Thread: Clamping Jigger

I was asked to post a little about this so here you go from a Bamboo Rodmakers forum.

I can't tell you who to give credit to because of my recent computer crash I lost all my files. I posted this on the rodbuilding forum but will stick it here too for you.

I can tell you this. Went to the scrap metal yard here and bought some 1/8" x 1 /2" x 12" 6061 T6 in both angle and flat stock ($3?).

A package of 10 - 5/16" rare earth magnets from my Emporium of Fine Imported Tools from China 10 Piece Rare Earth Magnets. ($1.50)

And I cut the aluminum on my nice SCM saw via the same Emporium mentioned above.

What I do remember from the instructions he said to use 5 minute epoxy ... That wasn't a good idea as the pieces separated pretty easily.

The second rendition I used JB-Kwick and that worked fine until my drill chuck pulled out of my tailstock when backing it up when I finished drilling a blank. All of a sudden it got real exciting in the garage.

Those Jaws that grip the edge of the blank and that hold themselves to the scroll chuck via magnets was spinning the blank, the 5/8" Drill Chuck in the end. There was a Drill Chuck that became a guided missile flying through the air.

Again one of the Aluminum flat stock glued to the angle broke the glue bond and the jaw failed (see pic). This was not due to a bad bond but because whatever a 5/8" Drill Chuck weighs with a 5" 3/8" drill bit in the end was just too much weight.



The worst thing was a very nice piece of Flame Box Elder kind of disintegrated.

For the third rendition I did two changes. First I switched to Roo Clear Glue because:

1 - I have a large bottle of it
2 - I use it to glue my metal inlays in my wood blanks
3 - I use it as a color preserver (CP)

And I added 4 10-32 x 1/4" button head screws to secure the flat stock to the angle to keep potential flying missiles to a minimum.



That being said, I'm up to version three of this setup with some added (safety) things and I think it's an ongoing evolution.



You can see that this is a slightly rectangular piece of X-Cut Osage and because it is held by opposing corners I am able to drill dead center.

This basically what the jaws are made from. Some Aluminum 6061 T6 1 1/2" x 1/8" Angle and some 1 1/2" x 1/8" 6061 Flat Stock and some scrap wood to make the jig.

The first thing I did was place the angle on the face of my jaws and marked it for a rare earth magnet and drilled a 5/16" hole and glued the magnet in the angle aluminum as this is what holds the jaws on the scroll chuck.



This pic shows the simple jig. I took some CA and glued two scrap pieces of wood together offset so there was about a 3/16" - 1/4" shelf. I just eyeballed it and used some CA to glue the two pieces together as it is just a backstop for the aluminum.

You take a flat piece of the aluminum and tape it to the wood to act as a spacer and then after sanding the face of the angle I glued it together.



Next another piece of flat stock is placed on the spacer on the wood and glued to the Angle. This is what makes a 'groove' for the wood edge.



That wonderful looking Flame Box Elder sat there looking wounded and I gathered up what pieces I could find and glued them back in the blanks and just packed
the holes with with sawdust and and lots of shavings and used some Black CA so it looks like a spalting.



Can't remember who but this insert was given to one of the Rodbuilders for the Casting For Recovery donation rods we are building for women who have or had breast cancer.

CAUTION - Only drill at a very slow speed.