Material for clamping wedges
 

In the ongoing saga of repairing the Elliot Sturdimill, I have found that 2
of the wedges that clamp the table swivel need replacing. These are 3/4"
round rods, milled to a flat section, approximately 3/8", with a wedge on
the lower surface. These fit into the swivel clamps and clamp the swivel
when they are forced in by a captive hollow screw on the outside of the 3/4"
dia. at the outboard end. I need to make replacements for these rods and I
was wondering what grade of steel to use; my local tooling supplier keeps
EN1A (freecutting) steel and silver steel, but I guess EN1A would be too
soft and would burr up or bend in use; the silver steel seems slightly OTT
as this is precision ground stock.
Any suggestions?
Martin
--
martindot herewhybrowat herentlworlddot herecom

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 01:02:19 +0000, Martin Whybrow wrote:

In the ongoing saga of repairing the Elliot Sturdimill, I have found that 2
of the wedges that clamp the table swivel need replacing. These are 3/4"
round rods, milled to a flat section, approximately 3/8", with a wedge on
the lower surface. These fit into the swivel clamps and clamp the swivel
when they are forced in by a captive hollow screw on the outside of the 3/4"
dia. at the outboard end. I need to make replacements for these rods and I
was wondering what grade of steel to use; my local tooling supplier keeps
EN1A (freecutting) steel and silver steel, but I guess EN1A would be too
soft and would burr up or bend in use; the silver steel seems slightly OTT
as this is precision ground stock.
Any suggestions?
Martin

Order up some drill rod and grind them? Get something that you can
harden?

Good Luck!
Rich

Rich Grise wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 01:02:19 +0000, Martin Whybrow wrote:
In the ongoing saga of repairing the Elliot Sturdimill, I have found that 2
of the wedges that clamp the table swivel need replacing.
...
EN1A (freecutting) steel and silver steel, but I guess EN1A would be too
soft and would burr up or bend in use; the silver steel seems slightly OTT
Order up some drill rod and grind them? Get something that you can
harden?

Note that what the Brits call silver steel and North Americans call
drill rod is about the same hardenable steel. It's what I would use,
machine, harden with an oil quench and temper at the border between
brown and blue.

Ted