Milling Machine Accessories

The 2019 Taig milling machine.  Shown with the Taig milling vise.  In the spindle is the drill chuck arbor and a Jacobs brand 3/8" keyless chuck.  On the right are some accessories I bought with the mill.  From top to bottom are some blank collets (in the plastic container), the fly cutter, some blank arbors, the milling vise, some T-nuts for the vise, and the collet set with collet holder.
The first thing I made with my mill was a set of brackets to let me clamp my precision screwless vise to the table.  I freely admit borrowing this idea from Alan Pinkus.  These were made from some steel scrap I salvaged from the scrap bin at work.
The next thing I made was a 10 degree angle support I used to make these step blocks.  The step blocks are for a hold down clamp set.  The steps are tilted at a ten degree angle so the clamp straps don't slide off the steps.  All this stuff is again made from scraps from work.
Until this time I had been holding the pully by hand and using a crescent wrench on the collet holder to hold cutters in the collets.  I got a flat wrench for another power tool from my Dad.  I opened it up to fit the one inch spindle flats.  This left it a little weak, and it bends open over time.  I just bend it back, and it seems to do fine.  1/02:  This wrench eventually died and I replaced it with the spindle wrench from Taig.
Here I am, milling steps in the ends of the strap clamps.  These work with the step blocks shown above.
Here is the finished step block set.  I used a chunk of scrap delrin and made a holder for all the bits and pieces.  The clamps have already come in handy in a couple cases.
While the next couple things are wood, and weren't made on the mill, I'm showing them anyway.  First is a wooden dowel cut and drilled to store center drills.
This is a holder I made for my arbor mounted cutters.  The wood is 6 1/2" square.  The holes were drilled with a 1" spade bit on the drill press with 1 1/4" between centers, and 3/4" in from the edge.  There are 25 holes, but it will be a while before I have that many arbors.  From left to right are: 3/8" roughing endmill, 1/2" 45 degree dovetail cutter, 1/2" square endmill, blank Taig arbor, Taig flycutter.  I've decided I really love the 1/2" endmill and the 3/8" rougher.  In Al 6061-T6 I can take a .050" cut and .150" cut respectively, with no chatter.  I really wish I had these when I was hogging out my step blocks with a 1/4" endmill.
I used another blank arbor to make a slitting saw arbor.  From left to right are the steel arbor drilled and reamed for two 3/16" dowel pins and a 10-32 tapped hole betwen.  Next is the centering clamp side, a saw blade, the flat clamp side and the center screw.  I picked up six blades at Mendleson's Surplus in Dayton for $.50 each.  Because the hole in the blades is 1 inch, I had to add both clamp pieces to the blank arbor.
I turned the clamp pieces by attaching them to the arbor, and clamping a cutting tool in the milling machine vise.  The outside diameters are about 1 1/2".
Cutting .500" x .375" steel barstock for making some T-nuts.  Using the saw takes a little longer than using the rough cutting endmill, but I waste less material as chips.
To make the 3/8" tool holders shown above, I held a boring bit vertically in the vise and bored blank arbors.  The holes ended up a bit oversized, and I wasn't really happy with the results.  I made this boring tool holder to better hold a boring tool in a known location.  The tool is held by a split cotter from Vol 1 of the Machinests Bedside Reader.  I hate setscrews, so this split cotter design will end up in many of my fixtures and tooling pieces.
This picture shows the split collet parts.  The longer piece has a through hole, and the short piece has a hole tapped to fit the thumbscrew.  In use, the block is held in the vise with the corner against the fixed jaw corner.  Use a center finder on the fixed jaw.  The tool center is .500" in each direction from the corner.  Knowing the tool center location allows a .375" boring tool to start a little undersized and end up with a .375" hole in the blank arbor.
I made a primative boring jig that is rough but usable.  This was driven by the need to bore bearing pockets in my pulley speed reducer for my lathe.  A blank arbor has a male dovetail.  The sliding block has a female dovetail.  Here I'm using my lathe to drill and ream the mounting hole for the boring tool concentric with the arbor axis.
The boring tool is clamped in the sliding block with another split cotter.  There are two opposing #4-40 jackscrews that bear on the blank arbor to set the position.  To position the bit, one screw is loosened and one is tightened an equal amount.  Here I'm using the boring jig to bore the bearing pocket.
Tooling for fabricating split cotters.  Steps: 1) On the lathe, part off a 1.00" length of .375" drill rod.  2) Drill a #10-32 tap hole through the part.  3) Drill a #10-32 clearance hole .550/.600 deep in one end of the part.  4) Clamp the part in a vise with the split block halves and tap through the part.  5) Use the screws, washers and spacer to clamp the part in the cutting jig.  6) Use a .375" diameter end mill to side cut a divot in the rod.  The rod mounting hole is .500" from the left face.  Traverse the cutter .200" in from the left face.  The narrowest part of the rod should end up .300"/.298".  7) Clamp in the vise and hacksaw through the narrowest part of the rod.  8) Clean up the two cut pieces in the lathe.  9) The pieces can now be used to clamp a .375" shaft.  The clamp block should have two .375" reamed holes cross drilled with the center axes spaced .300" from each other.  I used this same design on the boring tool holder, the boring jig, and the lathe indicator holders.