A Quad-i Vise Update

There are 6" vises in stock, the New 4" vise should be in stock early January 2009. These vises are being made in Pennsylvaina USA.

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Quad-I Incorporated

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*** What is the NEW Quad-I Vise?

The Quad-I Vise was redesigned for the Machinist. Why? Because all the earnings coming into the machine shop, come in through the hands of the machinist. I want to help him. A lot!

- The Clamp

- The first order of business was to build a very good clamp. The =93Straight Line Clamping=94 feature employed in the Quad=96I Vise applies all of the clamping force to hold the part. The vise is very sensitive to feel. When needing a light force, a light touch can yield one. When needing a strong force for holding, the extra clamping force developed by =93Straight Line Clamping=94 will supply one. The box way design of the moving jaw has a very close running fit, less than one thousandth of an inch, yet it still has a free running slide.

- The Fixed Jaw

- The second order of business was to have the fixed jaw in front to align the vise to the machine=92s coordinate system. This is a big advantage in helping the machinist keep his mind clear of work a rounds and confusing extra steps needed to make accurate parts.

- The fixed Jaw in front enabled other advantages to emerge. The Acme screw passes through the fixed jaw. The Capture nut which is attached to the screw applies the clamping force to the fixed jaw. This same force is also pulling the moving jaw in to clamp the work. These opposing forces neutralize each other and create a balance between the two jaws. This system offsets the pressure against the fixed jaw allowing it to remain a stable zero reference for repeatability. The fixed jaw in front has made loading and unloading parts much easier, because it is very close to the machinist=92s body. Therefore the Quad=96I Vise is more ergonomic.

- The entire working mechanism of the vise is embodied in the fixed jaw. Loosening one small screw allows the machinist to remove all the moving pieces from the vise if necessary for maintenance. This means the vise may be left bolted to the table with the fixed jaw and its removable jaw plate intact. When reassembled, machining can proceed as it was, because none of the locating references have been disturbed.

- The Moving Jaw

- Before the 1970=92s most of the vises had one glaring difficulty. The moving jaw lifted, which in turn lifted the part when clamped. Most of us used =93dead blow=94 hammers to re-seat the part for machining. In the early seventies I saw my first Kurt Angle Lock vise. It did what the other vises could not do. It kept the moving jaw down. It was a big deal and a big help.

- Kurt came in and sold over the other vise manufacturers because those manufacturers were not paying attention to what the machinist needed.

- All that needed to be done, was for those manufacturers to machine a close running fit for the moving jaw. These jaws were sometimes lifting twenty thousandths of an inch. When I designed the Quad-I Vise I decided to remove the lock down mechanism. The lock down system used some of the clamping force to hold the moving jaw down. That meant you needed to use about fifty percent more force to hold the work as you would with out it. You first had to tighten the jaw enough to take up slack in the mechanism; and then to that, add enough to hold the part. To me, what was most the most annoying is the inability to feel how tightly I was holding delicate pieces.

- The Quad-I Vise now has a very close running box way fit. The target allowance is between .0005-.001 inches. The Dura-Bar iron used in the vise has quite a bit of graphite in its matrix and is nearly self lubricating which helps prevent galling and gives the vise a long working life.

- The moving jaw was also folded to make a shorter vise which can still hold over six to seven inches. The moving jaw has what I call a integral =93tongue=94 which sits down inside the vise body and protrudes toward the fixed jaw about one half of the moving jaw length. This jaw in conjunction with its bottom plate develops a nice long bearing surface during the clamping process.

- The Acme Screw

- Keystone makes very smooth rolled Acme screw stock. The six inch vise uses a 1 inch 6 lead Acme screw. The screw=92s pitch diameter and lead combination yields a 3.3 degree helix angle for good clamping leverage. It is an alloy screw with some degree of work hardness. I chose it for its efficiency of manufacture and its strength.

- The Acme screw stock in combination with the capture nuts yielded the advantage of tandem vises which can hold very large pieces. Combining two Quad-I vises and a three foot long screw made into the tandem setup can hold over twenty four inch long parts. The screw stock also comes in six foot lengths.

- The Quad-I Vise Body

- The vise body accommodates bolting to the table through the inside for close multiple vise nesting. The sides of the vise have =93keyhole=94 slots for side mounting as well. These slots are back counter bored (milled) for socket head cap screws. This feature helps accommodate end work and edge work on hard to hold pieces.

- The Capture Nuts

- What is a capture nut? Well, it is a nut which fits an Acme screw thread; but is not a working nut. Its purpose is to hold on to the screw and not slip. To do this the capture nut has a specially designed thread to help the nut bind to the screw. It also is a split nut which uses a socket head screw to constrict it around the Acme screw. If it were not for this nut design, I would not have been able to use the pre-threaded rod.

- The Over All Picture

- A gentleman called me to buy another vise. =93You know what like about this vise?=94 he said. =93It=92s so easy to clean!=94 I liked that.

- A later time I heard, =93The first thing I do when I receive a vise is get the body grinder and radius all the sharp corners.=94 I didn=92t like the sharp corners either. So I=92ve milled radiuses on the vises so the machinist will feel more comfortable around them.

- =93I really like the fixed jaw in front. It makes loading and unloading the vise easier.=94 =93We are from Viet Nam and we are shorter than you Americans.=94 I smiled and thought, of all the ideas and features I built into this tool, I would have never suspected that. And I laughed out loud and told those fellows that. They bought two more vises. I delivered them and they took me to lunch. Good people.

- I=92ve tried to make the vise a versatile as is reasonable without getting it too complicated. I=92ve been in the trenches too, as a machinist. So I=92ve tried addressed the aggravations which have annoyed me the most.

- I hope you like my new Quad-I Vise.

************* The Quad-I Vise has been revised to include many more features which makes the machinist's job easier.

- We want to make the machinist's job easier, because all the earnings which comes into the machine shop comes through the effort and hands of a machinist!

- I say, "Let's help him."

- Yes.. It's Expensive! But, you only buy it once; and the vise will make more earnings for you each day you use it, for the next 20 to 30 years, as compared with the others.

- Please at least try to consider it as a possible tool in your shop.

- The vise is of G2 Cast Iron, with a Keystone Rolled Alloy Acme screw.

- G2 cast iron is nearly self lubricating as there is a significant amount of flake graphite in the matrix. This iron allows using a close running fit without galling.

- The vise has "Straight Line Clamping" And a very close running box way fit for the Moving Jaw. You can actually feel how much closing force you use, clear down to a very delicate close.

- With a hand holding down the part, and lightly closing the jaw for a finish cut, you get minimum lift 0.000-.0002" Just placing a part and clamping you might get .001;" and this is with the part held high in the jaws.

- Without the hold down Mechanism you don't split the holding forces one for two. Quad-I's Straight Line Clamping uses all of the force applied to hold the workpiece. The six inch model opens to hold seven inch parts.

- If chips become a problem you can remove all of the moving parts and clean the Quad-I Vise without removing it from the table. This saves re-doing the setup.

- The vise mounts on it's side with Socket Head Cap Screws for tall work.

- With the fixed jaw in front the vise lines up with the machine's coordinate system and makes it less confusing to run the job. Also the vise is more ergonomic because the fixed jaw in front makes it easier to load and unload parts. This is especially helpful on machining centers.

- For those of you who work large pieces the Quad-I Tandem set up can accomodate them by using two vises and a long screw.

-

Cost? $1500.

- If you have an interest please give me a call or a note. Maybe we can work something out. I do need to have people see them.

- Best regards,

- Stanley Dornfeld Quad-I Inc.

Reply to
stanley86
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I have had a pair of these vices on my cnc for 15yrs,matched pair cost me $750.00.Much prefer them over the others,especially because they have a larger mouth.I recomend them

Reply to
Just Me

I remember these things form the time when Mike Niel was making them in Escondido. He and that goof ball Len. I thought Mike owned the product but don't think he ever said that.

Reply to
Dick 'Tater

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