Mill vice position?

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

… Most of my efforts are small and can be held in a vice. My workshop layout makes it more comfortable to work with the table centralised, so that's my default set-up. My only reason for offsetting the vice is to allow a rotary table to be mounted as well. …

​Precisely what I do, IIRC I have only used my rotab' twice so far.

George.

[JonParticipant @jon]

I have a 5" vice, a gap about 4" and an 8" RT on mine but do have 20 3/4" travel.

8" RT takes up around 10 1/2" mounted on the right. For the work i do i need space before the RT so vice is roughly to left of centre 4" permanently left on.

If need be can use left side to mount RT vertically with 5" chuck.

Not fond of lasers have had a few all give too much spread even at close distance.
Lining up in vice wouldnt be that accurate even if the walls fairly close like a foot away plus errors/tolerances in the T slot fitting affects it a lot in the runout.

Long stuff i do have to remove RT leave vice where it is but risk breaking the vice. Broke 3 one a 5" Kurt copy, the loads on it are far greater.
Ideally need job clampng to bed or two vices.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Mostly, my K4 vice is mounted in the centre of the table. Obviously, it is moved, or removed, for specific jobs.

Since it has no keys, and is rotatable on the base, my method of alignment method is to use a simple fixture.

The fixture consists of two vertical columns, with the lower end turned to be a tight fit in the Tee slot of the table.

These columns are secured to the table by long bolts passing through into shallow Tee nuts.

Across these columns is fixed, at a suitable height for the vice, (and located in a vee in each column ) a horizontal bar.

This horizontal bar has a cut taken along each side, so that it provides a surface, independant of the Tee slots, parallel to the the line of any cut.

It positions the vice to within a thou, in a few minutes, rather than spending a frustrating twenty minutes or so clocking and tapping to and fro.

Howard

[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

I usually have my vise at the center of the table. Keys on the bottom of the vise engage the slots in the table. When necessary, I slide the vise to one end of the table to give room for other setups. I normally use the feed screw at the right end of the table. That means when using setups other than the vise the vise goes to the left end of the table to get it out of my way.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I usually mount my vice in the centre and as I like to leave the table parked in the middle of travel when not in use it means I do not have to wind it back to centre if I mounted it anywhere else. I don't know if it is just me but I like to park a machine with the slides covering as much as possible of the ways to prevent accidental damage and dirt getting where I would prefer it didn't. I may have been taught to do this but I don't remember.

Mike

[Neil LickfoldParticipant @neillickfold44316]

When dialing in a vice, look down the table, and eye it close to the run of a T slot. Then just lightly nip up one of the hold down screws/bolt, at the end of the 1st dti setting. Travel along, and then move that end, a little more than the distance shown. Lightly tighten that end, go to the 1st end, loosen nut/bolt and move to the full distance to zero. Another quick way is to have one end with a dowel tenon that is a fairly close fit to the table T slot. Then it is just pivoting on one end. Another solution that was revealed to me recently from a farming friend, was he made some special T long T nuts. These are about 40mm long or so( just fit in the end of the table slot, and the top of the T nut protrudes the height of table by 3mm or so. Less than the tenon depth of the slot in the vice and rotary table.The T nut is split longitudinal to about 3mm above cutting through. Drill tap in the centre with what ever sized centre drill that is bigger than the diameter of the screw being used, ie M6 use a 7/16 centre drill. Then turn a 30 deg taper on the head of the screw to open and hold this T nut in place. Then just above the table , mill the side of the raised tenon parallel to the run of the table. Then place the vice or what ever, against the milled edge as the reference.

In my case where the run of teh T nut slot is not true to the run of the table, it is a great fix with and expanding T nut.

Neil

[VicParticipant @vic]

According to a mate of mine, an engineering firm he’s used clocked the vice then drilled and reamed right through the vice into the table for a couple of dowel pins.

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

BARBARIANS!

[JonParticipant @jon]

Posted by Vic on 03/06/2018 12:12:43:

According to a mate of mine, an engineering firm he’s used clocked the vice then drilled and reamed right through the vice into the table for a couple of dowel pins.

Do like that idea, time is money and a tool is replaceable.

Would only be any good if the tolerances were nil, highly remote.

[VicParticipant @vic]

Posted by Jon on 06/06/2018 20:07:18:

Posted by Vic on 03/06/2018 12:12:43:

According to a mate of mine, an engineering firm he’s used clocked the vice then drilled and reamed right through the vice into the table for a couple of dowel pins.

Do like that idea, time is money and a tool is replaceable.

Would only be any good if the tolerances were nil, highly remote.

Well he was a one man outfit, his vice and his mill so he could do what he liked. He apparently spend some time to get the vice spot on. As you say time is money for a professional so it worked for him.

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

I made a 5" vise with a seperate jaw that slide the full length of the table and a moving jaw with 4" of travel.I can hold the rotary table other vises and angle plates without T bolts but can use the bulk of the table by parking the moving jaw tight to one end.I made this from plans in an old Model Engineer magazine and am suprised more folk don't make one.

Frank

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

If you visit "Toms Techniques" website he shows how to indicate a vice in one pass very simply. I have tried it and it works. The YouTube version is in the link below (hopefully):

**LINK**

Edited By ChrisH on 06/06/2018 23:38:52

Edited By ChrisH on 06/06/2018 23:43:19

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