Swivel milling vise and CNC

Usually people go for a rotary table. Then you can "swivel" your work piece in a controlled repeatable manner. Put a motor on your rotary table and, "BAM!" 4 axis machining. I can usually clamp most work pieces without one to get what I want, but it would be nice for a little more consistent tooth position for cutting some types of gears. If I had a bigger working envelope I would be really tempted to go 5 axis and put a trunnion table or a chuck and spindle on top of a rotary table. There are some pockets that are just a pain to program using just 3 axis.

Thats a personal pref. Swivels dont hurt to have IMO, but a versital necessity for manuals. Toolmakers like me use to through them out. Rotary cross slide- table is the manual equivalant to a 2X CNC.

It is easy to align the vise to the X axis and then you can do anything with CNC. I found very early that the swivel base gave up a LOT of rigidity, to the point you could see the vise vibrate on heavy cuts. Machining went a lot better when I took it off.

Jon

well ya............. what are you hogging on a manual thats vibrating it loose? broken tap E/M :-) more cutter teeth =3D smoother cut?

5 flt apkt type inserts are key. ie : ingersol- saweet - no coolant neceassary just a air blast or preferably "cool gun"

Bob, I have a Troyke CNC rotary table (no control, just a servo driven table). It does not seem to work. I have not even started looking it it, as I want to work on one project at a time. But I want to fix it soon, if it is really broken, and use as a 4th axis.

i

I have the same exact feeling. Thanks

i

Ditto what Jon said about rigidity. I also like keys on the vise bottom. Just slide the vise in the slots and its square. Saves a lot of setup time.

karl

Same here. Go into most commercial shops and the vises are all without the swivels.

Gunner, who has a stack of swivels someplace..but none on his machines.

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch

I generally align the vise jaws to the X axis within .001" I rarely put the vise body along the X where the keys could fit the slots, as so much of the time the long edge of the parts is parallel to the jaws. Due to a small Bridgeport (the oldest round-ram turret millers had a 9" travel on the Y axis, and do to some goofs in my retrofit, I now have only about 7.5 inches travel that way). I have a later Bridgeport 12" knee, but need to come up with a number of parts to retrofit it on my machine. I wouldn't trust the keys for alignment unless I had tweaked them myself. The table slots are not precision machined parallel to the ways, at least on my machine.

Jon

There is no practical reason to use the swivel on a cnc mill unless you have it mounted to an angle plate to effect an A or B axis.

My Kurt vise sits on top of a Kurt base that Steve Saling, AKA GarlicDude from A.M.C sent me a long time ago. I had to insist on paying for the shipping cost just to feel right about his generosity.

Steve wanted me to tell him when I actually used the swivel feature on my BP. I've used it about 3 times but when I need it, it is priceless. Same for the swivel vise at work.

The joy of CNC is that you don't need a rotary table or a swivel vise to make non-orthagonal cuts.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

it mounted to

A.M.C sent

vise at work.

Sounds very nice of Steve and congrats on getting a base. It seems that all "in the know" agree. I already mounted the vise on the table.

i

In general -- you are better without it on the CNC machine, because you can get any angle you want from the g-Codes, and this way you can be sure that the vise is properly trammed.

If you want a swivel vise -- you want it on a CNC controlled axis on a rotary table. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

I presume you'll use the RT in a vertical orientation? A horizontal RT is real handy on a manual mill, but not particularly useful on a CNC where circular interpolation will do the job.

As for a swivel base on the vise, take it off, it is of no benefit on a CNC mill and only serves to waste an inch of Z height.

Right, the axis of rotation would be parallel to the X axis.

Agree 100%.

i