IH CNC Mills & Machinery
Pinning a Table for Fixture Plates
Pinning the Table Before You Begin |
| If you're considering moving to a fixture based system for holding your work, you will need a repeatable way to mount and remount your fixtures. Pinning your table consists of adding hardened steel pin liners to the table and steel thread inserts to secure fixtures.
A few notes on pinning:
- Pinning your table is something you need to think long and hard about, it is a one way trip, once the liners are in they are considered permanent.
- Properly pinned, you will retain full use of the tee slots.
- Do Not try to just drill the holes and not use the liners and inserts, the cast iron holes will wear out in a short period of time.
- Although we use the term 'pinning' the pins are actually used in the fixture, hence the term fixture pins.
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| We would like to stress the importance of the "Before You Begin" steps, they are important, so don't just breeze through them, take your time. Setting up a machine properly does take some time up front, but rewards you with smooth performance and a time savings in the long run.
Make sure the following steps are done before you begin:
To make sure that you and your machine are on the same page, you want at least 20 machining hours under you belt. We're not talking about "Range of Motion" testing, we're talking about 20 chip making hours. We suggest this simply because a CNC machine is a complex piece of equipment and you need to get the feel of it and check out your code and then make chips. 20 hours of operation may seem like a lot, but it really isn't and you will be confident about drilling, reaming and pinning when you start.
Traming your head means squaring your head to the column. We tram the head for you, but after shipping you will need to ensure that this is to IH specification. We gladly walk you thru this after you have the mill mounted. Just part of the service.
Test Your Limits
Our Optical Limits are very accurate (0.0002 repeatability). The homing settings are done for you at IH, but homing the mill a few times will show you where we set them. When you use fixtures homing can be an easy way to set up your code. The mill always starts from the same X-Y-Z, therefore insuring repeatable position and of course repeatable parts, the main reason for fixtures.
Pinning and fixturing your mill includes a lot of 'One Way' steps and operations. You need to be comfortable enough with you skills before you do this. Many times you will not get a second chance to get the operation right.
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Be Real Comfortable
Pinning your table and fixture work often includes expensive materials (fixture plates) and other one off operations. Do it when your day is going well, and the shop is quite.
 Be careful and use safety glasses around any kind of machinery.
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| Go To Pinning the Table Part 1 |
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