's table with no more than a bit of packing underneath and a couple of
clamps.
