I then set up the stock up in the vise at the proper angle and started milling the angles. I had to take another ten off each side to finish the relief groove. I then milled the side of the groove to widen it out. I cut the groove 0.500' deep, then moved the table over 0.030' and cranked the knee back down to zero. I set the stock up in the mills vise and then located the edge, changed to a 1/4' end mill, located the edge of the groove and started milling the groove into the block.

I laid out the grooves position and then took it to the mill to start cutting the groove. I then cleaned the whole block up on the surface grinder. I cut and squared the edges of the block in the mill first to clean them up. Lew and Keith, I would not have thought of that method. I have a CAD program which will make this a snap but you should be able to do the calculations to get your number. Work from these two dimensions and the diameter of the pins to get your angle. Use one pair (smaller) that contacts the way down low on the side and a second pair (larger) that makes contact higher up-the greater the spread the better. I haven't had time to try this yet but by laying them against both sides of the V-way, measuring across the total width and then using some fairly simple trig it should be possible to get very accurate dimensions. I then hit upon the idea of using two different pairs of precision gage pins to measure the angle. Probably OK but I wanted something more accurate. so I was faced with having to work from an average of several readings. I have a DRO on my cross-slide which really helps but I was still not getting numbers as consistent as I would like to nave seen. When mounted vertically in a very rigid position and swept down the side of the V it allows you to travel the cross-slide considerably further than with a dti and seems to produce better results. Because of the short travel of my indicator I wasn't getting very consistent results so I switched to a regular dial indicator.

To use a dti it must be mounted horizontally and traveled so the tip slides down the side of the V.

As a prelude to this I've been trying to figure out the best way to measure the angle of the V-way. The steady rest on my Chinese lathe is pretty wonky but I plan to adapt a much better rest that's been kicking around the shop forever. Rig up a dial test indicator to the cross slide and measure the rise for a givenĬross slide travel and simply calculate the angle.īe sure the dti is as close to straight as possible to eliminate cos.

Clausing 5900 vs 6900