Material for tee nuts

[Agroshield]

ahh, never thought of that

That's the good thing about making your own, as you are going to: you can do better than a mass-produced, standard item. Another useful thing to do while you are set up for the work is to run off a set with smaller-than-normal tapped holes (I made M4, M5, M6 and M8) and a spare untapped set as that opens up options.

 

[James1979]

I made my own as the slots on my Bharat are an odd size.

tip I was given is make the hole all the way through but don’t put the tapping drill all the way through so you’ve a blind thread onto a shoulder. Stops the bolt / stud pushing out the bottom into the slot which then stops the t-nut jacking up and busting the slot.

Overkill on your own machines I think but the guy who told me was ex tool room and probably saw a few over tightened in his time

 

[mike os]

Life is too short...

 

[brightspark]

when you 1st start you make all your own stuff as you cant afford to buy things and enjoy making . later on some things arent worth making and you get selective and only make things you like making t nuts isnt one of them

 

[graffian]

I make them from whatever steel I have at hand.

 

[Turbo]

You can get tee bar that you cut to length to make your own nuts.

 

[My Old Landy]

when you 1st start you make all your own stuff as you cant afford to buy things and enjoy making . later on some things arent worth making and you get selective and only make things you like making t nuts isnt one of them

I agree but there is a later stage when you have all the time and are just filling it like I do with workshop fun

 

[Gazz292]

i know i could just buy more mass produced tee nuts, but i've done that and don't really like what i ended up with.

Time is the one thing i have plenty of,
I'm just starting out with this being my first ever milling machine, making little things like this is fun and i learn how to use the machine.

Like i could have just bought a ~9mm feather key to replace the undersized one in the mills quill handle, that gave a good 2mm of play on the handles and fine feed wheel before the quill pinion shaft started to move.
But i got some 10mm key stock and made my own key, it was fun to make and i made it with a step so it fitted perfectly in the slot in the shaft, and also the sliding slot on the handle hub which was about 1/2 a mm wider than the shaft slot.

I could just get some more key steel, but i think that may be way more than i need for simple tee nuts, but i don't know the steels and how they machine yet, the key steel was 'nicer' to machine than the aluminium i'd been playing with so far making brackets and that for the DRO.