Finger plate

mariolucchini posted on the HMEM forum about his beautiful finger plate and storage box:

One of the most gratifying tasks we modelers can undertake, is the construction of our own tools....at least this is my personal way of seeing things....

A long caressed project from way back then, was the design & building of a finger plate....I just made the decision of making one for my use....since I used one of a friend of mine, I now wonder how I did without it....

I made a thorough search in the web, not finding much, but what little I learned I added to my personal needs....so here we go....

I started with the base, which I produced from a discarded PC aluminium heat sink, from which I hacksawed the fins and made a long and boring flycutting sesion....

Here it is, finally sanded and polished....the four sides are at exact 90º from each other so it can be used in my milling table and in the miniature table saw....





Notice that the upper face of the base has 3 milled "V" ways for holding different size round material...also there are 8 threaded holes which are mighty useful for holding the most used screws or bolts I mostly use in my models....these are from the smaller up....1.2 mm, 1.4 mm, 1.7 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm and 6 mm.

The bottom face of the base....





If you should want to use the finger plate on the vise, a screwed bar was devised which is applied via countersunk brass screws from below...





The pillar, made from BMS and threaded M6, the lower threaded portion is made in such a way that you can fix it to the base with just finger pressure....I intend to make a wooden box in a time to come to keep the whole safe & sound.... so the pillar must be removable...besides I love making special wooden boxes!!!!



The pillar in place on the base...................





The clamp, made from 4 mm thick brass.......the lower ends are slightly angled so they can rest parallel to the base when in use....







The clamping knob & the special washer.............





The special washer that goes under the clamping knob, is rounded on the undernath so that it gives good grabbing power at any angle......



The adjuster screw...........Made from an M 4 bolt, with a heavily knurled brass knob, has the added finesse of using an acrylic point so as not to marr the plate's surface when tightening it..........





Here's an image of the threaded holes being occupied with an example of each bolt of different dimensions....



The parts of the ensemble, including a special screwdriver to screw in the special base for using it in the vise....



The finger plate assembled showing some of its infinite uses.....

A brass bar in one of the "V" ways, ready to be crossdrilled....



The same brass bar in one of the corner "V" ways, ready to be filed or rectified via a grinder....



A small hinge to be filed......the clamping action of the finger plate is really powerful, when it bites.....well........





The finished box with all its inlettings.....



The box with its contents....





The closed box.............by the way, the box was made entirely in 3 mm thick plywood....





Another homemade tool for the collection............

Shop tooling organizer

Gary Paine posted on the Home Shop Machinist forum about some nice storage boxes he made:

Often I turn to woodworking to supplement my metalworking activity. Usually this turns into some form of organizer for the tooling and cutters. Such is the case with the accessories box that resides beside my Burke horizontal mill. The milling cutters are sharp and fragile, and I needed a way to quickly find the right one without handling a whole pile of them. The tills fitted in on top make it a bit less than instant to get at one of the cutters on the bottom, but they are individually and safely wrapped in protective wood on the bottom layer.



In a drawer of the custom cabinet that lives under the legs of my Delta Milwaukee Toolmaker Grinder are partitions for the fragile grinding wheels that are used on the machine.



Different diameter wheels needed different dividers, or it would have been less convenient to get out the small wheels from the large dividers.



The purpose of this post is to try to give something back to this great group by sharing the construction method for the dividers. Many times this turns out to be just two dowels, two end plates, and a bunch of leaves or dividers. I size the dividers between 60 and 80 percent of the cutter diameter in height and about ½ inch or so wider. I space the dowels so they are just clear of a tangent to the diameter, trying to be at least 1/2 in. from side and bottom of the leaf. The dowels are fitted into the end plates at least 1/8 inch from the bottom more than the dimension on the divider so they slide freely. The hole in the end plates for the dowel is not drilled through, but only about ¾ of the way. That way, the dowels act to hold the end plates up against their support. No glue is needed. The holes in the dividers are a generous clearance for the dowel. A side plate such as I show in the photo can be added if desired for full protection of the cutter or ease in handling the assembly. Tip: drill the dividers first as a clamped together stack, top leaf in the stack marked LEFT. Take that leaf and lay it in finished place on the right end plate with the LEFT mark up and transfer the holes into the end plate. Then lay it on the left end plate with the mark against the end and transfer the holes. Doing it this way cancels layout or drilling errors and assures all the holes line up sweetly and it all sits flat. The dividers can be anything from 1/8 inch thick up, and cardboard works but I fear it will absorb moisture from the air and go limp in time. Hope you like the idea.