2″ 50mm tilting/swivel mill vice

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2″ 50mm tilting/swivel mill vice

Home Forums Workshop Tools and Tooling 2″ 50mm tilting/swivel mill vice

Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
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  • #182239
    Colin LLoyd
    Participant
      @colinlloyd53450

      I need a tilting/swiveling mill vice for my little Chester Mini Multi lathe/mill machine. The little cross-slide vice I have has 45mm long slots 45mm apart to bolt to the cross-slide and is only 25mm high. Anything much higher than this and I am restricted in the clearance between the mill bit and the work piece.

      Is there a small tilting/swivel vice in the marketplace – or alternatively, is there a DIY solution out there -past MEW articles/plans possibly.

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      #17639
      Colin LLoyd
      Participant
        @colinlloyd53450

        Need to source one or gain plans for making one

        #182252
        John Haine
        Participant
          @johnhaine32865

          **LINK**

          Lots of commercial ones around such as the ones that Chronos sell, probably also RDG and Arc have equivalents.

          #182260
          Colin LLoyd
          Participant
            @colinlloyd53450

            Hi John,

            Yes – I've had a look at those provided by Chronos and RDG but they are all (relatively) massive – even the 2" version. I currently have a DIY version of the Quick Vise sold by the LittleMachineShop.com (http://littlemachineshop.com/info/vise_compare.php). I have attached a photo of mine with dimensions added. As you can see the overall height is only 33mm. I'm guessing that I will have to make a new baseplate to this vise with circular slots to allow swivel (the ratchet vise is bolted to the baseplate from underneath). But not sure yet how to facilitate tilt. First Idea is to make a 2-3mm baseplate for the ratchet vise itself and then to tilt this in relation to the current baseplate which is coupled to the cross-slide.mill-vice-dim.jpg

            #182261
            JasonB
            Moderator
              @jasonb

              I've never found the need for one (my vice did come with a swivel base but not used it in 8 years.

              You can swivel your existing vice just my moving it on the mill table, may only be able to use one mounting hole but a clamp and Tee bolt will hold the other side.

              Its usually possible to get the tilt by angling the work in the vice jaws so that takes care of the other axis.

              These methods also have the advantage of not eating up any room between table and cutting tool

              #182268
              Neil Wyatt
              Moderator
                @neilwyatt

                Main problem with swivel vices for me is that most workpieces are small and the pivot is well back.

                This means most work swings around a point, rather than rotating.

                Neil

                #182270
                JasonB
                Moderator
                  @jasonb

                  I've always regarded a swivel vice as a way to set the vice at an angle read off its base. If you want to hold something in a vice and rotate it then you need to mount the vice on the rotary table

                  Note the packing against the fixed jaw to bring the work over the axis of rotation and also the tilt of teh rotary table.

                  #182282
                  John Haine
                  Participant
                    @johnhaine32865

                    Good point Jason makes. Do you really need one? I've got a Soba swivelling/tilting vice, I've had it probably 10 years, and used it about twice. Actually I hardly ever use a vice on the mills, usually I clamp on the table or on an angle plate. If you have a specific job in mind, it's always worth considering if there's another way to do it that doesn't need a piece of kit that will hardly ever be used again.

                    #182319
                    Ian S C
                    Participant
                      @iansc

                      I rarely use my vice, it's one of those cheap tilting ones, I used it once tilted, since then I'v used other methods of holding to cut angles. What ever tilting vice you get, it takes up valuable head room, and if it it both swivelling, and tilting, you might need a collection of short drill bits, as I do if I have the lathe chuck mounted on the rotary table, I could use at least 100mm more head space. My machine is a Rexon mill drill, round column.

                      Ian S C

                      #182320
                      Ady1
                      Participant
                        @ady1

                        Something which is a doddle on a shaper, angled cuts.

                        #182321
                        Colin LLoyd
                        Participant
                          @colinlloyd53450

                          Thanks guys – I take all the points and suggestions. Rotating on a single bolt would work as I am using very little force when either lathing or milling, generally just taking off a few thou on each pass – I'm still a beginner, time is not a consideration and the work pieces I am fabricating are very small (the guitar string roller cages are just 15mm x 9mm x 10mm. With the work pieces being small, ad-hoc clamping to very small areas may not work very well. And I can see a nice little beginners project in adapting my current vice to both rotate and tilt. I will prepare some drawings and then put them on this forum for expert comments.

                          #182324
                          Ian P
                          Participant
                            @ianp
                            Posted by Ady1 on 06/03/2015 10:36:31:

                            Something which is a doddle on a shaper, angled cuts.

                            Nothing special with a shaper regarding angled cuts. Its only the setup of the job in relation to the cutting plane that creates an angle, same with any machine.

                            Ian P

                            #182329
                            JasonB
                            Moderator
                              @jasonb

                              Colin if you are looking to rotate the work as it is cut which by the sound of things you are then a swivel vice is not what you need as they have to be loosened to rotate and then clamped back down at teh required angle.

                              A rotary table would be ideal but you may get away with a simple pivoting table that does not have a geared drive that your existing vice can fit to. Thes eare often used for simple jobs like rounding over the end of a bar.

                              J

                              #182332
                              Colin LLoyd
                              Participant
                                @colinlloyd53450

                                Hi Jason, this is the curse of being a beginner. I'm not too sure what is the best way to do things. So – the tilting vice was to enable me to put decent chamfers on edges or create angled channels. This I have a need for now. But the rotation bit was just my inbuilt need to generalise solutions. When I wrote computer software, I never just wrote it for the one problem – I always tried to incorporate further options that might or might not be used. As an experimental scientist, I always took more measurements than the project required, because I never knew when those measurements might become useful to me or to someone else.

                                The rotation bit was included because my initial naive view was to just be able to mill objects that were not able to be held at right angles to the lathe slide motions.

                                #182345
                                Neil Wyatt
                                Moderator
                                  @neilwyatt

                                  A 90-degree countersink bit is an easy way to do non-critical chamfers.

                                  Neil

                                  #182353
                                  Colin LLoyd
                                  Participant
                                    @colinlloyd53450

                                    Thanks Neil – you see, that's exactly what I am saying – all these "tricks" that a beginner knows nothing about.

                                    #182373
                                    Jon
                                    Participant
                                      @jon

                                      After decades I resorted last year to a 3 way 3" from Amadeal just to do a specific job, never used since. Must say for the money they are pretty good but wouldn't want to do anything heavy.

                                      Vices will come plain, swivel, tilt, tilt with swivel in an ever increasing height.

                                      You can clamp up in normal vice work pieces at an angle or why not use normal vice and tilt the mill head. Don't buy the drill press tilt vice that's all theyre good for.

                                      Chamfer edges just make sure jobs proud of jaws and drag a cutter down the sides, easy. Apart from specialist cutters I still use a pipe 45 degree debur cutter cut opposite hand so spun opposite direction works very well 20 odd years and used daily. Anything goes.

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