Mounting a toolmakers vice on milling machine

Hi Folks

I`m looking for a way to enable me to mount my small toolmakers vice quickly onto my milling machine without having to clock it every time. On most of my other stuff I have mounted a couple of steel " Buttons" which mount in the T slot of the table and then its just a matter of clampming the item to the table. I was going to do the same with the toolmakers vice but the steel is hardened and my centre drill would not touch it. I bought the vice from Chronos and the blurb reads :

75 mm Pin Type Precision Vice Ref: PTV1

These pin type vices are made of hardened steel 55-60HRC and are precision ground all over. The rapid positioning notches allow the vice to be locked in any position by means of a hex key. V grooves in the sliding jaw both horizontal & vertical facilitate the holding of round jobs.Superb quality. Jaw Width - 75 mm Jaw Opening - 100 mm

I was thinking that the hardness would only be surface deep and would it it possible to drill around HRC 60 with a solid carbide drill?

I have mounted the vice in a larger vice but this loses me some height on the table.

I also thought of "glueing" the buttons on to the vice with loctite or araldite as they take no strain due to the vice being bolted to the table - any ideas welcome.

Thanks for reading

Paul

Reply to
Paul M
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Personally I cannot relate to fixed buttons. These will give no capability of setting the vice at an angle if needed. I would just set it with a square for most jobs and clock it when I needed real .0001" accuracy. Clocking only takes 2 or 3 minutes IMHO.

Reply to
Richard Edwards

put a long square precision ground bar in the vice... the longer the better.

and align each end of bar with t-slots ...(can only be used to Align the vice one way)

because the bars above the table some-what ..you need to put a set square against the bar ... =2Ethe longer the bar the less the error will be ...

a three foot bar should be good.

doing the above will only be a bit quicker than clocking ....as once you get used to clocking ...you just become quicker at it .

all the best....mark

Reply to
mark

Hello Paul try a piece of flat material about 6" long machined or ground to be a good fit in the tee slot on the mill bed, and stepped up so that about 3" is in the tee slot and then the other 3" which is higher up can be nipped between the vice jaws then just clamp the vice to the machine bed. Cheers Colin

Reply to
colin.wildgust

Hi Folks

Thanks for some good ideas - I will have a play during my week off from work.

Cheers

Paul

Reply to
Paul M

B' hell, if you need a week off from work to clock the vice then I can see why you want buttons! Enjoy it, if you are like me you will not get half done of whats on your list!

Reply to
Richard Edwards

Hi Richard

Yes I already have loads of stuff on my to do list if I sort out 1/3 of it I will be happy.

Thanks again

Paul

Reply to
Paul M

How about fixing it to a base plate, say 3/8 thick, with locating pegs or key underneath (and on top if you sometimes want to use it without).

Reply to
Charles Lamont

Hi Paul, Why do you want to keep fitting your vice, why not leave it in place. I leave my vice, same size as yours, on the table almost all off the time, as most of my work will fit in the vice. Here I must say that I don't put the vice in the middle of the table but about a third of the way to one end or the other. This allows other fittings to be fitted at the other end. When I have to demount the vice, I put it back towards the other end of the table, this evens up the wear on lead screw, or at least should. On my 626 table, with vice fitted, I still have room for either a rotary table or a spin indexer, without upsetting the accuracy of the vice. T.W.

Reply to
the wizard

Hi Charles

I usually make the buttons removable by drilling and tappling the base of the item and then drilling and counterboring the buttons. This means if I need to fit the vice at a angle etc. I can simply unbolt the two buttons and my vice is virtually standard. The problem that I have is that the vice is hardened to HRC 55 -60 according to the vendors site and I have not been able to drill (or tap!) the base of the vice - I was wondering if solid carbide drills would drill this hardness of material?

Cheers

Paul

Reply to
Paul M

Hi

I leave a larger vice bolted to the table most of the time and I also leave a small homemade indexing fixture on the table. The larger vice`s base was already pre drilled and tapped both ways for the fitting of buttons and I made my indexing fixture in the same manner. The smaller toolmakers vice however is useful for smaller and more awkward jobs but these only tend to be once in a blue moon hence the requirement to basically place the vice on the table and bolt it down wihtout too much fiddling.

Cheers

Paul

Reply to
Paul M

I know from experience a carbide tipped end mill will gouge chunks out of this particular vice - it was on its first real job too.

However producing controlled holes in specific places will be several orders of magnitude harder than uncontrolled random gouges.

HTH :)

Reply to
Mike

Hi Mike

Sounds like your expense has possibly saved mine!

I may go the route of making a base plate with dowels to locate the outside edge of one side and one end. The base plate could pick up on the T slot by buttons and as it would be made of MS the holes for the dowels would not be a problem. I could then clamp the vice to the table in the usual manner.

Thanks for the info.

Paul

Reply to
Paul M

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