How to hold flat washers to increase hole size

[J Tiers]

I do this often. I have a standard 150mm three jaw chuck and the jaws have been bored on the front and its easy to set a washer or any thin workpiece in them . They are only bored about three mm but its enough .The washer is relatively true to the chuck when set up. This is similar to a soft jaw setup but its done in my hard jaws and is permanent obviously. Its very useful.

I like it!

I'd probably only do it to a "secondary use" chuck, because I like support out to the end of the jaws, but 3mm is not much.

[Baz]

Instead of boring the end of the jaw use a V-tool (old internal screwcutting) to put in a v notch 100thou back from the front if not too hardened to cut. Some of my jaws have a series of such notches anyway though not very deep. Maybe a Dremel disc would do it. The v shape centres the washer in all planes.

[BCRider]

Instead of boring the end of the jaw use a V-tool (old internal screwcutting) to put in a v notch 100thou back from the front if not too hardened to cut. Some of my jaws have a series of such notches anyway though not very deep. Maybe a Dremel disc would do it. The v shape centres the washer in all planes.

My chuck has those. I've used them to do things like this and for my chuck at least the V's are accurate enough for this sort of easy low accuracy job. And if I were to set up my little air pencil tool post grinder again I could easily true the notches up and broaden them out to a shallower angle to make such use pretty sweet.

It get's back to the question of how many and how often though. A dozen or so as a one time deal isn't a big issue. But we're back to that turn on the lathe, come to speed, drill the hole bigger. turn off the lathe, coast down, swap the washer using a tapered stick in this case since the washers are so small then rinse and repeat for the number needed. This would certainly also be a good time to set up the needed drill bit in a quick change post holder to speed things up. But with the motor going on and off it'll still be slower than a simple holder in the drill press where the drill's motor can be left running. So I'd venture that the lathe is fine if there's a dozen or so. But for bigger numbers? Or fairly frequent batches of a dozen or so? I think I'd be making one of the other options that let's me do the job in the drill press. A little time to make a suitable holder then easy and rapid sailing from that point on.

[RB140]

Just a quick question it was never stated on how much you need increase the I'd of the washer ????

[oxford]

Just a quick question it was never stated on how much you need increase the I'd of the washer ????

This, plus how many are we talking here. 10, 100, 1000?

[paul463]

Last time I needed to do something like that I took a piece of square aluminum about 4" long. Sawed a slot down 1/2 the length. Cross drilled a hole for a bolt perpendicular to the slot. Then chucked it up about a 1.5" deep in the 4 jaw and bored my washer diameter and depth into the end of it, and leave it in the chuck. Then pop a washer in the end and tighten the cross bolt to hold it and bored my hole. Loosen the bolt change the washer, repeat.

[jimsehr]

This is how I held a nickel to make two headed nickels. I can load in seconds.

[Mr Fixit]

HI Group,

These are ALL fantastic suggestions and it seems to be the common method of holding small items. I want to do about 80 of them so the fixture is well worth the time. I will be in the shop tomorrow making the suggested holder using what I find in the scrap bin and a combo of your ideas, then I'll crank out a bunch of washers to fit the project.

Thanks for all the ideas and methods to consider.

TX
Mr fixit for the family

Chris

[boslab]

Stack them on a bit of pipe bored to suit, if it’s thin pipe the thing flexes enough to grip them if there a good fit, ca glue if needed and do them at the same time
id use a 135 topped standard drill, not the fancy split point, find them grabby myself,
mark

[mtraven]

my method choices per quantity:

<10 --basic od reg + CA glue (assuming I don't have an appropriate step collet)

10-50 -- step collar chuck, one by one 😑

50+ -- bulk compression, like this: (basically a fancy version of what boslab outlined in the post directly preceding this one)

if you need a feature like a bevel on either side of the od, you'd have to 1 by 1 in a step collet, I'd probably still knock the od itself out in a bulk stack

the fixture in the video is a 1 off, but you could easily thread it to compress the stack, & have a reusable fixture. throw a thrust bearing in the head if ya wanna get fancy.

I also think if you're doing thicker parts, & thus few at a time, you shouldn't need ax much axial compression.



alt method: get yourself some bar stock & just cut em the way ya want them.😁

[jimsehr]

I need a half dozen washers for a project so I am using pennies to make them.

[jimsehr]

Material cost were low.

[Black Forest]

Don't your chuck jaws on your lathe have notches on the area that touches the workpiece? Mine all have notches. I had to drill out some washers with 10mm holes to fit 12mm bolts the other day. I just mounted each washer in the lathe 3 jaw chuck in the notches on the jaw and slam bam thank you mam' done.

[Rich Carlstedt]

I think doing it in the lathe is fine and I have done it as BF said above, but when I have to do a few washers, I use a Vise Grip ( VG) as Bob mentioned in Post 13
No fixtures except that I clamp one jaw of the Vise Grip even to my drill press (DP) vise and the washer is supported vertically with the DP jaws
and the Vise Grip is up, making easy changes to clamp and unclamp.
Also very important is to use a 3 or 4 flute Ball Endmill as a drill/cutter - makes it a snap to do , no jarring eccentricities
if your hole will be larger than the VG jaws are wide, add a parallel to the VG jaw clamp to get a bigger opening ( like 3/4" )

Rich

[mtraven]

Don't your chuck jaws on your lathe have notches on the area that touches the workpiece? Mine all have notches. I had to drill out some washers with 10mm holes to fit 12mm bolts the other day. I just mounted each washer in the lathe 3 jaw chuck in the notches on the jaw and slam bam thank you mam' done.

i've done that too, works pretty well. even if he doesn't have the serrations, a simple spider would do the trick in a 3 jaw. though re-reading his post, he tried some setup with a 3 jaw--the flats left by the jaws were unacceptable for some reason. kind sounds like he didn't have anything keeping them in place axially, use the notches or a spider might allow much less clamping force & less damage to the od of the washer.