Author Topic: My first mill project - vice repair  (Read 6952 times)

Offline jatt

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My first mill project - vice repair
« on: December 12, 2009, 05:43:00 PM »
Finally got some endmills and ER32 collet chuck.

Have a bench vice I killed a couple of months ago, good excuse I thought to do some repairs.  To be precise I broke one of the jaws.  At the time a quick call to the OZ distributer (in my home town conviently enough) revealed that they cant get me them.

So bought a new 150 mm Dawn vice for the main shop, very nice.

I have been putting up with small hobby vice in the other shed (a good 50 mtr away) for ages now, so I figuerd it would be worth having a go fixing this one.

In the past I kept breaking the mounting screws for the jaws and kept replacing them with cheap bolts I ground down to make dodgy countersunk versions.  Reason was if use good bolts then it would be harder to get the suckers out if I break one.  My solution (how good it works remains to be seen) was to mill a flat of sorts on the other side to where the screws attach the jaws, drill out the thead and bolt straight thru the lot using better bolts.  If I bust a bolt, simply knock it out and replace.

The casting beneith seems to be quite thick, guess time will tell if I have weakened it too much.  Am planning to make a new jaw for the broken one.  Yeah I know their hardened, will have to see if I can get my Oxy Propane working.
From an early age my father taught me to wear welding gloves . "Its not to protect your hands son, its to put out the fire when u set yourself alight".


Forget about the price of gold and oil, its the price of beer that matters.

Offline Darren

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Re: My first mill project - vice repair
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2009, 06:58:28 PM »
How do you keep breaking the bolts  :scratch:

Nice when you can fix things  :thumbup:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)

Offline jatt

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Re: My first mill project - vice repair
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2009, 05:03:21 AM »
Um.......must have something to do with bending and  :hammer: hitting 10 mm rod whilst in the vise.

Been eyeing up a proper bender for a while now.  Its on the ever increasing "to buy" list.

Yep I recon this mill is gunna spend a lot of its life being used to fix stuff around the shop.
From an early age my father taught me to wear welding gloves . "Its not to protect your hands son, its to put out the fire when u set yourself alight".


Forget about the price of gold and oil, its the price of beer that matters.

Offline jatt

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Re: My first mill project - vice repair
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2009, 07:54:56 AM »
Whilst I am waiting for the slitting arbour to arrive, thought I might have a go at butchering some plastic thats lying around.  Dont ask me what type, cause I dunno.  I fished out an old pulley that was made from the stuff from the scrap bin and cut a piece out using the jigsaw.

The boss bought me this phone cradle, one small problem however, with the mobile in its case it wont stay in the holder.  The belt clip on the back wont allow it to stay in position.

Its definitely a work in progress.  The idea is to remove knuckle fixture and run the locating bolt thru my adapter so I can see the screen whilst being parked at the lites of course.

Cut a notch to locate the belt clip.  Did some experimenting with a router bit to create a radius on one corner.  Recon I will use it to tidy up a couple of the corners.  Seems to work ok if I only do lite cuts.
From an early age my father taught me to wear welding gloves . "Its not to protect your hands son, its to put out the fire when u set yourself alight".


Forget about the price of gold and oil, its the price of beer that matters.

Offline jatt

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Re: My first mill project - vice repair
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2009, 07:59:11 AM »
rear view.

From an early age my father taught me to wear welding gloves . "Its not to protect your hands son, its to put out the fire when u set yourself alight".


Forget about the price of gold and oil, its the price of beer that matters.

Offline jatt

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Re: My first mill project - vice repair
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2010, 05:04:17 PM »
Well I finally finished this darn busted vice I keep stubbing my toe on.

To help keep the new Dawn in one one piece I knocked up a basic bender for the recently purchased shop press.  Only a toy really (30 tonne).  Its about 560 mm between columns. Found a V block offcut in my travels, its a 60 deg unit so have to be watchful when making those 90 deg bends in sheet.  A bottom die more suitable to 90 deg bending is on the ever increasing to do list.

Figured I would quickly knock up a basic piece of top tooling.  Did a hunt around the shop and the only piece I could find that was heavy and large enough was a piece of 10 mm angle.  The angle of the V was done by eye.  Cut the unwanted side off with the 9 inch (got plenty of wheels from the cuttoff saw).  Too bad it wouldnt fit in the bandsaw.

The plate had a bit of a warp on one side, no matter I needed to heat the sucker up anyhow to weld some pipe to attach it onto the press.  Out with the G clamps and some heavy 50 x 50 x 10 mm angle, clamp onto the plate, weld a pass along the plate, weld on pipe.... presto one farm yard bender.

Bent a bit of 5mm plate with ease.  Bit hard to make out (only had the fone camera on me).

From an early age my father taught me to wear welding gloves . "Its not to protect your hands son, its to put out the fire when u set yourself alight".


Forget about the price of gold and oil, its the price of beer that matters.