Tosa Tooling Plate

I hope i'm not breaking any forum rules since the other thread is closed. But i figured with all the bad press that Dan at Tosa Tool got in the other thread, i wanted to share the good news

I got my tooling plate in Thursday, accessories are due today. The quality of the plate is excellent. To be honest i thought the tolerance of +/-.0002 on the locations was a lofty goal, but sure enough out of the probably dozen locations that i measured, all were within tolerance

the fit of both the dowel locating holes and the counter bored holes are all a very nice tight slip fit. Thickness of the plate was within .0005 measured at 8 points, again well within the tolerance

I threw the plate up on the table, the table locating pins fit really nice, pushed the plate back, not that i could actually feel it move but there has to be some clearance, and bolted it down. Checked tram again and it only changed .0005 in the X , Y was no change.

Then i threw in some dowels and measured them over 6.25 span in several places and all were within .0005 which again is all well within tolerance.

I wish i had some pictures to share but my phone is a piece of junk and takes horrible pictures

Extremely happy with the quality of the tooling plate, and cant wait till the plug kit gets here so i can get back to cutting today.
Thanks
Kyle

IT'S ABOUT TIME HE GOT SOME GOOD PRESS.

EVERYONE, I don't care who you are hits a ruff spot once in a while, Dan was on here explaining why product was not being shipped. I can thoroughly understand what it's like to get a bad shipment of material.

If he had avoided everyone, you'd have something to gripe about, but he was on here every couple of days informing everyone of his progress,

Give the guy a break. He has some really cool stuff. Expensive but cool.

Good to hear you are happy with it. Those plates sure look nice, and I can understand why people get them.

Once you start working with stuff that doesn't fit in a vise, playing around with strap clamps is a PIA (not to mention that it complicates setups since you have to machine around the clamps). Setup on those things is so much faster, and you can make setups that would be impossible on a normal table.

You going to mount it directly to your table, or are you going to mount it on stand-offs?

I am happy to see a small shop succeeding making parts in the USA... tough to do in this global economy. I know that is the dream of a lot of use here.

oh, and....
Attachment 270566

[QUOTE=tmarks11;1656940]Good to hear you are happy with it. Those plates sure look nice, and I can understand why people get them.

Once you start working with stuff that doesn't fit in a vise, playing around with strap clamps is a PIA (not to mention that it complicates setups since you have to machine around the clamps). Setup on those things is so much faster, and you can make setups that would be impossible on a normal table.

You going to mount it directly to your table, or are you going to mount it on stand-offs?

I am happy to see a small shop succeeding making parts in the USA... tough to do in this global economy. I know that is the dream of a lot of use here.

I have it mounted right to the table and I bought the plug kit to go with it to fill up the holes. I put the plate on 3 times and checked tram and location each time and it was always within .0005 , so I will just pull it off every couple weeks to clean and oil the table.

the tooling plate will make a huge difference for me. I have to machine a lot of end of arm tools for injection molding and the frame work on those are usually water jetted plates and have all these cutouts to make the plates light and nothing is ever straight, so knowing that I can accurately locate of dowels will make setups much faster. and I can always import the tooling plate model into my model that I'm programming and know exactly where everything is

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Originally Posted by works4me

I've also had great success with the Tosa Table for my project. I'm designing a 3D printer using large CNC machined plates and I needed a way to cut 2'x2' plates on my Tormach. The Tosa system allowed me to devise a process of using precise alignment pins to move the plate around to mill each section one-at-a-time. I don't think I could have accomplished the task any other way.

Attachment 270588Attachment 270590Attachment 270592

FYI I have more details on the build sequence on my blog:

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Cool projects!
I like the hamier probe in the 90 deg mill head attachment, didn't expect to see that.
md

Thanks Guys. People never hear the good stuff. So many of my customers are very happy with the products, services and level of professionalism I offer them. I want 100% customer satisfaction but I don't control everything. Thanks again for the kind words. Its worth a million in google ads.

Check your Private Messages :)


-Jason

Attachment 271124

First customer job on the Tormach and the Tosa Tooling Plate came into good use, no more individual fixtures for this guy

Thanks Dan! Thing is dead on

Do you have (or foresee) any problems with swarf plugging up the threaded holes in the dowel pin plugs or coolant leaking into either type of hole with the seals in place?

Mike

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Originally Posted by MichaelHenry

Do you have (or foresee) any problems with swarf plugging up the threaded holes in the dowel pin plugs or coolant leaking into either type of hole with the seals in place?

Mike

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not really, the taps in the plugs are 1/4-20 so far they haven't gotten plugged up I blow them out after each run. Coolant will surely seep into the holes, but since the plate is so repeatable I will just pull it off every couple weeks to clean it

I have not had any real issue either. I have had a plate on my Tormach for years. No rust on the plate or the table, because the 4140 is high in chromium. I was machining wood the other day so some of my plugs have saw dust in the 1/4-20s. other than that I am pretty good. I use the vise plate and those holes seem to stay unplugged, vise goes back on in a minute. I sell it cause I love it!

Cad & Dan,

Thanks for the feedback. I've heard of mounting a subplate on risers so the holes can be blow out and drained but don't want to lose any more Z travel than necessary and was not sure how flexible the plate would be with risers under them.

Dan - do you use the plugs and seals on your plate or just leave them "bare"?

Mike

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Originally Posted by MichaelHenry

Cad & Dan,

Thanks for the feedback. I've heard of mounting a subplate on risers so the holes can be blow out and drained but don't want to lose any more Z travel than necessary and was not sure how flexible the plate would be with risers under them.

Dan - do you use the plugs and seals on your plate or just leave them "bare"?



Mike

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I highly doubt there would be any flex as long as it's supported well. But I really don't think mounting it on risers would be a good idea. one of the beauties of the plate is that it has alignment pins that align it to the table and this would be lost if mounted on risers.

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Originally Posted by cadguy247

I highly doubt there would be any flex as long as it's supported well. But I really don't think mounting it on risers would be a good idea. one of the beauties of the plate is that it has alignment pins that align it to the table and this would be lost if mounted on risers.

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Good point on the alignment pins. My concern with rust was more for the table than the subplate and it seems likely that sooner or later coolant will get trapped between the plate and the table.

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Originally Posted by MichaelHenry

...it seems likely that sooner or later coolant will get trapped between the plate and the table.

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With the large plate that overhangs all the edges, and plugs in all the holes, maybe it will protect the table and keep it dry?

Any owners want to comment?

If you're using flood, it WILL get under there. Put a light coat of grease on the table before mounting the plate and it should be fine.

Regards,
Ray L.

I have taken the plate on and off 3 times when I got it and checked alignment and each time all locations I measured were within .0005 , so I'm figuring that i'll just pull the plate off every couple of weeks and clean and oil the table

And,yes, coolant does get under the plate. there's no way around that

Thanks Ray and CadGuy - that's what I figured.

I love seeing the stuff you guys do with the modular tooling plates. Send me pictures and put the quotes on my site. I always need more examples of the things people do with them. THANKS GUYS!