Base plates

[Ralph Barrier]

Just wandering what kind of base plates are being used by everyone (or do you use one). We are in the process of making one out of steel since we can grind this in house I am planning on making it with 5/16 tapped holes 1" apart with location numbers and letters across top and side.

We do a variety of sizes, but most could be measured within probably
15" x 20" area.


Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

[T Miller]

I use a 3/4 plate with 3/8 tapped holes. 1 in apart. works ok Don't use a lot of fixtures but I like all the holes for clamps ect

[#2#]

I assume by base plate you mean a plate which has a bunch of tapped holes that you clamp to the cmm table and then clamp your parts to this base plate.

We have one it is approx. 9in X 7in X 1/2in thick with a 1in X 1in grid of 5/16 holes. Kind of like what you are describing. It seems too small to be of much use. I have found the 5/16 bolts/studs aren't stiff enough (side to side deflection) most of the time.

I don't use it unless I have to. I usually just clamp stuff directly on the table. This by the way would be a lot easier if we had just a few more holes drilled and inserts put in the table. The front of my table has two rows of 4 inserts and then one row of two inserts (outside) and one row of two inserts (inside) and then some more rows I don't ever use. It would be much more convienient if it had the first 4 rows with 4 inserts each. Oh, and the first row of inserts (nearest the operator) are pretty much worthless because they are too close to the front of the table.

[dwade]

We use 1/2" thick Rayco plates on our CMMs and will buying a 4th end of this year or 1st of next. We make implants and surgical devices and need the adaptability the Rayco gives us for quick and easy set ups.

[Farmer]

We have a 1" Plate. Of course it needs to be ground in such a way that both faces are flat and parallel to one another.

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Well, we have one that we use sometimes for when we have to make a temporary fixture to use in place of a 'real' fixture when we know that we won't get the 'real' fixture until we are almost done with the job. It is 2" thick, 3 feet wide and 7 feet long. It has 3/4" taps in a 3"x3" pattern. It has 6 hardened feet on the bottom with 12mm clearance holes that line up with the tapped inserts in the table for straight bolt-down ability, no clamps. It also has two 3/4" dowel holes in it that line up directly with the 3/4" tooling-ball cups in the table (there are 5 in the table, I only use 2 on the plate) and I have shoulder bolts that have been turned down on the end with a 1/4" stud on the end that fit into the 1/4" hole in the bottom of the tooling-ball cups. I can put the plate on the table, push the shoulder bolts through the holes, into the cups and the plate is withen a few thousandths every time. There are co-holes in the plate in relationship to the locator cup holes that are square to the table (the cups in the table are not 100% square to the machine axis). These co-holes are used for pick-up on the mills for milling mounted details. We will mount (and dowel) details on the plate and mill them to what is required. Then, the plate can be put on the table, tied down, picked up and programmed. We don't do much with 'little' parts, so a big, huge plate like this has been a great help to us. My machine has 36"(Z) x 48"(X) x 72"(Y) travel and the plate is longer than the travel for mounting of details beyond the travel of the machine, if needed.

[Wes Cisco]

On my 9-15-9 Xcel I have 2plates that butt up against each other to form one large plate that covers most of the table. I has alternating rows of 3/8 - 16 tapped holes and .5" drill bushings to accept .5" dowel pins. There is also an alignement nest in the front left corner. (1" wide x .5" thick approx 12"x12" L shape). The nest and the dowel pin holes are aligned to machine axis with the probe. Mostly I butt v-blocks to the nest or dowel pins, rarely do I clamp. I also have a smaller plate, (about 18" square), with 1/4-20 tapped holes and 3/16 dowel pin holes about 2" apart, that I put up when I do have small parts that need to be clamped. HTH

[B. Jacobs]

I had our shop make me one. It is made of aluminum.
It is approx. 22" long and 33" wide. It has 1/4 X 20 tapped holes on a .5" grid. It is .875 thick.
I use alot of risers and pins to set parts on and against. It works great for what I do.