Dreams of a homemade rest somewhat squashed

[timbertoes]

For a long time, I have dreamed of making a 1 piece rest.
somehow, one small fact escaped me....

my mill table x length.... : at about 24 inches of usable travel, the idea of a rest with a 33+ inch length of base material becomes a problem.

One thought is to bolt two pieces together...

And then I wonder the feasability of sliding the work in the vise...
would sliding it work?

say; mill clean one edge for 20-ish inches.
then put that edge down in the vise/parallels.
use that edge as the "sliding edge", and mill the entire second edge.
flip it, and finish the first edge.

do the same for the faces.

as long as any error in dimensions were not easily seen, I think that would be ok..

opinoions, advice ?

 

[JohnW...ski]

Do you have one straight edge to work with?
If you do clamp it to the table against two dowels inserted into the t-slot and edge mill it as far as you can then move it against the dowels and find your zero using a strip if paper between the workpiece and the endmill, (don't let it suck your fingers in) then finish milling.

If all you have is rough edges to work with you could set up the piece with an edge over the side of the table and mill as far as you can then move the workpiece and indicate it straight then finish milling as above.

If the head of your machine pivots you could mill one end and rotate the head over to the other side and continue milling.

Good luck,

John

 

[timbertoes]

seems like the general idea is worht a try.
have some other peices I can try on tommorow