I look for shop made parallels and custom tooling, especially ones that have a name engraved. It's a weird collection, but I think it's fun to imagine how many hands have handled them. I live in the Midwest of the US and my city, Toledo, has a reputation for numerous tool and die makers. I've even found some of the names on the tooling in old Union rolls.
hi stefan, another reasonably cheap source of parallel stock is keystock, sizes are ground within tolerance and the C45e+r type can even be hardened somewhat. parallel keystock can be bought in a lot of sizes.
What made Google great? Relevance! The same applies to you. Your videos are probably the most relevant for machinists (users). Some channels drone on forever with information designed to show off how much knowledge they have (great for designers and manufacturers). The info you give is relevant, gives insight and understanding to the extent that young machinists learn good practice and even old machinists adjust their ways. Keep up the brilliant work.
An old video but timeless. I made my own parallels and they worked out great. I used a non-Chinese (expensive) 10mm carbide cutter and a DRO. I found I was able to just dial in the target width and end up within 0.001mm size and even better parallel (I have a digital Mitutoyo micrometer).
I'm really glad you made this video, sir. It's easy to make things too complicated or imagine you can't do things because they are too costly but your latest set of videos is really showing how people really can get into machine work for a lot less money than they might think. Thank you for sharing! Tom Z
Stefan thinks outside the box and shows us nice solutions to make a job easyer. A quick way to make parallels for one off work is to cut two pieaces of ground round bar to length and put one left and the other one on the rightside in the vice. To prefent then rolling out just wipe them accross a magnet a few times. This of course only applies when the workpieace is wider than the diameter of the round stock. Nice Video :)
There are times when I actually prefer wide parallels. This in in situations where I am using milling vise hold downs. These are parallel like except they are ground to a slight angle on each side. The side that goes against the vise jaw is maybe 3° while the edge that goes against the work is way be 4°. When you close the jaws the jaw side tip up while the edge against the work piece pushes down on the on the part holding it tight against the parallel
I will need to make some roughly 1meter long parallels for my HBM when I get it running, that should be an interesting project for something like this.
Brian, Would two granit bars be more stable than steel? I am thinking the price might be better from granit counter top places. What about Dura-bar, scraped and annealed? Daniel
AtelierDBurgoyne Yes usually the big HBM parallels are cast iron for better stability. i think the granite might be prone to chipping and cracking putting big heavy steel and cast items on them for working on them.
Crikey 0.006mm is 0.0002" plenty accurate for my shop. I hoped you were going to use your shaper, maybe on the next set ? Thanks for all your videos, great help.
Thank you for this excellent instructive video. My knowledge of machining is spotty--in some areas it is good and in some areas not. With parallels, you have really helped fill one of my basic deficiencies. Great job, Sir!
Hi Stefan, sorry to nit-pick, but in the interests of good demonstration, I believe you should really leave your indicator stand stationary and move the piece to be measured under the indicator tip. It will generally result in more accurate measurement. It's unlikely to make much difference in something like this, but is just good practice and it's always better to form good habits for the times it matters.
Ok, sorry, haven't watched that as yet. Just thought I'd mention it for the benefit of your viewers. Keep up the good work and hope you're enjoying your summer!
By coincidence I am in the proces of making my own parallels. Stumbling over your videos I was very pleased with the straightening part of it. My material is C45K and it warped quitte a bit. Grinding the bend out is not a good idea since the magnet sucks the bend out and then releases it again, So thanks for your tips and tricks!! Teun
I work for Precision Steel, in Toledo Ohio. We will sell you ANY size of tool steel, from 1" to 10,000". And if you don't have your own grinder, we will sell the stock finished, so all you would need to do is cut the stock to length and debur
ha!!! precisely 19:27 into the video I thought " NOOO! " , right at the faded transition your fingers come in and look like they were about to pinch a spinning endmill, great video and I need to make some, also some thicker parallels for when clamping parts straight onto the mill table for milling edges, great setup and reminds me I also need to make some thin pointed finger clamps aswel, the cheap chinese ones are more of a fat thumb clamp design that have been smacked with a lump hammer and are way too wide for this.
You can usually find any of this type of steel at McMaser.com then search on tool steel. A bit expensive but almost anything you want is available and ships quickly.
Hi Mr. Gotteswinter, at first my english is very bad. I recently saw some of your very nice, excellent instructions about machining in a shop. My question is: Is it possible that you want to get tasks from other persons? The backround is: I have a machinist vise with corroded/rosty hardened vice jaws. And I think, that your grinder can help. Pls. tell me if you are able to do work commissioned by other persons. Kind regards Raik
in my shop we have machinists that have hardened there parallels too much and they have snapped while tapping down stock has this ever been an issue for you?
Hi, i wonder if you know where i can find one or 2 pairs of parallels for my Proxxon PRIMUS Vice - 100 mm wide. The problem is that all sets i find are very high and will exceed from my vice. Max parallel useful hight is about 18mm. Have contacted you several times to ask if you could make but i got no answer. Can you please respond? Thanks
Hi! I would look into some precision ground ground stock for that purpose - for 95% of most application that stuff is perfectly fine to be used as a parallel when cut up into pairs and deburred carefully. Sorry for beeing bad at answering emails, but I get an awfull lot of mails day by day and I just can not keep up with them.
Jocke - I think the phrase was “one half of a ten-thousandth of an inch”. The same phrase could be written as “one half of .0001 inch” which becomes .00005 inch. It is simpler to say this number as 50 millionths, as mpeterson wrote earlier.
They are called deep hole markers, made by Markal, I buy them here: www.hoffmann-group.com/DE/de/hom/Werkstattbedarf-und-Arbeitsschutz/Kennzeichnung%2C-Magnete/Tieflochmarkierer-Dura-Ink%3CSUP%3E%C2%AE-%3C-SUP%3E5-R/p/085152-BL
I was asking myself the same question. I can think of two possible explanations. 1) cold roll has some tension in it and removing some metal makes the bar bend by 0,006mm 2) one piece deflected a little from the pressure of the cut. A bit doubtful unless it was the top piece. I think reason (1) is the most likely. To prevent any residual tension, the bar would have to be annealed before it is machined. Just saying. Daniel
I have a cheap Taiwanese mill drill. Every time I move the head up or down the cylindrical central column, I effectively destroy the tram of the mill. It is just too much trouble to constantly re-tram the mill. Then too, the head elevation I must use for traming, is often different than the elevation I need to do my next machining operation... thus I have to move the head and destroy the just implemented tram. If the tram cannot be guaranteed, ordinary precision parallels cannot be guaranteed to correctly position the workpiece. My solution has been to make my own adjustable parallels. I drill vertical holes through the parallels at their ends and tap them out for a set screw. To use these parallels, I put them in the normal position in my milling vise. Then with a dial indicator secured in the spindle, I check to see if each parallel is horizontal and if both parallels are at the same height... relative to the spindle. If they are not horizontal or are not at equal elevations, a twist with an allen wrench will bring the parallels... into parallel. At last, I am ready to mill. If you can't exactly control the tram of your mill, then tram your workpiece with homemade adjustable parallels. I use 1018 mild steel and anneal it before creating the parallels. Then I case harden the parallels and finally straighten them in the event the case hardening has caused any warpage. I only need to make one edge of the parallel flat. The other edge does not touch the floor of the vise... because the parallel is standing on the set screws. Once positioned, the set screws tend not to change so I only have to check them for parallelism occasionally.
Really liked your idea on facing the parallels rather than fly cutting them. Tried it but the difference is I kept climb milling until cutting stopped. You may be interested in the results. th-cam.com/video/JJQHVOPDYAY/w-d-xo.html Cheers!
Why are you mixing millimetres and inches? It's very confusing. I can deal either in inches or millimetres but not mixing them! I don't think you need to pander to the US , remember, there are a lot of us out in the rest of the world! Thank you for another interesting video! Regards, Matthew
I try to do the inch conversations for the 5% (Nitpickers: That number is made up and not researched :D ) of the world that uses inch ;) Of course everything I do is 100% metric
OK, might I suggest that you talk about one thousandth of a millimetre as microns, talking in thousands without qualifying them sounds like thousands of an inch. While I'm nit picking, what are you using as an exchange rate for "bucks", to Euros? I do understand what using another language is like, I am British, resident in France for nearly forty years! I only mean to help, no criticism intended, your videos are among the best on the web, keep it up! All the best, Matthew
I would have voted for the metric system, given a chance. Legislators in the US are not generally known for their brilliance. Stefan, thank you for pandering to US, Nigeria, and Myanmar!
cracking video! can't wait to see you make some perpendiculars next.
I look for shop made parallels and custom tooling, especially ones that have a name engraved. It's a weird collection, but I think it's fun to imagine how many hands have handled them. I live in the Midwest of the US and my city, Toledo, has a reputation for numerous tool and die makers. I've even found some of the names on the tooling in old Union rolls.
hi stefan, another reasonably cheap source of parallel stock is keystock, sizes are ground within tolerance and the C45e+r type can even be hardened somewhat. parallel keystock can be bought in a lot of sizes.
What made Google great? Relevance! The same applies to you. Your videos are probably the most relevant for machinists (users). Some channels drone on forever with information designed to show off how much knowledge they have (great for designers and manufacturers). The info you give is relevant, gives insight and understanding to the extent that young machinists learn good practice and even old machinists adjust their ways. Keep up the brilliant work.
A person: "Parallels, root of engineering precision!"
Stefan Gotteswinter: "They are quite good..."
An old video but timeless. I made my own parallels and they worked out great. I used a non-Chinese (expensive) 10mm carbide cutter and a DRO. I found I was able to just dial in the target width and end up within 0.001mm size and even better parallel (I have a digital Mitutoyo micrometer).
I'm really glad you made this video, sir. It's easy to make things too complicated or imagine you can't do things because they are too costly but your latest set of videos is really showing how people really can get into machine work for a lot less money than they might think.
Thank you for sharing!
Tom Z
i'm stunned by Stefan's videos; fantastic quality and superb linguistic skills. Thank you.
Stefan thinks outside the box and shows us nice solutions to make a job easyer. A quick way to make parallels for one off work is to cut two pieaces of ground round bar to length and put one left and the other one on the rightside in the vice. To prefent then rolling out just wipe them accross a magnet a few times. This of course only applies when the workpieace is wider than the diameter of the round stock. Nice Video :)
Great Video Stefan, thanks very much. I'm looking forward to the hardening.....! Cheers, Daniel
Stefan, you do excellent work with your videos and you workmanship. Please continue your efforts Sir!
There are times when I actually prefer wide parallels. This in in situations where I am using milling vise hold downs. These are parallel like except they are ground to a slight angle on each side. The side that goes against the vise jaw is maybe 3° while the edge that goes against the work is way be 4°. When you close the jaws the jaw side tip up while the edge against the work piece pushes down on the on the part holding it tight against the parallel
Wish I still had my old surface grinder - interesting project. "Precision man" is at it again! :) Milling results pretty good really.
I will need to make some roughly 1meter long parallels for my HBM when I get it running, that should be an interesting project for something like this.
A 1m long parallel is a bit of a challenge :D
Thats the case where I would go with cold drawn of ground flat stock.
Brian,
Would two granit bars be more stable than steel? I am thinking the price might be better from granit counter top places.
What about Dura-bar, scraped and annealed?
Daniel
AtelierDBurgoyne
Yes usually the big HBM parallels are cast iron for better stability. i think the granite might be prone to chipping and cracking putting big heavy steel and cast items on them for working on them.
Enjoyed thanks, I will also be making some when I get the surface grinder up.
Your CAD skills know no bounds 😁 Thanks for the demo ☺
CAD?
Cartoon assisted drawing ;)
Damn those came out pretty nice. Looking forward to the next one.
Crikey 0.006mm is 0.0002" plenty accurate for my shop. I hoped you were going to use your shaper, maybe on the next set ?
Thanks for all your videos, great help.
Thank you for this excellent instructive video. My knowledge of machining is spotty--in some areas it is good and in some areas not. With parallels, you have really helped fill one of my basic deficiencies. Great job, Sir!
Hi Stefan, sorry to nit-pick, but in the interests of good demonstration, I believe you should really leave your indicator stand stationary and move the piece to be measured under the indicator tip. It will generally result in more accurate measurement. It's unlikely to make much difference in something like this, but is just good practice and it's always better to form good habits for the times it matters.
Absolutely agree on that, normaly I do that. (As seen in the second part of that series ;) )
Ok, sorry, haven't watched that as yet. Just thought I'd mention it for the benefit of your viewers. Keep up the good work and hope you're enjoying your summer!
I think in Germany all child used to get their first parelels when they are about 3 years old for chritmas :D
You keep coming up with these good ideas, another to have a go at after I finish the vise sine block , I finnaly got my hands on a Boxford shaper
Any video ideas on making adjustable parallels or sliding parallels? Great video though, very helpful and thorough.
I want to make some :)
You make it look so easy Stefan for us amateurs it is not that way
Thanks Stefan! My first set of // was made exactly the same as the set in G.H. Thomas' book. ☺ Daniel
I laugh more at ToT, but I learn more on Stefan's channel. Keep 'em coming.
By coincidence I am in the proces of making my own parallels. Stumbling over your videos I was very pleased with the straightening part of it. My material is C45K and it warped quitte a bit. Grinding the bend out is not a good idea since the magnet sucks the bend out and then releases it again,
So thanks for your tips and tricks!!
Teun
If I had to make thin parallels again, I would just use hardened spring steel, way less work, just cut to length, grind/machine parallel, done :D
I work for Precision Steel, in Toledo Ohio. We will sell you ANY size of tool steel, from 1" to 10,000". And if you don't have your own grinder, we will sell the stock finished, so all you would need to do is cut the stock to length and debur
Stefan , Thanks for another great video !
That's funny you use "chowder" for damage on parallels like OXTool!
ha!!! precisely 19:27 into the video I thought " NOOO! " , right at the faded transition your fingers come in and look like they were about to pinch a spinning endmill, great video and I need to make some, also some thicker parallels for when clamping parts straight onto the mill table for milling edges, great setup and reminds me I also need to make some thin pointed finger clamps aswel, the cheap chinese ones are more of a fat thumb clamp design that have been smacked with a lump hammer and are way too wide for this.
Perforce I make my own parallels for my Proxxon MF70. Commercial parallels are much too big. That mill setup is very valuable.
Vielen Dank.
Excellent information am looking forward to the hardening for sure. Thank you for the video.
Thank YOU for watching :)
Hello,
I do not see the label of the bar that you show. (12:40)
You can give the reference and or buy?
Thank you
You can usually find any of this type of steel at McMaser.com then search on tool steel. A bit expensive but almost anything you want is available and ships quickly.
McMaster.com, not what autocorrect said!
7:04 1/1000 of mm - and the rest is priceless ))))
Very interesting and informative. Keep on keeping on.
I use used wood planer knives the. And I blunt the sharp end to size then the touch point is even narrower
Hi Mr. Gotteswinter, at first my english is very bad.
I recently saw some of your very nice, excellent instructions about machining in a shop. My question is: Is it possible that you want to get tasks from other persons? The backround is: I have a machinist vise with corroded/rosty hardened vice jaws. And I think, that your grinder can help. Pls. tell me if you are able to do work commissioned by other persons. Kind regards
Raik
simple but great video, THANKS
This is really useful. I tried to do this when I got my mill, but I never thought of doing it this way. The results were terrible!
Time to pay a visit to the Tool & Die Shop !!!
The first set of parallels was made on Singer Sewing machine :)
Wasnt that CE Johansson with his gage blocks?
Good information. Thank you Stefan.
Thanks for sharing, I always get good ideas from you.
Pen is Markal Dura-Ink 5, possibly hard to find in red.
in my shop we have machinists that have hardened there parallels too much and they have snapped while tapping down stock has this ever been an issue for you?
Stefan can I ask please what the name of the pen you are using would be very handy for what I do drawing around templates
U DO NICE WORK STEPHAN U MAKE IT LOOK EASY THAT SHOWES ME HOW SMART U R I ENJOY WATCHING
Great video Stefan, thank you! Can someone help what "cold drawn mild steel" is called in Europe/Germany - is it something like "S235JRC+C"?
Yes, exactly that :)
If one uses cold finish material, keep in mind that if has a lot of internal tension which will unbalance when machined. It should be normalized.
What about adjustable parallels? Have you something like this in the pipeline?
how would you measure without a surface plte?
Where do you find a perfect flat table like that?
Hi, i wonder if you know where i can find one or 2 pairs of parallels for my Proxxon PRIMUS Vice - 100 mm wide. The problem is that all sets i find are very high and will exceed from my vice. Max parallel useful hight is about 18mm. Have contacted you several times to ask if you could make but i got no answer. Can you please respond? Thanks
Hi!
I would look into some precision ground ground stock for that purpose - for 95% of most application that stuff is perfectly fine to be used as a parallel when cut up into pairs and deburred carefully. Sorry for beeing bad at answering emails, but I get an awfull lot of mails day by day and I just can not keep up with them.
Think is that i am not a machinist to make them. Do you have some spares they could fit my vice, or could you make 1 or 2 pairs for me? Cost? Thanks
7:15 my reaction whenever I have to convert something into Freedom Units.
So "one half of ten thousands of an inch"...is that the same as one 20 thousands of an inch, or are my imperials off?
.00005 or 50 millionths
Jocke - I think the phrase was “one half of a ten-thousandth of an inch”. The same phrase could be written as “one half of .0001 inch” which becomes .00005 inch. It is simpler to say this number as 50 millionths, as mpeterson wrote earlier.
Thanks for the video Stefan! May I ask what kind of markers you were using? I want some like that for my students for marking out and so on.
They are called deep hole markers, made by Markal, I buy them here:
www.hoffmann-group.com/DE/de/hom/Werkstattbedarf-und-Arbeitsschutz/Kennzeichnung%2C-Magnete/Tieflochmarkierer-Dura-Ink%3CSUP%3E%C2%AE-%3C-SUP%3E5-R/p/085152-BL
Great video, thanks Stefan. I really lovo all your videos!
why is it so quiet?
Stefan since you milled both parts at the same time why does one have a bow in it?
I was asking myself the same question. I can think of two possible explanations.
1) cold roll has some tension in it and removing some metal makes the bar bend by 0,006mm
2) one piece deflected a little from the pressure of the cut. A bit doubtful unless it was the top piece.
I think reason (1) is the most likely. To prevent any residual tension, the bar would have to be annealed before it is machined. Just saying.
Daniel
+AtelierDBurgoyne I was wondering if it was the top piece also.
and indeed I was lucky. the second one I have tried did not straighten out. Back to peening then!
cheers
Teun
I have a cheap Taiwanese mill drill. Every time I move the head up or down the cylindrical central column, I effectively destroy the tram of the mill. It is just too much trouble to constantly re-tram the mill. Then too, the head elevation I must use for traming, is often different than the elevation I need to do my next machining operation... thus I have to move the head and destroy the just implemented tram.
If the tram cannot be guaranteed, ordinary precision parallels cannot be guaranteed to correctly position the workpiece.
My solution has been to make my own adjustable parallels. I drill vertical holes through the parallels at their ends and tap them out for a set screw. To use these parallels, I put them in the normal position in my milling vise. Then with a dial indicator secured in the spindle, I check to see if each parallel is horizontal and if both parallels are at the same height... relative to the spindle. If they are not horizontal or are not at equal elevations, a twist with an allen wrench will bring the parallels... into parallel. At last, I am ready to mill.
If you can't exactly control the tram of your mill, then tram your workpiece with homemade adjustable parallels. I use 1018
mild steel and anneal it before creating the parallels. Then I case harden the parallels and finally straighten them in the event the case hardening has caused any warpage. I only need to make one edge of the parallel flat. The other edge does not touch the floor of the vise... because the parallel is standing on the set screws. Once positioned, the set screws tend not to change so I only have to check them for parallelism occasionally.
That is a freakin' clever solution!
Really liked your idea on facing the parallels rather than fly cutting them. Tried it but the difference is I kept climb milling until cutting stopped. You may be interested in the results. th-cam.com/video/JJQHVOPDYAY/w-d-xo.html Cheers!
For a moment there I thought it says Schrott on the end...
"twenty three point nein nein nein"
Wenn schon "horible Freight" dann aber auch Paulischrott und Optimüll ;)
Why are you mixing millimetres and inches? It's very confusing. I can deal either in inches or millimetres but not mixing them! I don't think you need to pander to the US , remember, there are a lot of us out in the rest of the world!
Thank you for another interesting video! Regards, Matthew
I try to do the inch conversations for the 5% (Nitpickers: That number is made up and not researched :D ) of the world that uses inch ;)
Of course everything I do is 100% metric
OK, might I suggest that you talk about one thousandth of a millimetre as microns, talking in thousands without qualifying them sounds like thousands of an inch. While I'm nit picking, what are you using as an exchange rate for "bucks", to Euros? I do understand what using another language is like, I am British, resident in France for nearly forty years! I only mean to help, no criticism intended, your videos are among the best on the web, keep it up!
All the best, Matthew
Thank you for a little "pandering" to the US. It is very helpful!
There are three (3) countries that use Imperial. They are Nigeria, Myan Mar (ex-Burma) and the USA. Any comment on my part would be superfluous.
I would have voted for the metric system, given a chance. Legislators in the US are not generally known for their brilliance.
Stefan, thank you for pandering to US, Nigeria, and Myanmar!
Why jiggle your hands?
"Schrott" - I hope that's not his name XD
("Schrott" [Ger] = crap/junk)
AKA toolmaking 101.
Bad sound quality
Yes. I think I improved that over the last 6 Years quite a bit.