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  • Re: Making a Screwless Vise

    From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to Bob La Londe on Tue May 27 10:09:47 2025
    On 5/27/2025 10:05 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:

    Well, I have to head outside and bring the tractor around to fork lift
    unload a delivery shortly.  The CostCo shelving is arriving in...

    As I was typing the driver rang my shop intercom.


    I don't know if its that way everywhere or all the time, but the
    communication from CostCo delivery is awesome. Text, call, email.

    Your delivery is coming on.
    Your delivery is coming today between.
    Your delivery is about to arrive.
    Your delivery is in the driveway.
    Your delivery has been delivered.

    And on time.


    --
    Bob La Londe
    CNC Molds N Stuff

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  • From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to All on Tue May 27 10:05:03 2025
    I probably won't, but I have been thinking about it.

    I am sure of some of you (particularly old school employed machinists)
    made on during your apprenticeship. I have been playing with the idea
    making 4-6 of them specifically for my smaller machines to maximize
    their productivity. I've realized that some of the molds I make on
    those machines (because they have fast spindles for small cutter) could
    be cut two piece at a time if I had two matching vises on their tables.

    The thing is making things takes time. Steel is slow. I do have a
    bunch of 4140HT 1x6 (over) bar stock laying out back left over from a
    press die job. I expected to make more mistakes than I did and I
    expected to get more repeat business. Sadly my dies have held up better
    than either they or I expected. Previously they had been getting
    unknown steel dies from China, and then war broke out in Ukraine forcing
    that company to change their manufacturing focus.

    Anyway, I have (probably not ideal) steel available. The big killer is
    time. You might say, "Well just buy some." Screwless vises are not as
    cheap as they used to be, and the size I would most want is an odd in
    between size, and I would still have to modify them to suit my needs.

    I do have one or two ideas that would make a screwless vise better, not
    the least of which is gettng rid of that cludgey cast pin, with cross
    pin used in the cross slots to pull down that moving jaw. Replacing it
    with a one piece part would eliminate one of the problems with the
    formerly cheap import vises.

    I'm not sure I have a specific question. I'm mostly thinking out loud
    with nobody in the shop to bounce it off of.

    Well, I have to head outside and bring the tractor around to fork lift
    unload a delivery shortly. The CostCo shelving is arriving in...

    As I was typing the driver rang my shop intercom.


    --
    Bob La Londe
    CNC Molds N Stuff


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  • From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to Jim Wilkins on Wed May 28 10:39:59 2025
    On 5/27/2025 7:09 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
    "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:1014rbu$2n8jb$1@dont-email.me...

    I probably won't, but I have been thinking about it.

    --------------------------------

    I've used a piece of bar stock snugly fitted into and protruding above a
    tee slot as a vise fixed jaw of sorts. The mill was an RF-31 on which
    I'd found that the tee slots weren't quite parallel to table travel, so
    I milled the protruding portion of the stock parallel to X after
    shimming it up a little. The goal was a vise locating key that corrected
    the error, not relevant here.

    Two such tee slot bars could hold crossbars that form the center spacer/ backstop and clamping sides of a double vise. With more spacers you
    could cover the table top with mold blanks. The spacer/backstops could
    index on the back of the table to make the slot bar fit less critical.

    In fitting the bar I found that the tee slot width wasn't constant
    either. It was close enough to file. That RF-31 from MSC was accurate to
    no better than 0.005", usually good enough for electronics packaging.
    More demanding jobs went to my Clausing.




    My first mill vise was a piece of aluminum bolted across the table of my
    Taig, a flat strip of aluminum, and a piece of aluminum angle. I'd run
    bolts through the angle, slide the strip under the flat leg, push the
    vertical leg up against the stock and tighten it down forming a lever
    clamp on the edge of the stock. This allowed me to machine the entire
    face. I'm sure you get it, but if not I could pencil up a sketch pretty
    quick. I think the only reason I didn't send stock flying is because of
    the very low cutting loads.



    --
    Bob La Londe
    CNC Molds N Stuff

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  • From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to Jim Wilkins on Thu May 29 10:46:31 2025
    On 5/28/2025 3:08 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
    "Jim Wilkins"  wrote in message news:10180uf$3f1t7$1@dont-email.me...

    "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:1017hpe$3bs4n$1@dont-email.me...

    My first mill vise was a piece of aluminum bolted across the table of my Taig, a flat strip of aluminum, and a piece of aluminum angle.  I'd run bolts through the angle, slide the strip under the flat leg, push the vertical leg up against the stock and tighten it down forming a lever
    clamp on the edge of the stock.  This allowed me to machine the entire face.  I'm sure you get it, but if not I could pencil up a sketch pretty quick.  I think the only reason I didn't send stock flying is because of
    the very low cutting loads.

    Bob La Londe

    -------------------------------

    As I imagine it the strip under the horizontal leg's outer edge tilted
    the vertical leg of the angle against the stock when you tightened the
    hold downs.



    Eggszakary!



    --
    Bob La Londe
    CNC Molds N Stuff

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