Onward with part II, a step by step of how I made the next lot. In this instance I needed 3 L shaped lamp irons as opposed to the slightly off-centre T shape of the earlier efforts.
It may be a bit of a photo overload as I probably took more photos than needed to get across the methods used.
First I cut of the insulated section of another plug pin.
I fastened it in the milling vice supported on parallels and lowered the quill until it just touched the work piece and rotated it by hand to establish a base height for cutting.
Then I set the dial on the fine feed to zero
Here we are ready for the first cut, you can see the parallel sticking out the end of the vice. To get the right height I had to stack two different sizes of parallels on top of each other. – in this instance I used a 5 x13mm on top of a 6 x 24mm. I have a set of 20 pairs of different heights and thicknesses. I have also cut a couple of cheapo 6″ steel rules in half for if I need really thin parallels (the thinnest in the set is 2mm thick)
Next we start to take the first cuts to form the back of the L using a 5mm 4 flute end mill.
Once I got to the lowest depth of cut that the top of the vice would allow I moved the cutter back to take a small cut to create the underside of the lamp iron. I only took a couple of passes just so that I had enough of a ridge that I would be able to see the slitting saw passing through it in a later operation
Then I used a small brass hand vice as a vice stop to allow me to turn the part over to do the same on the other side.
Next I shifted the part so that it was fixed in the end of the vice with the upper leg of the L stick out of the edge of the vice horizontally and made the first cut with the slitting saw.
This is at the end of the first cut. The slitting saw is the 4″x 0.5mm 100 tooth blade that I used for the first ones.
Once both the slits were cut I put the part back in to the top of the vice to cut through the horizontal leg of the L with a 3mm four flute end mill
I had inserted a small brass shim that gave me another 0.7mm of clearance above the vice jaws which allowed me to mill down until there was only a sliver of brass holding the parts in place
Finally I was able to just touch the lamp irons with a scalpel blade to lift and cut them free.
All that remained was a bit of hand filing to finish them off ready for fitting
