Foo Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 I'm probably dealing with as good as it gets, but I figured I'd ask. I used to used hardwood--typically vertical grain purple heart--to make the miter gauge slot guides for the various jigs that I use. I make them very tight,then judiciously scrape until glass smooth, and wax the edges when they're perfect. But wood is wood, and it changes. So, I started using steel--various alloys--several years ago and won't go back. Once it's perfect it stays perfect forever. But, when you order 3/8 x 3/4 material, sometimes you get lucky and it's perfect, sometimes a little too tight, sometimes a little too loose. Too loose is unusable. Too tight requires a lot of time to mill to "perfection" as I have to work by hand at the moment. In another couple years I'll have a milling machine, and then it won't matter. Right now it does. I've been using McMaster-Carr for a while now and am generally happy with them. But, I was wondering whether anyone here has a supplier that they like better because their tolerances are tighter. I don't want references for Incra, or other manufacturers slot guides or any of that stuff. I've found them, for my purposes, to be crap, as they have pins or discs or whatever that you adjust to "perfectly fit" the slot. I don't want or use them. They're fine if the guide stays 100% in the slot. But, if you have a big jig, and at the start, or the finish, only a third of the guide is in the slot, then there's too much slop to make it worthwhile. The cut ends up being crap. So, please, don't suggest something else. I know what I want. I want very tight tolerance 3/8 x 3/4 steel stock.Preferably with a tolerance equal to or less than 0.001. I can deal with most alloys. If you have a source, great. If you don't, you don't. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 If your that particulate, sounds like you need to get your milling Machine now. Go back and read the multiple " how good/straight is good enough" threads. Unless your building rocket engines, out of wood, at some point, you hit the point of diminishing returns. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Most of us on here use , incra or Kreg or "crap" like that. Guess we are not in the same league as you. Try steeltalkonline..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Here’s one way – I’m not saying it’s something you should do, but it works... One day my father-in-law was in my shop and decided to perform some serious old-school pattern-maker’s ‘tune-up’ tricks... It works, but scared the crap out of me before I could stop him... Use chalk, carbon, whatever to find the lows in standard grade metal miter stock... Take a metal punch and whack a few dimples in the low spots (they will now be high-spots) try again and use a fine file to adjust... In less than five minutes, he had ‘tuned’ my various miter gauges... Perfect ever since... So you could purchase 'standard grade' miter bars and tune them yourself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapid Roger Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Try a machine shop and explain what you want, I'm sure they can help.Just be careful, I have a friend who designed a small part for his race car and drew it up with dimensions carried out to four decimal places. When he ask how much it would cost and how long would it take, the answer was "$50,000.00 and 3 weeks. But, if you can get rid of a couple of decimal places on each dimension, we could probably do it for $20.00 this afternoon" he was told. But then again you don't want to round it off to the nearest 1/8" either, I understand. Rog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Try a machine shop and explain what you want, I'm sure they can help. Just be careful, I have a friend who designed a small part for his race car and drew it up with dimensions carried out to four decimal places. When he ask how much it would cost and how long would it take, the answer was "$50,000.00 and 3 weeks. But, if you can get rid of a couple of decimal places on each dimension, we could probably do it for $20.00 this afternoon" he was told. But then again you don't want to round it off to the nearest 1/8" either, I understand. Rog That's a fun story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doomwolf Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 I'm pretty sure it's been told on the forum before, it sounds quite familiar to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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