Magnetic Fixings & buffers

[Laurie]

Next week I want to experiment with a magnetic fixing plate: someone's kindly lent me one so I'm keen not to damage it at all.

Once the poles have been aligned my 3mm steel billet sticks to it like sh*t to a blanket, but my tool paths end with a part profile contour that leaves tabs. I'm not expecting anything to go wrong, but would like to stick about 2 or 3mm of aluminium between the billet and the magnetic base as a buffer/sacrificial layer while I'm experimenting.

Smacking away with a wooden mallet the whole thing still seems rock solid - but has anyone had experience of a buffer between the magnetic base and the billet?

Thanks

L

[magicniner]

Use a sheet of thin steel and an activated cyanoacrylate to hold your work to it, when you've done use a blowlamp on the underside of the thin sheet to release it without damaging the work, any remaining adhesive can be cleaned off with acetone.
This is how I use my mag table with jobs requiring a sacrificial layer, spacers don't work well with a holding force which is subject to an inverse square law ;-)

[Laurie]

Brilliant - will get on that! Thanks, L.

[Robin Hewitt]

Never tried it, do you have a problem with swarf removal?

[Billythefish]

And if you dont want to use a blow lamp just leave the job in a tub of acetone over night...

[magicniner]

Never tried it, do you have a problem with swarf removal?

Robin, cleanup is a breeze, you just flip the lever to "OFF", vacuum and wipe clean,
Regards,
Nick

[Laurie]

Robin, further to Magicniner's response to below - we do very little roughing, and it's almost very light passes of a ball nose mill at a high spindle speed: so far what swarf remains on the workpiece until we flip the lever on the holding plate isn't proving a problem. So far...!