Jig design

Here's what I'm doing...I'm designing and building a device to fill capsules. The device will consist of three main parts; a orienting assembly---fill some slots with the empty capsules, slide the the plate and the capsules fall thru with the cap oriented up and the body down. A fill assembly---The empty capsule bodies are held with a thin plate (1/16) locking them in place while another plate lifts the caps and holds them. The capsules are then filled (herbs not drugs) Cap lock assembly---the filled capsule bodies are pushed back and locked into the caps with a pin assembly from the bottom.

Anyway, what I need is an approach to a jig that will allow me to hold and machine thin plates very precisely. +-.001 or so. I will need to drill and ream thirty or so holes and mill slots on a bunch of thin plates from 1/16 to 1/4 thick, about 4 X 5". The material will be low carbon steel (maybe some SS), brass, PVC, polycarbonate (lexan), and AL.

Sorry about the long post, but I sure need some help.

Thanks in advance

Mike

Mike:

If the job is worth the investment, you need a vacuum chuck. I am assuming you are mostly interested in fly cutting this stuff to an exact thickness and parallelism.

Double sticky tape is a poor second choice.

A third and last PITA would be to have the material oversize and mill between clamps holding it down, maybe with hardwood strips under the clamps in case the fly cutter came too close to one.

John

mike

I would use a sacrificial Al. block underneath to support the parts when you are doing the holes and slots. Just drillor mill into the block or if you have alot of the same parts you can mill clearance pockets. To avoid indicating every part, you can either mill the top leaving steps at the top and one side or drill&ream a series of dowel holes in the X & Y to use as a fence. It's like using soft jaws all the features are machined tru to the machine. Another thing to do is skim the top&bottom and the side that goes to the fixed jaw so that everything repeats when you use it the next time. It makes a very handy tool that soon looks like Swiss cheese.

John & Jon...Thanks for the replies.

I'll use John's third suggestion to machine the plates.

I'll use Jon's input to machine the holes and slots.

Mike