Mounting a right angle attachment using shims

[asallwey]

I have a Millrite mill and a Bridgeport right angle attachment. The Millrite spindle is ~0.062" smaller than the RA mounting hole. The recent issue of Machinist Workshop had an article where a fellow machined a shim to mount his Bridgeport RA on his Millrite, quite a job.

I'm wondering, why not use a 0.60" shim, or maybe 2 0.030" shims. I was looking online, they come in various metals, some hardened some not, and some are plastic. Anyone see a downside to shims?

[Andre3127]

Brass shim stock will work, hardened material won't grab the chrome plated quill and will be a pain to form.


Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk

[sarge41]

With loose shims in the mix, you are probably going to have shims everywhere. It sounds like (didn't read the article) that he was more experienced at this. If I were doing it, that is the way I would go. Does the right angle attachment have shoulders in the bottom of the bore to keep it straight ? With shim stock, you would not have a shoulder to square up the attachment.

Sarge

[JoeLee]

My genuine BP RA head has a shoulder at the bottom. How are you going to stick a shim 4" down in there and know you have it in the right place??

If you have .062 to work with I would machine a couple of "shim rings" so to speak and fit them into the oversize bore.
That shouldn't be to hard to do.

JL..................

[Toolguy]

Getting strip shims installed correctly or keeping shim rings in place might be a pretty good trick. I would get a 6" wide roll of brass shim stock, cut a piece the right height for the inside of the RA head and just long enough to wrap around the quill and make a cylinder out of it. No need to fasten the ends together.

[JoeLee]

That's a good idea using a 6" wide piece of shim stock. The only issue I see would be in rolling a good fitting cylinder out of it unless you have sheet metal roller.
My idea of the shim rings would also require the rings be slit, I failed to mention that. Don't forget you have to spread the RA head with the set screw when slipping it over the quill.

JL...................

[bollie7]

Is there enough material in the attachment to bore it out a bit bigger, then sleeve it and re bore to required ID?
peter

[lakeside53]

roll a 30 thou shim stock.. it will work fine.

[asallwey]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I was thinking of 6" wide stock as Toolguy suggested, and I do have access to a roller so i can get a nice fit. Guess I'll keep my eyes open for a piece of 0.30" stock.

[Baz]

It's going to be a permanent requirement so roll the cylinder and wrap around the male part with Loctite applied and held to set with jubilee clips. 30thou is hardly shim, modern cars are thinner

[Toolguy]

You can't wrap around the male part with LocTite. Then you could never retract the spindle.

[George Bulliss]

In the article, the author left a small shoulder around the top so that the shim piece wouldn't get pushed down when inserting the quill. A few folds or something solder to the shim might serve.

[JoeLee]

Is there enough material in the attachment to bore it out a bit bigger, then sleeve it and re bore to required ID?
peter

That would be a tough set up. You would have to be dead center with the R8 and centered perfectly.

JL................

[asallwey]

I think George's idea would be the most workable for me. The contact area in the head is actually 2 bands, not the entire area. I did see Online Metals has a 2 pack of 0.31" x 6" x 25" full hard steel shim stock for $27 + $14 for shipping. This may be my best bet, but I'll look for a while. Boring out the head? No, that's not something I would try.

Alex