Making a Screwless Vise

I don't know if its that way everywhere or all the time, but the communication from CostCo delivery is awesome. Text, call, email.

Your delivery is coming on. Your delivery is coming today between. Your delivery is about to arrive. Your delivery is in the driveway. Your delivery has been delivered.

And on time.

I am sure of some of you (particularly old school employed machinists) made one during your apprenticeship. ...

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I did, part of a milling attachment for my AA lathe before I found better. Shoulder screws in shear as dowel pins attached the fixed and movable jaws to the flat vise bed. Setscrews passing through the movable jaw clamped the work. Drilling, tapping and counterboring the vise bed was pretty easy on the school's Bridgeport. The back of the vise bed is the dovetail for the vertical slide. It was rigid enough for the intended use with aluminum and plastic, as the AA lathe can't cut much steel.

The AA is still useful, I cut off the 1/4" HSS threading bit for the jack adapter ID in the 4-jaw with a Dremel and cutoff wheel on the carriage. The SB has hardened ways, so no grinding on it.

For the carbide grinder project I cleared some space by moving out a 3 phase

I probably won't, but I have been thinking about it.

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I've used a piece of bar stock snugly fitted into and protruding above a tee slot as a vise fixed jaw of sorts. The mill was an RF-31 on which I'd found that the tee slots weren't quite parallel to table travel, so I milled the protruding portion of the stock parallel to X after shimming it up a little. The goal was a vise locating key that corrected the error, not relevant here.

Two such tee slot bars could hold crossbars that form the center spacer/backstop and clamping sides of a double vise. With more spacers you could cover the table top with mold blanks. The spacer/backstops could index on the back of the table to make the slot bar fit less critical.

In fitting the bar I found that the tee slot width wasn't constant either. It was close enough to file. That RF-31 from MSC was accurate to no better than 0.005", usually good enough for electronics packaging. More demanding jobs went to my Clausing.

My first mill vise was a piece of aluminum bolted across the table of my Taig, a flat strip of aluminum, and a piece of aluminum angle. I'd run bolts through the angle, slide the strip under the flat leg, push the vertical leg up against the stock and tighten it down forming a lever clamp on the edge of the stock. This allowed me to machine the entire face. I'm sure you get it, but if not I could pencil up a sketch pretty quick. I think the only reason I didn't send stock flying is because of the very low cutting loads.

My first mill vise was a piece of aluminum bolted across the table of my Taig, a flat strip of aluminum, and a piece of aluminum angle. I'd run bolts through the angle, slide the strip under the flat leg, push the vertical leg up against the stock and tighten it down forming a lever clamp on the edge of the stock. This allowed me to machine the entire face. I'm sure you get it, but if not I could pencil up a sketch pretty quick. I think the only reason I didn't send stock flying is because of the very low cutting loads.

Bob La Londe

------------------------ I have some edge grabbing clamps that descend at an angle on the base block, like this but low Enco quality:

My first mill vise was a piece of aluminum bolted across the table of my Taig, a flat strip of aluminum, and a piece of aluminum angle. I'd run bolts through the angle, slide the strip under the flat leg, push the vertical leg up against the stock and tighten it down forming a lever clamp on the edge of the stock. This allowed me to machine the entire face. I'm sure you get it, but if not I could pencil up a sketch pretty quick. I think the only reason I didn't send stock flying is because of the very low cutting loads.

Bob La Londe

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As I imagine it the strip under the horizontal leg's outer edge tilted the vertical leg of the angle against the stock when you tightened the hold downs.

Eggszakary!

Eggszakary! Bob La Londe

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Absotively, posilutely.

On a sadder note, say a few appropriate words for old Phil of Duck Dynasty who just died.

I remember the former teacher for informing us that Columbus' three ships were the Nina, Pinta and Santa Monica.