Milling Machine End Stop

This is a simple end stop I made for the milling machine. It's based on a design that I've seen on various forums. I modelled it in the excellent on-line 3D CAD application Onshape. You can find the model here if you're interested, but note that you'll have to sign up for a (free) account in order to view it.

The only complicated part to make was the arm, which was made from a 30 mm × 40 mm × 160 mm flat bar of aluminium. The points where the steel pivots sit were drilled and bored to size and then the bar was mounted on the rotary table for the outside shape to be formed. It was then mounted in the vice and the slots cut.

The pivots were made from 20 mm EN1A round bar - manufacture was simply a case of facing to length and then cross-drilling and tapping one and cross-drilling and counterboring the other. The stop itself is a piece of 6 mm diameter silver steel, about 200 mm long. One end was turned with a 60° included angle for a point and the other was domed using files while the part was turning in the lathe. The remaining parts were made from 50 mm diameter aluminium bar and were relatively straightforward to make.

A 3D Model

If you have a relatively modern browser, you should be able to drag the model below around with your mouse to look at it from different angles. The left mouse button will rotate the part, the right mouse button moves it and the scroll wheel zooms in and out. On mobile phone browsers, one finger rotates the model while two can be used to pan and zoom. Note that the model may take a few seconds to load.


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