More versatile finger plate

[cmarlow]

I appreciate your liking for 1/4 20. They are common and you can find everything from cap screws to eye bolts in whatever material or grade needed.
Sometimes working with older items I need 3/16 bolts or machine screws and I find they are not readily available in the hardware stores any more. The stores only seem to have number 10 bolts instead, which are just close enough to not work.

[mklotz]

Thanks for another great post Marv!

At work I use scrap aluminum to make consumable tooling plates similar to this for use on the Kurt vises. I'm often dealing with small and very small stuff at work and you need small clamps to deal with. In my case it is 1/4-28 due to having a bunch of screws that size, laying about, for tool post and some linear slides. Your post however just gave me a couple of more ideas when it comes to the clamping kit which I fully intend to implement if free time ever happens at Work.

In any event with retirement nearing I'm really thinking I need to implement something like this for use at home! Your Panavise idea frankly is golden so it will be a smaller plate than I use at work. Which brings up a question just how big is this plate of yours? I might even buy some prehard plate to make sure this does not tempt me to make it consumable.

There is something else I've seen that I haven't tired yet and that is to have a series of dowel pin holes in the plate to establish common angles from. Probably not sine plate accurate but many times you don't need that.

The plate is 7" (178 mm) by 3" (76 mm) but there's nothing sacred about those dimensions.

If you're considering building work holding jigs, you might want to peruse some that I've done, in particular...

Miniature milling table

Tooling block

Pay particular note to my inclusion of removable fences; they can be very useful.

As far as including an angle setting capability, consider an arc of holes with a (removable) arm along the lines of what I used in my angle grinding jig...

Angle grinding jig for bench grinder

[NeiljohnUK]

Mini cnc mill

[mklotz]

That 3/8-24 hole in the middle of the plate provides good clearance for most of my through drill work but it can be problematic when working with very small parts. The solution was to make a threaded plug for the hole that sits flush with the top of the table when inserted. It projects a bit on the bottom so it can be locked in place with a 3/8-24 nut.

I could make a threaded stud to go in that hole and thus have an omnidirectional clamping capability for larger parts but so far I've had no need of it. However, keep the idea in mind if you decide to make something similar. Such an arrangement would make it very similar to the classic British design of a finger plate.