The T-Slot Fastener and the T-Slot Fixture CNC Workholding System

Hey guys, Rick here form Elijah Tooling.

Today, I am going to introduce you guys to a new workholding system. What it does is that it combines a legacy component, which is the T-slot itself, and our, patent pending, holding and locating products.

First of all, I want to show you the basis of the system. So, we have this Invert-A-Bolt™ Fasteners.

Just like our other captive Invert-A-Bolt™ Fasteners, the stud comes up into the piece to be held. This particular product incorporates our new quarter-turn system; it comes up easy and fast. This is a 16 millimeter T-slot, we have it in 18 millimeter as well. 

Then, we have a locator that is used in this cnc workholding fixture. There are multiple ways to locate on this system but this particular one is made for location in the slots. They come with O-rings on them. The O-ring is used to create friction in the slot if you want it to move slowly down the slot, but I know that sometimes operators like to just slide them down the slot.

You can remove the O-ring and do it that way. The way this works is very simple. We have two of our Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin, that work together in it. You can see the bottom and we just screw it down. What this does is that it is going to locate in these divots in the fixture. These divots are precisely made and they are precisely found on 1-inch centers. So, it will locate in the divot and then we will use this Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin on top and it will locate at the same location as the divot. 

I am now going to show you how to quick-change this fixture. This is a manual machine and has been used for drilling, but we quick -change these parts on it because if we want to do something else on this machine, we can quickly move it off and then put it back on exactly on center; exactly where we want it, every time.

I am going to get a little help moving it off but first, let me just show you how we unscrew the Invert-A-Bolt™ Fasteners and then we are going to take the pate off. I am going to show you what's underneath and how it looks down there as well. 

Now, you can see these fasteners that I described to you before and you can also see the Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin, that were used to locate it. So, you have got multiple locations for the  Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin, every 1 inch. But, there are locations down in the slot as well. 

To show you how we do this and how this system works, we put it in the slot and slide it down to where we want it, we use our little Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin on the bottom to locate and then we have a hard location. You can see that we can locate in the slot and we can also locate in all of these multi-purpose hole locations as well.

That is the benefit of such a system. The slots make it possible for the debris to come off very rapidly, but, the other thing is that, unlike our other modular systems, there is not a lot of hardware in it. You don't have a hundred Invert-A-Bolt™ Fasteners in here, you only have the ones that you need to hold the part. That is a cost savings to you.

Another thing I wanted to touch on was that this system was specifically designed to use our EZE-VISE™ Ultimate Workholding System and I have a pair set up here but, another trying I wanted you to notice is that we can set them up in both directions and they work exactly the same way.

You can see that beneath the EZE-VISE™ Ultimate Workholding System, you have the Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin and the Invert-A-Bolt™ Fasteners. It is simple and very easy to engage these and to use them in this system. Same idea with the other Vise.

This is adjustable and you might recall that the adjustable has a base on it that allows it, depending on how the Xzertz™ Retractable Locating Dowel Pin is locating, to either slide freely or to actually be held fast. you can, therefore, use the adjustable as a fixed vise. Again, it is very simple to bring the T-slot fastener up into the vise and engage the vises that way.

I think I have covered the benefits of this system. Bottom line, it is a T-slot fixture, you're familiar with that but, it incorporates our patent-pending products. The concept itself is patent pending, it has been sent to the patent office. This will help you to save some money as you will not be able to buy all the hardware that we use in our modular fixtures.

Lastly, this Invert-A-Bolt™ fastener is made to go in any 16 millimeters T-slot and we also have one for 18 millimeters right now as well. So, you can use this in your T-slot table to hold things.

Thank you for your time.

-Rick