Thread: Small mill outboard clamps

BobL I never tire of your informative pictdoco's on the quest for the ultimate in CS Mills. One day I will make my own using many of your refinements, but I know that there will always be a small degree of disappointment when I compare mine to yours. If there was a "Show'nShine" you'd win hands down. Nice job.

Thanks Prozac.
Don't be too impressed, those that look at my creations up close can easily spot the flaws and crooked bits. My ideas and my photography are definitely superior to my craftsmanship. On a positive side, nothing as fallen apart (yet) and stuff generally works as expected and occasionally better!

Gday Bob, I reckon Id be putting something a little more substantial as a guard than that perspex. I am paranoid of harming my body parts, but I wouldn't be holding onto that unless the guarding was steel.

Prozac is right though, you are the bling master of CS Mills.

Hopefully I can lay some beads with my MIG today.....hopefully. Can someone please put in a request for more hours in the day?

Originally Posted by martrix

Gday Bob, I reckon Id be putting something a little more substantial as a guard than that perspex. I am paranoid of harming my body parts, but I wouldn't be holding onto that unless the guarding was steel.

The question about putting an actual handle or not is an tricky one. This is not a handle to use routinely, its in too awkward a place and not ergonomic. My concern is that there is a small risk that someone would (perhaps in an emergency situation or just unwittingly) grab hold of a nose guard while the chain is moving. A conventional guard consisting of a strip of steel bent in a circle around the nose is IMHO still very dangerous in this situation. Adding a safe handle will naturally attract someone to use that in an emergency BUT it can perhaps also act as an attractor to grab hold off for no particular reason.

The next issue is how to protect anyone that does go to use that handle. Encasing the whole nose guard in steel is safest but the resulting enclosed box will quickly fillup with oily sawdust. Enclosing the top only and allowing sawdust to escape from the bottom is better but then you have a hidden chain turning underneath that cannot be seen. Using something transparent and tough allows the chain to be seen at least for a while which is why I went for a polycarbonate (PC) cover - same as what I have on the BIL Mill. It's not designed to stop the chain from getting you but from someone putting fingers into the chain.


There's a fair bit of difference between perspex and PC. PC is basically the same as Lexan, its very tough stuff but it won't stop a CS chain. If for whatever reason the CS bar does slide forward in the mill it will have to cut through the 19 mm SHS cross bar before it hits your fingers.

Someone on another forum has raised the possibility of someone's fingers accidentally wrapping further around than necessary and hitting the chain which is why the PC cover extends further down. You would need king kong fingers to reach the chain. However, just in case king kong appears I will add a return onto the PC cover as shown below.

Great BobL, something else for me to envy! How did you do those beautiful sketch plans? Is there no end to you talents?

I agree with Matrix on the point of having a guard of sorts. I have taken the liberty of modifying your drawing to include a knuckle saver. Do you think that it would be of benefit?

prozac

Originally Posted by prozac

Great BobL, something else for me to envy! How did you do those beautiful sketch plans? Is there no end to you talents?

The drawings are done using PowerPoint. It's drawing tools are actually a very rudimentary but 12 years ago when PP was all the rage I rewrote all my lectures using it and got very fast at using the drawing tool so I can whip up them up in a couple of minutes. Once they are done I screen capture the picture and save for web using photoshop.

Originally Posted by prozac

I agree with Matrix on the point of having a guard of sorts. I have taken the liberty of modifying your drawing to include a knuckle saver. Do you think that it would be of benefit?

Yep - looks good - have found a suitable piece of perforated steel plate in the bin at work and will modify as shown.

Another great idea Bob I could do with the outboard clamp to get the last extra bit of width at times but that handle - I dont want anyone going near that end of the saw either by accident or on purpose. Like Martrix i like all the bits where they are now

keep up the good ideas