Cast Iron for Unimat Base
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Recently shopping at Ollie's in our city, and I found a 2nd Lodge cast iron griddle for $30 at Ollie's.
I'm guessing they are slightly imperfect to land in Ollie's, but I thought the flat side was nice and it will be great to use a magnetic dial indicator.... now I just need to weigh the parts, combined to see if my drawer slides that I purchased for a wall cabinet will work.? We got an Ollie's during C-19 lockdown and we have finally gone in the store about 5x in the last year.? I remember when this topic was posted previously.?? The "plan" was to make something to hold the cast iron griddle, that could be put back into the? unimat cabinet for storage off the bench surface.? Now that I have the griddle decision made it is easier to build the wall cabinet, surely a unimat and griddle will not exceed 100 lbs as I would not be able to lift it off the drawer slides for use. Home depot lowered the price on butcher block surfaces - I want one, but it stayed in the store! Next is to figure out how to mount a unimat to a cast iron griddle... I'm assuming a drill and bolts will do the trick.? I did buy some beautiful figured cherry late winter, perhaps that will become? the Uni case.? But it needs to be dried, so this is going to take a while.... he has promised a solar powered small drying build for bowl blanks and wood....this year... will use You Tube resources. I have never drilled cast iron, and the back side has ridges for grill marks, so I'm assuming I'm going to mill those ridges off, where I place the bolts.? I'm glad I own a taig mill, although I was thinking that Mr. Pete doing accessories to use on the Uni on a big machine was irritating... but now I've come off my figurative ledge on the subject. What speed do I need to drill in cast iron with a drill press? Tamra |
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What you want to do with the ribbed surface in the hole area is called "spot facing".? It is a type of "counterbore."? (All spot faces are a counterbore but not all counterbores are spot faces.) This is the type of notation you might see on drawings made to current standards: You can certainly do it with a mill, so long as the mill can reach the hole.? I guess the holes must be close enough to the edge that you can do it with something as small as a Taig. But there are also special cutters for this purpose that can be used in a drill press or even using a handheld drill motor (although that might be a bit dicey in the case of ridges making for an interrupted cut.)? They come in many configurations and some both drill AND spot face but the most common uses a protruding pilot to center the cutter in a predrilled hole like this example from the McMaster Carr online catalog.. Of course, it is one of those things where you might buy one and only use it one. Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 07:42:55 AM PDT, Tamra <tamrabrogdon@...> wrote:
Recently shopping at Ollie's in our city, and I found a 2nd Lodge cast iron griddle for $30 at Ollie's. I'm guessing they are slightly imperfect to land in Ollie's, but I thought the flat side was nice and it will be great to use a magnetic dial indicator.... now I just need to weigh the parts, combined to see if my drawer slides that I purchased for a wall cabinet will work.? We got an Ollie's during C-19 lockdown and we have finally gone in the store about 5x in the last year.? I remember when this topic was posted previously.?? The "plan" was to make something to hold the cast iron griddle, that could be put back into the? unimat cabinet for storage off the bench surface.? Now that I have the griddle decision made it is easier to build the wall cabinet, surely a unimat and griddle will not exceed 100 lbs as I would not be able to lift it off the drawer slides for use. Home depot lowered the price on butcher block surfaces - I want one, but it stayed in the store! Next is to figure out how to mount a unimat to a cast iron griddle... I'm assuming a drill and bolts will do the trick.? I did buy some beautiful figured cherry late winter, perhaps that will become? the Uni case.? But it needs to be dried, so this is going to take a while.... he has promised a solar powered small drying build for bowl blanks and wood....this year... will use You Tube resources. I have never drilled cast iron, and the back side has ridges for grill marks, so I'm assuming I'm going to mill those ridges off, where I place the bolts.? I'm glad I own a taig mill, although I was thinking that Mr. Pete doing accessories to use on the Uni on a big machine was irritating... but now I've come off my figurative ledge on the subject. What speed do I need to drill in cast iron with a drill press? Tamra |
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Cast Iron is relatively soft. Or hard. Or very hard! Sharp drill bit, moderate speed, and peck drill to clear black messy dust. It's easy to machine, but messy. Do not drop the griddle on a concrete floor. It's liable to shatter! A cleanup cut with a flycutter is a good idea on the area the Unimat will mount to. Refer to the previous paragraph!? Bill in OKC? William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.) Aphorisms to live by: Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.? SEMPER GUMBY! Physics doesn't care about your schedule. The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better. Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
On Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 09:42:54 AM CDT, Tamra <tamrabrogdon@...> wrote:
Recently shopping at Ollie's in our city, and I found a 2nd Lodge cast iron griddle for $30 at Ollie's. I'm guessing they are slightly imperfect to land in Ollie's, but I thought the flat side was nice and it will be great to use a magnetic dial indicator.... now I just need to weigh the parts, combined to see if my drawer slides that I purchased for a wall cabinet will work.? We got an Ollie's during C-19 lockdown and we have finally gone in the store about 5x in the last year.? I remember when this topic was posted previously.?? The "plan" was to make something to hold the cast iron griddle, that could be put back into the? unimat cabinet for storage off the bench surface.? Now that I have the griddle decision made it is easier to build the wall cabinet, surely a unimat and griddle will not exceed 100 lbs as I would not be able to lift it off the drawer slides for use. Home depot lowered the price on butcher block surfaces - I want one, but it stayed in the store! Next is to figure out how to mount a unimat to a cast iron griddle... I'm assuming a drill and bolts will do the trick.? I did buy some beautiful figured cherry late winter, perhaps that will become? the Uni case.? But it needs to be dried, so this is going to take a while.... he has promised a solar powered small drying build for bowl blanks and wood....this year... will use You Tube resources. I have never drilled cast iron, and the back side has ridges for grill marks, so I'm assuming I'm going to mill those ridges off, where I place the bolts.? I'm glad I own a taig mill, although I was thinking that Mr. Pete doing accessories to use on the Uni on a big machine was irritating... but now I've come off my figurative ledge on the subject. What speed do I need to drill in cast iron with a drill press? Tamra |
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I picked up a set of five metric counterbores from 3mm-8mm, IIRC, for under $20 a couple years ago. Under $21 now:? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08JHRLJQW? these have a fixed guide, which makes them quite a bit cheaper. I used them on the milling tables I made for my Unimats. Bill in OKC? William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.) Aphorisms to live by: Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.? SEMPER GUMBY! Physics doesn't care about your schedule. The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better. Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
On Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 10:40:56 AM CDT, Charles Kinzer <ckinzer@...> wrote:
What you want to do with the ribbed surface in the hole area is called "spot facing".? It is a type of "counterbore."? (All spot faces are a counterbore but not all counterbores are spot faces.) This is the type of notation you might see on drawings made to current standards: You can certainly do it with a mill, so long as the mill can reach the hole.? I guess the holes must be close enough to the edge that you can do it with something as small as a Taig. But there are also special cutters for this purpose that can be used in a drill press or even using a handheld drill motor (although that might be a bit dicey in the case of ridges making for an interrupted cut.)? They come in many configurations and some both drill AND spot face but the most common uses a protruding pilot to center the cutter in a predrilled hole like this example from the McMaster Carr online catalog.. Of course, it is one of those things where you might buy one and only use it one. Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 07:42:55 AM PDT, Tamra <tamrabrogdon@...> wrote:
Recently shopping at Ollie's in our city, and I found a 2nd Lodge cast iron griddle for $30 at Ollie's. I'm guessing they are slightly imperfect to land in Ollie's, but I thought the flat side was nice and it will be great to use a magnetic dial indicator.... now I just need to weigh the parts, combined to see if my drawer slides that I purchased for a wall cabinet will work.? We got an Ollie's during C-19 lockdown and we have finally gone in the store about 5x in the last year.? I remember when this topic was posted previously.?? The "plan" was to make something to hold the cast iron griddle, that could be put back into the? unimat cabinet for storage off the bench surface.? Now that I have the griddle decision made it is easier to build the wall cabinet, surely a unimat and griddle will not exceed 100 lbs as I would not be able to lift it off the drawer slides for use. Home depot lowered the price on butcher block surfaces - I want one, but it stayed in the store! Next is to figure out how to mount a unimat to a cast iron griddle... I'm assuming a drill and bolts will do the trick.? I did buy some beautiful figured cherry late winter, perhaps that will become? the Uni case.? But it needs to be dried, so this is going to take a while.... he has promised a solar powered small drying build for bowl blanks and wood....this year... will use You Tube resources. I have never drilled cast iron, and the back side has ridges for grill marks, so I'm assuming I'm going to mill those ridges off, where I place the bolts.? I'm glad I own a taig mill, although I was thinking that Mr. Pete doing accessories to use on the Uni on a big machine was irritating... but now I've come off my figurative ledge on the subject. What speed do I need to drill in cast iron with a drill press? Tamra |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýHello Tamra: A dia 6mm bit
should spin about 800 rpm on cast iron. Don't use oil, it will
form an abrasive paste that will dull your bit. It is a bit
messy and the chips and dust will turn your hands black. Some
folks use lard. It is OK to tap cast iron, so then you won't need the spot face on the underside. Surface grinding would be a very nice touch and would reduce the chance of twisting the frame of the Unimat. I did this to my cast iron table saw for a place to mount my Unimat, and it worked fine. Best wishes,
Carl. On 5/28/2024 10:42 AM, Tamra wrote:
Recently shopping at Ollie's in our city, and I found a 2nd Lodge cast iron griddle for $30 at Ollie's. |
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Just for your information,The Lodge cast iron griddle is not flat as it comes from the store!
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It needs to be hand scraped and checked against a surface plate. Dick On Tuesday, May 28, 2024, 12:33 PM, Carl <carl.blum@...> wrote:
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And non-magnetic. Which could be either a feature or a bug, depending on why you want to use a griddle. For me, I think a place to stick a magnetic indicator holder would be a very strong draw. If you're wanting it to stiffen the Unimat a bit and add handles, the aluminum griddle might be a better choice. Be lighter, too.? :) if you're trying to turn a Unimat into a Monarch... So many conflicting desires. ;) Bill in OKC? William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.) Aphorisms to live by: Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.? SEMPER GUMBY! Physics doesn't care about your schedule. The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better. Expect in one hand, expectorate in the other. See which one gets full first.
On Sunday, June 16, 2024 at 11:16:50 AM CDT, John Hutnick <johnhutnick@...> wrote:
Or you could go to Walmart and get a Nordicware cast aluminum griddle.? Obviously non-magnetic, but a lot lighter and easier to machine.
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Last Wednesday I had a note from dear husband for a tool pickup... I actually work up naturally, early and without an alarm, to find a note to buy a tool.
I wanted a different motor for my taig, and older, quieter motor, as I'm not exceptionally fond of the Marathon Motor that I have...and the seller was a kind retired (from the AF) machinist... we had a fun conversation about tools and he assumed that I was buying for my husband... and he mentioned his son has some Unimat accessories... we got on the conversation of surface plates; He asked me to follow him and he said what is the idea size?? and I truly think 12x18 is the perfect size... I was gifted one this past Wednesday.? It needs a vat of rust remover, but it was actually 12x18!? So no machining cast iron will be in my future, but a large qty of rust remover may do the job. I wanted cast iron for a magnetic dial indicator --- this one is steel, so no aluminum plates are in my future at the present time. I hope to be back to using the Unimat this week. Tamra |
Tamra
Bill in OKC too
Carl
OldToolmaker