At Saunders Machine Works, we understand the value of a small machine shop. Our machining story started with a CNC mill in a small New York City apartment. With that in mind, we have begun expanding our line of fixture plates with one goal in mind: to provide products that will guide a machinist from their first CNC mill through their first VMC.

Machining parts is easy... work-holding is the hard part! Fixturing, part setups, and work holding is a never ending skill. Any time I have the chance to tour a factory, walk a trade show, or talk shop with another machinist, I try to learn as much as possible about workholding.

Workholding is a vital piece to any machinist’s arsenal of knowledge. So much so that there is an endless list of books solely dedicated to workholding design – like the two we have available, Jig and Fixture Design Manual and Basic Fixture Design. Some corporations even hire engineers to do nothing but design more efficient ways of keeping work in place.

Last week we talked about using fixture plates for quick and repeatable  setups, and asked blog readers to send us pictures of their fixture plate set ups as part of a contest. 

Getting started with Fixture Plates

In our latest Fab Lab video, Mike C. demonstrates some basic techniques for setting up and using fixture plates on a PCNC mill.