Quick vice.

[Stilldrillin]

My new mini mill arrived with a "free" 100mm quick vice, instead of the promised 80mm version...... Nice! 

I tried to fit it lengthways, but the mounting slots are a little wider than the 56mm T slot centres. 





No problem...... Lengthen the slots by 1mm or so, & mill 3mm deep recesses in the body to clear the bolt heads.





I`ll take off the fixed jaw, to clamp the body upside down to plunge the recesses........

          WHAAT!!!!! 


Is THAT the mating face??????





The vice is surface ground on all it`s exterior surfaces, and angle grinder tickled on the fixed jaw mating face, the most important joint!!!
Any pressure will tilt the jaw outward! 

It`s a good job I`ve got a mill, to square up the body end face......... It will be ok, within it`s limits.

So pleased I didn`t pay £30 or so for it........

Anyone recommend a decent milling vice, to fit 56mm centres?

David.

[bogstandard]

David,

The general consensus is that the vice should always be fitted with the jaws in line with the X axis.

The reason being, that if you fit them in line with the Y, you can only machine lengths along the X (your longest feed) by the amount the jaws will open.

Don't be afraid of having the vice overhanging the front of the table. Mine is over 12" long and overhangs the front by half that figure.



It is a mistake usually made by people new to milling, and I have had to correct a few people in my time.

If you are happy with it, leave it as it is, but just remember that you are most probably cutting your machining length down by at least a half.

John

[Stilldrillin]

Do you know John, yer quite right!

The work I used to do needed 4 or more fixings to stop it walking....... 










Time to slacken back a little....... 

David.

[Stilldrillin]

I`d forgotten this posting! 

Machined the grotty end face & rebuilt the vice properly, with loctite etc.

It`s a crackin` little vice now!

Perfectly square and true. Completely adequate for purpose..... 






David.

[bogstandard]

Nice one David 

Just plodding along, doing little tweaks like that, soon gets your workshop ticking along like a Swiss watch. You start to work with it, rather than fighting against it.

If you have little problems like this, stop what you are doing, and fix it, don't carry it or leave it until another day. Otherwise you will soon find it becomes a chore to get anything accurate done.

John

[Stilldrillin]

That is quite true John,

There are so many glitches we work around, when stopping & fixing em is more satisfactory, in the long run..... 

David.

[raynerd]

Hi David

Thanks for posting this - I have the exact same vice and I am having troubles with it. The biggest problem is that the 4 screws at the bottom will not tighten sufficiently to hold body of the vice down. It will hold it for a few cuts but then the vibrations must loosen it up. Also, because it isn`t being held tight, the sides of the vice are not at 90deg to the jaws so when I use my square to set the base to the table - the jaws are not true with it.

I was planning on buying a new vice but with a tight budget I may have a go truing it up and locking it all down as you have.

Cheers
Chris

[Stilldrillin]

Chris,

You need a dti (clock) to set up correctly.....


The most important part of this exercise is to get everything square & true......

The machine must be trammed correctly before starting...... 

I unscrewed the vice completely & cleaned/ deburred all components.


Clamping the main body upside down onto the table, in it`s normal orientation.
(This way).....



Overhanging by a few millimeters at the rear, I could then align with the dti along the Y axis, & clamp securely.

Using the side of a 5/8" endmill, I took a .01" pass .3" deep across the end, in X axis. Repeating this until the whole end had cleaned up.

I then reversed the procedure, raising the cutter .2" at a time to take out any push off......

This produced a square, clean end to screw the fixed jaw to.

Everything was then assembled & checked for squareness etc., before assembling with loctite in every thread & mating surface.

Works very well for me! 

David D

[raynerd]

Excellent, thanks for your reply, David. I`m going to try this tonight.

Chris

[Stilldrillin]

Excellent, thanks for your reply, David. I`m going to try this tonight.

Chris

Chris,

    How did you get on?  All sorted now? 

David D

[raynerd]

Hey David

Thanks for the interest, yes it turned out just fine. One of the problems was that a few of the screws were a bit long and I think that is why they were working free very quickly. I milled the end like you said to get a nice square fixed jaw - I couldn`t believe how bad it came from the factory! All nice and square now and the screws at the base are all locktighted up so no more rattling free!

Believe it or not, I was actually trawling ebay for a new vice when I thought I`d just do a quick search on here - I couldn`t believe it when I saw your vice rebuild thread and not only that but the exact same vice!!

I`m pleased with it now - perhaps in the future I will get a new one but it will certainly suffice at present.

Chris

[Stilldrillin]

Hey Chris,

Well done! 

It`s always far more satisfying to rebuild what yer got, than to replace with another, with a different problem!......   

David D