tapered slots

[grimmeParticipant @grimme]

im in the process of making a 24 stop dividing head thingy, (dont know what theyre are called), its a 5" chuck mounted to revolve on a heavy angle plate to be used vertical or horizontal, behind the chuck is a flange with 24 tapered slots cut into which a tapered stop locates, tapered milling cutters are big bucks so im looking for alternatives to buying one? any ideas??

[grimmeParticipant @grimme]

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

How are you cutting the slots. If you cut them on a dividing head you can rough them out square firstly, then offset the cutter and rotate the plate by a few degrees and cut the first set of side angles. Repeat the operation but opposite offset and angle to complete the angled slots for plunger.

David

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Geoff

Consider cutting parallel slots but use a tapered plunger key to index in the slot, even with the tapered slots and key it is best to lock the spindle to mill the part being held.

Emgee

[Paul KempParticipant @paulkemp46892]

Use a cheap gear cutter? That will give you a nice slot!  Grind up a suitable single point tool and 'fly cut'?  I think it's a spin indexer by the way.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Kemp on 18/04/2021 23:40:25

[Pete RimmerParticipant @peterimmer30576]

Posted by geoff rimmer on 18/04/2021 22:36:17:

im in the process of making a 24 stop dividing head thingy, (dont know what theyre are called), its a 5" chuck mounted to revolve on a heavy angle plate to be used vertical or horizontal, behind the chuck is a flange with 24 tapered slots cut into which a tapered stop locates, tapered milling cutters are big bucks so im looking for alternatives to buying one? any ideas??

The plate with the slots is called a masking plate. Used for rapid indexing.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Why slots? Drill parallel sides holes and have tapered pin.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I wanted to make some special tee nuts for the compound on the Smart & Brown model A and a friend of the museum who did cutter grinding put the required taper on the end of a 1/2" four flute endmill. If you have a suitable donor cutter, then a small engineering firm could probably modify one for you cheaper than a special.

Emgee's suggestion of parallel slots with a tapered plunger would work very well if the plunger included angle was about 2 degrees.

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