How to use sine bars

[kvom]

You have done more than your share. Let the rest of us carry on from here.

As we say in the IT business, "RTFM!"

 

[mklotz]

What I've done on my own (XP) system is to set up a desktop shortcut to cmd.exe. In the Properties for this shortcut, I've told it to "Start in" the folder that contains all the DOS executables - those from my website plus others. Then I can happily run any of the programs by typing its name without having the cmd window shut on me. When I'm done, click on the "X" in the upper right corner of the window and it closes.

 

[dsquire]

What do I have to do to get you guys to actually read the "Introduction" section on my webpage? Will pleading work? How about threats?

mklotz

I believe that it is the nature of the beast to not read and just expect all these programs to operate the way you think they should. Since I got into computers in the late 1980s I have been telling people RTFM and just read what is on the screen and do what it asks. I am still telling a lot of the same people the same thing.

I subscribe to a lot of threads on many diferent sites and when I find an interesting thread will go back to the begining and start there. Some threads may have 20 or more pages. I find that someone new comes in and only reads the last 2 or 3 posts and starts asking questions a mile a minute. If he had taken time to bother reading the whole thread he would have had all his questions answered and more.

I don't ask a lot of questions but I do read a lot and have learned a lot on this forum as well as others.

Cheers

Don

 

[Loose nut]

Loose, not sure what the grinding guys do but imo gauge blocks are a precision tool used for inspection and surface plate work - not in machining setups. You can see in my middle pic that they're being used to establish and angle but only the angle plate and work leaves the surface plate for the grinder, gauge blocks stay safe and dry

Mcgyver, whether you use Jo blocks or adjustable parallels, drill bits etc. it seem that you have to have six hands to hold ever thing in place to adjust a none clamping mill fixture to a specific angle, is ther something that you guys do to keep the sine bar on the angle table while dialing in the top of the bar. It would seem the the problem exists on a mill or a surface plate.

 

[Mcgyver]

i don't want to take the position of sine bar expert, mine spends most of its life in a drawer - I'll never use it enough to become the great sine bar expert. When I have used it though, to hold things in place, mostly i use gravity - sorry couldn't resist. if you look at my second photo, everything is fairly stable. The angle plate I'm clamping to is eased up against the work which is sitting on, or rather in, the sign plate - the work is sitting in the V formed there. I say in because a sign bar or plate definitely benefits from a fence or hard stop on one end - maybe that's the part you are missing? I simply tightened the machinist clamps carefully will keeping the slightest amount of downward pressure on the things. in time, you'll grow the extra arms ;D.

here''s a shot of the piece being ground - the sine bar was just used to properly set it up - does that make it clearer?

I'm sensing that doesn't address your question, but maybe I'm not understanding it....

 

[Bernd]

Loosenut,

Do you mean "how to hold a work piece to the angle table?" or just how the set up is done.

Mcgyer had some excellent pictures in the begining of this thread. I'll add my own here.

This is more of a table than sine bar, but works on the same principle. Notice the small fence in the lower right hand of the pic. This is what holds the V block from falling off. The table it selve has 1/4-20 screw holes to use clamps to hold down parts. Now inorder to hold the table from moving I would put a clamp on the upper left part of the table to hold it firmly in place. If you would like I can set up the table on my milling machine to give a better picture of holding the part to do an operation on it.

Bernd

 

[Bernd]

After posting the last message I remembered where I saw the answer to your question. It's on page 79 of the "Second Bedside Reader". Now we disscussing two items that do the same thing, a sine bar and a sine table. The bar is used more for mesasuring and setup, were as the table is used to actually hold the part to do a machining operation. Here's a pic the will hopefully make the answer to your question a bit more clear.

Bernd

 

[kvom]

Another hijack re Marv's programs.

One way to make the programs almost idiot-proof would be something like this (for BOLTCIRC as an example):

1) rename BOLTCIRC.EXE to BOLTCIRC.PRG

2) add a 1-line file named BOLTCIRC.BAT to the zipfile. That file contains the line:

cmd /K BOLTCIRC.PRG

Double clicking on the bat file in windows runs the program and caused the window to remain after execution. And it prevents running the program itself by double clicking.

 

[Loose nut]

Mcgyver and Bernd, I recently had to set up an angle table (not a sine table) for milling, and while I didn't need sine bar accuracy, a protractor was good enough for this job, this thread got me to thinking on how I would hold every thing in place if I did use a sine bar. At a 45 degrees, the angle used, things tend to slide and there isn't anyway I could clamp the bar and blocks (at least none that I thought of). I could clamp a parallel across the bottom of the table to resist sliding, like the fence on your sine table, but the set up is wobbly and running an indicator tip across the top of the bar looks dicey. The same problem exists with angle gauges but I can use a magnetic base to hold the guage in place. It probably is a minor point for me because I don't usually make anything that needs the kind of accuracy that can't be set up with angle guages or bevel protractors.

I would just like to know how the more "enlightened" solve this problem, most literature on this subject just glance over this part of the job.