# 1/2: scale model of my angle vise build



## hobby (Jun 15, 2011)

Hello everyone,

I'm going to try to build a 1/2 scale model of my angle vise.
I am not a seasoned scale modeler so this is all new to me.
The original is casted from a mold, so I will have to machine certain parts and either screw or dowel them together.
I am going to try to make as much as possible to scale, that is in my capability.

This is going to be a fun challenge, because of the radial dovetailing that needs to be done.
I am also going to try to use only my drafting board and supplies, for all my drawings, and not my CAD program.

Here is the original vise,








the starting of the drawings for the dovetailing to be done on the vise body.











Thanks for peeking in.

Have a great day.


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## Rayanth (Jun 15, 2011)

What a great way to dust off the old drafting skills. I always used to prefer pencil and paper to CAD, but that was back when CAD was still getting its feet. I should try and draw something by hand again some day....used to win state awards in high school.

Enjoy the build, I'll be following along!

- Ryan


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## Herbiev (Jun 15, 2011)

Interesting project. I will be looking forward to your progress


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## Maryak (Jun 16, 2011)

Hobby,

Hand drafting................I take my hat off. :bow: :bow:

I was never so happy as when CAD came along and after some time I could produce a drawing which did not look like a page of fly droppings, (which all of my hand drawn ones did i.e. between 1958 and 1998).


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## hobby (Jun 18, 2011)

Ryan, 
It takes a little getting use too, after using a CAD all the time, it seems like after I make a change on my drafting board (eraser and pencil), I'm looking for the save button, so I can resave my work.
I'm not kidding, I find myself wanting to click a mouse button somewhere to save the editing.
Thanks for following along.

Herbiev,
Thankyou, for looking in, and following along.

Maryak,
I'm sure your drawings could not be that bad.
The CAD programs are nice, but there getting too expensive to have to buy, should you need to upgrade to work on the more modern computers.
My turbo cad ver. 9 was the last upgrade, it works well on these new systems.
Thanks for looking in.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

I started with a piece of 3" x 4-1/4" x 1" piece of aluminum bar.






After machining it to final dimensions on all 6 sides, 
I proceeded to cut it in half on the bandsaw.












Then from there I calculated where the radius pin hole will be drilled on each workpiece, as well as where to put the mounting screws, holes.












After determining these positions, I then referenced the left edge of each workpiece, and using my dial indicators, I located all three holes, and drilled them to required diameter.






Then made a wood faceplate to bolt onto my rotary table, after locating the RT on center, I bolted the faceplate to the RT, and drilled a 5/16" dia. hole on center, to place a locating pin. This pin will be the exact radius center of the operaqtions to follow.
Here i'm making a locating pin.






I then placed the pin in the mill chuck, to press fit it into the hole in the faceplate, so now the pin is centered on the RT.
















This shows the 2 workpieces which are drilled, as mirror opposites of eachother, ready to be mounted on the RT.






The middle hole on each piece is the radius center (locator pin), and the 2 outside holes are drilled with aq #21 bit to snuggly fit a all purpose drywall screw into to screw into the wood faceplate.






Now determining the exact distance offset on the y axis.






and the cutting comences, this is the outside radius, being machined.











Now the next piece is the mirror of the first. so it is located and positioned opposite.






Both pieces mirrored of eachother, the first radius cut.






put back the first piece easily located on the pin, everything returns back precisely. do to the locator pin.






and machine the next radius, which is a 1/4' in from the first.






I was using a 3/16" endmill so the second radius cut leaves a small flange, so after cutting both pieces I moved the y axis in 100 thou. and milled off the flange.





both workpieces done to this point.






end the top views of them.






Next I'll need to machine the rest of the material on the outside of it down to a specific thickness, then relocate on the locator pin each workpiec onto the RT, but now I'll need to drill new mounting holes, to screw the workpiece down, because I will need to put the RT, in the vertical position, to do the actual dovetailing detail, the screws are in the way the way it is now.

So next up is the rest of the machining to prepare it for the dovetailing operations.

Have a great day...


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## Rayanth (Jun 18, 2011)

I do still occasionally sketch things out on isometric graph paper for visualization, and there's basic geometrical layout required in my job, but the last time I did any serious pencil and eraser (and paper) drafting was an inked isometric perspective view of three gears intermeshed- I used no templates, constructing every arc of every isometric circle and gear tooth manually with a compass...took me the better part of my senior year in high school, but it did win me a few state awards in California 

I really should do something like that again... I miss the good old days of non-CAD drafting.

On topic, keep up the good work =)

- Ryan


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## hobby (Jun 20, 2011)

Hi Ryan,
Wow, that's excellent work to be able to use a compass like that.
Any expert advise I need about drafting I'll know who to look up, on this forum,

You, and Brian R. you both have the expertise, in this area.

I have a hard time using a compass, it always wants to lift the point off of the center, I have to use both hands, one to hold the point on the paper and the other to swing ever so slowly back an forth an arc, as I'm completing a circle, that's why I bought one of those circle templates, to accomodate most of the small circles I have trouble with.
Larger circles or arcs, I have no problem keeping the compass on center, it is the small circles that makes it difficult for me.
----------------------------------------------------


Hello,

I am preparing the side blanks for the dovetailing operation,
I have machined all the predovetail steps, and am now removing the rest of the material in the middle.






According to my drawing, I will need to take the top of the blank off, at a vaqlue of 1" from the bottom of the blank.






So I have made a rough line on the workpiece, and am now going to drill 2 new holes for mounting screws on the wood faceplate.
These holes are drilled above the 1" mark which will eventually be waste.











And now the workpiece is remounted on the RT, with the new screwholes.






And the machining of the outside waste is done to each workpiece.











I then took them out to my bandsaw, and sawed away the rest of the waste material, and then remachined the rest of it to final dimensions, and thickness.
















This is what is done so far.






A little more machining, then the workpieces will be mounted on the RT, but this time the RT will be in the vertical position, so as to machine the dovetails in the proper orientation.

Thanks for looking in.


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## hobby (Jun 23, 2011)

Hi,

Now that both pieces are roughed cut with the bandsaw, it is now time to machine all surfaces to final dims.

In order to do that I need a reference to work from.

This side here, is the only area on both pieces, that has gone untouched by the machining operations. So here is what I will use to reference everything from, that and the radius hole drilled in the center.
I used this reference edge to set on the parrallels in the vice, to orient it horizontal with the table.






Now after some calculating I was able to determine the distance on the workpiece, from the bottom round section, to the bottom of the rail, and after touching off with the endmill on this round bottom section, I set the depth of cut with the dial indicator, and locked the depth stop, in the appropriate depth.






 And began to mill the underside of the rail on each workpiece.






Now I need to determine where to make the finish length cut on that same rail, so I used the radius hole as the reference point.






Made a reference mark to locate in the mill.






After locating this reference point, with a center finder, my wiggler is to long for this operation, so I had to adjust my center finder and use it to use as a pointer for center of spindle axis.






Next I took a scale measurement to locate the length of this rail, from reference.






And machined to length the rail on each workpiece.






Now I need to machine the top side of the rail, however I can't use the flat reference on the parrallels because it will be sticking up in the vice for this operation, I need to put the bottom side on the parallels to clamp down the workpiec in my vice, but the bottom is rounded over,






it will rock in the vice






Therefor I will still use the top reference edge, but will level out the workpiece by referencing the top reference side parrallel with the table by using 2 squares to insure the top reference edge is square with the table.






Now I use the feeler guage to reference from the top side, for the depth of cut needed on the top of the rails.






And machine the top of the rails to final dimensions.






Now both workpieces are machined to there final dimensions on the surfaces shown.






Now I can return them to the RT, so as to make the dovetailing detail, on them.

The workpiece on the left has a small divet I mistakenly cut to far, so I'll fill it in later on in the build.

Next will be the dovetailing sequence.

Have a great day...


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## Rayanth (Jun 24, 2011)

loving how you show the problem along with the solution. keep up the great work!

- Ryan


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## AssassinXCV (Jun 24, 2011)

Great progress, well done! Thm:


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## hobby (Jun 24, 2011)

Thanks guys for following along.

Hello, here is todays progress.

I returned the RT to my mill, and this time I needed to tram it in on the 'Y' axis, so I used my dial test ind. and a parallel to give the best surface to tram off of.






Then after remonting the workpiece to the RT, using the same reference pin on the faceplate, I used the end of the rail to square up the workpiece,






This was done so as to have the highest point on the botrtom round to be exactly sqare to the table, so I can adjust the 'Y' axis table , to put the exact center of the RT in line with the spindle center line. This is done so the dovetail bit will cut squarely on the workpiece.
And now the cutting of the dovetail begins.










Here is a video of the process also.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/IlGsfpxPxgY" 

<object width="560" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IlGsfpxPxgY?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" 


here it is all finished with the dovetailing detail.






Now this shows where the bottom of the rail is located on the original vise.






And where I need to machine it on my workpiece.






After establishing the depth of cut, and setting the depth guage accordingly.






I have a mark where the endmill needs to stop at the front of the workpiece.






And after the milling is done on the workpieces to establish the rails.






Next I'll need to cut and machine off the reference tab, so as to have a completed rail across the workpiece.

Then after that, I'll need to look at how I can machine the mating dovetails at the base of the vise.






That will require the workpiece to be in the opposite direction from the workpieces already done, when it comes to mounting on the RT.

That's all for today,
Thanks for watching...


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## gbritnell (Jun 25, 2011)

Hi Hobby,
You're making an interesting project. If I may I would like to offer a suggestion. In some of your pictures I notice you are holding your endmills in a drill chuck. This is not the best way to hold size or get a nice finish. The chucks just don't have enough strength for this kind of work. 
gbritnell


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## hobby (Jul 1, 2011)

George,
Thanks for looking in,
Thanks also, for the suggestion of using a end mill holder, rather than a chuck.
I'm now using my homemade holders, for milling operations.
------------------

Hi,
I now have both of the top vice rails to finished dims.
I am now working on the bottom section halves, these require the dovetails to be cutt radially on the interior of the workpieces.

So I started out by locating the edges of one of the workpieces, using the left bottom edge as the reference point.






I then proceeded to set up a workstop, for automatic location, whenever I remove a workpiece, so I can drill both pieces one after another, for each step of the drilling process.






And drilled and reamed a radius reference hole to locate on the RT.






Here is a good tip:
I have three handwheels in my precence, the 'X' and 'Y' table axis, plus the RT handwheel.
To prevent me from accidentally turning the the table handwheels, when only the RT shouild be turned, I put a couple of bowels over the other handwheels to remind me to not touch them.
I have turned them by accident before, messing up all registration with the RT refernce point.
This prevents that from hapenning any more.






I can now mill out the important radius which will allow the top half of the vise to actually ride upon, for easy angular movement.
This is why I love to make wooden faceplates for my RT. 
I can screw on clamps anywhere I want, using wood screws to hold the clamp assemblies in place.






Here is what I mean,
 this is the part of the dovetail portion of the top of the vice, 






that will ride inside the radius cut in the bottom section here.






here it is temporarily fitted together to check for accurate fit, and slide.






As can be seen in this image, I need the dovetail bit to be in this orientation, with respect to this workpiece, however the cutter will not reach the spindle due to all the leftover material on the workpiece.






So looking at the original vice, it can be seen that the bottom dovetail detailing, has a very short arc, a little more than a 1/4 of a circle, (around 100*) maybe,






So I can shorten the workpiece considerably, which will remove anyu interference it had on the cutter bit. I can remove this portion of the workpiece, to shorten the arc.






So next up is to prepare each workpiece, now for the final dims. and the interior radial dovetailing.

Thanks for watching,
have a great day..


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## hobby (Jul 3, 2011)

Hello,
This is the progress for this weekend,
I finished all the dovetailing on all four workpieces. and they slide together very nice.

Here is one side fitted together, to show the dovetailing detail done to both top and bottom halves. 

The image is at the bottom of the post.






Here is a video of the process of making this lower half dovetail.
Since the dovetail bit would not reach the farther side of my RT, I had to either use my smaller RT (4") or just make a extension for my endmill holder.
I decided to make an extension, so the dovetail bit could reach the workpiece.

Here is the video.

<object width="560" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-Tpo46yiX8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="Next I need to machine off the whole backside of the bottom pieces so as for the top piece to show through.

Thanks, for watching.


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## hobby (Jul 4, 2011)

Hello,
Todays progress has allowed me to finish all the dovetailing and fitting of both top and bottom sections.

To start with this process, I needed to remove all the material here 






so the top section will show through when fitted together with the bottom section.

So using my depth gauge I was able to determine the amount I needed to machine off the back side of these bottom sections.






And the machining proceeded.

















From there I needed to machine off the nubs sticking up above the top sections.






To produce this.











Now time to compare it with the original subject. (vice).
















And the top and bottom fitted together against the original.






OK, time to play around with these pieces and see what kind of designs I can make with them.














And finally the backside (inside) of each assembly.






The most challenging part of this project is done, and surprisingly has turned out to be a sucess.

Next will be to start making the rest of the parts and assembling everything.

Have a great day...


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 4, 2011)

Great job so far!! It's just a simple thing but i'm really getting into this build!


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## hobby (Jul 8, 2011)

Thankyou Steve, I appreciate you following along.
I hope I don't make these posts to boring, with a lot of pictures and simple routine explanations, I'm just trying to make the most out of my WIP threads.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

This line marked out here






Represents this area here,






and this small indentation here on the original subject,






will need to be machined in this area on the prototype build in this area






The best way to do this to keep everything consistent is to use double stick tape and after aligning both workpieces tape them together for further machining operations.






Now to use the old 2 square method to align the flat of the workpieces parrallel to the table






and now using an 1/8" ball endmill, I can start machining that recess into the workpieces.






This shows the next part that needs to be made,






 however on my project, I will attach it to the end of these workpieces, therefor to keep everything within reasonable scale, I'll need to machine these workpieces to a shorter length,






Now time to start fabricating the top front jaw of the vice.

Scale some dimensions on my drawing.





Drill and tap for the leadscrew.





Then drill and ream for the stabilizing bar that keeps the moveable jaw from lifting too much.











Now its time to drill for the screw holes that will attach the front jaw to the rails.
So I need to check the screw head and body size for CB. and thru holes, for 1-64 screws.






Now to locate these screw holes on the workpiece, I could reference off the center here,






However I have no way of referencing the holes on the rails because there is no center to reference from.
The reason is I have both rail sections double stick taped together, for final machining as well as hole placement, so a center reference on the front jaw workpiece has no bearing on the rails.
Therefore, I need to reference the hole locations from the outside EDGE, of each rail.

Here





and here,





Now it is a matter of referencing off of both edges of the top jaw workpiece, to drill the thru holes to attach to the rails. This way here I can keep the edges pretty much in alignment with both top jaw and bottom rails.






Now its time to do the counterboring and thru holes using drill bits for both.
















Now to do the drill and tapping operations on the rail pieces.






With both rail sections taped together I set it up squarely in my vice.






And now its a matter of referencing off of the outside edges to locate the holes.






drill and tap one rail.






Locate off of the outside of the second rail






After both rails are drilled and tapped, the rail pieces can be seperated.






And temporarily screwed together to check for alignment.
















Now to work on the other top jaw, as well as the moveable jaw.
First machine the blocks to size shown at the bottom.






Check the distance in between the rails so the next jaw piece can be machined to fit down inside.






Now this time I will reference everything from the center of the workpieces.






After securing the needed dimensions,






I set up the first workpiece, do all locations, and then set up a workstop for consistency between both workpieces.






And the drilling of the stabilizer bar holes is first. This is done to both pieces.






Now making sure I have a reference edge to set against the workstop so as to keep both pieces in line with eachother, I make a witness mark on the workpieces.






And set that side to the stop






with layout marks on top I align the cutter and start cutting out all the material on each side off of center.






Both jaws the fixed and the moveable are completed on the first phase of the machining process,
they both need to have some profile machining done to them like the original, but for now they are fitted blanks.






Now it's time to check for fit and alignment, I'm using the reamer I used for the blanks to use as a temporary stabilizing bar to see how everything fits and moves, in alignment with eachother.





















Now I need to work on the profiling of these pieces to make them look like the prototype vice.

Thanks for looking in.
Have a great day.


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## ShedBoy (Jul 8, 2011)

Great work so far. Loving this thread. At the end you will have a handy useable toolat the end. Keep all the pics coming, you can't have too many how it is done shots, you never know when you may need a similar set up.
Brock


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## hobby (Jul 10, 2011)

Hi Brock,
Thankyou for the compliment.
and thanks for following along.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,
Now I'm doing the profile milling and shaping on the fixed jaw.

This area here on the vice.






I Need to cut out the back side inbetween both ends.

I drilled using a 1/4" bit to make both starter and ending holes for the slot.






Referencing from the other edge to keep both edges consistent in size with eachother.
















Now I need to edge find once again,






So as to locate the position of the mounting screw holes
Then using a drill for the CB. and another drill for a thru hole, for a 1-64 screw.











And again locate the other edge, using the edges as reference points on this workpiece.
















Now I need to make this angle cut located here, on the prototype vice.






I measured the angle to be around 37*. with a protractor.











Then using 3 of my angle blocks to make up 37*, I then duct taped them together on one side to make it easier to handle the bulk, 






when setting them up in the vice, with the workpiece.






I chose to use a slitting saw to cut the angles on the workpiece.











and the angles cutted.






Now I need to drill and tap for the mounting screws into the rail assembly.






There are several ways of doing this, I chose to go with a direct transfer, by 
using double stick tape, on the workpiece with the holes predrilled






and sticking this workpiece directly in place on the rail assembly.






Then taking this whole assembly to the mill vice, and after squaring it up






I then took the CB drill I used earlier, and used this bit as a line up pin, to align the spindle in the center of the mounting holes.






Then from there drilled






and tapped for 1-64 screw.






Then put a temporary 1-64 screw in that hole, 






While a line up for drilling and tapping the next hole.






Then removing the assembly from the vice I can seperate the parts






and permanently screw the pieces back together.
















Now it's time to do some profile filing.











To make it look close to the original prototype vice.
















Next I'll need to work on the moveable jaw, and add the soft jaws to both these, then the base work.

Thanks for watching.


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 10, 2011)

Freaking awesome!


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## kcmillin (Jul 10, 2011)

This is an awesome project Hobs! What a neat Idea. Your write up is great too.

Kel


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## gbritnell (Jul 10, 2011)

Very nice work on a unique project.
gbritnell


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## hobby (Jul 14, 2011)

Steve, Kel, George,

Thankyou gentleman, for the kind compliments.
and for following along in this thread.

----------------------------------------------

This weeks progress, doing a little each evening, for the last couple days,
it was now time to start working on the moveable jaw, I layed everything out from center of the workpiece,






and now I needed away to keep everything lined up, so I used my reamer, which was used to ream these holes, as the lineup bar.





then I clamped the moveable jaw next to the fixed jaw to line up and transfer a centerpoint, for the nut portion on this jaw, to be drilled at.





drilling and tappping, for this nut portion,





again to keep visual perspective on the workpiece, I did all machining from edge references, rather than center. As I did before, this ensures that features will be very close to mirror images from one side to the other. I could do it all from centerlines, tot, but this seems to be better choice at this point.

Here i'm drilling start holes for the endmill to fit down inside.















Now I bring the endmill down into the hole, to machine the slot forward, on the 'Y' axis.










Now for the fine turning to bring evrything better to size in relation to both sides.















Now the top of the tapped hole needs to have the top portion machined down, to give the appearance of a Nut fixed to the jaw.

So some height adjustments





I used a parrallel on my depth stop to reset the stop for the depth of cut.





and the machining of the top portion,










Now the endmill left a radius against the nut portion on the side edges,










due to the way the slots were machined,
so using a smaller endmill, I repositioned the workpiece to be machined on the horizontal rather than the vertical as before.

lining it up to the slot





and setting the height,





cleaning up the edges





there see,,, that wasn't so bad!!





Now to cut the angles again, at the top of the jaw,

























Now I made some marks to file down to to shape out the nut portion on this workpiece. (moveable jaw)





after some filing,










front angle of model





Next will be, either the base work, or some lathe work for the leadscrew and stabilizer bar.

Have fun in the shop..


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## metalmad (Jul 14, 2011)

Fantastic build mate!!
but your pics need work :big:
I don't know if your digital is the same as mine. but if u hold the button half way it may auto focus.
I also use the flower mode ( micro or something i think its called )

great work .
Pete


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 14, 2011)

Very nice, well documented project.----and I think Pete means "macro".----Brian


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## hobby (Jul 16, 2011)

Pete, Brian, thankyou for the compliments.

I used to use my digital camera, with the autofocus, but it kept on eating up battery power, and I would take the batteries out, and the battery cover is now cracking, so I am now using my "FLIP" (tm), video camera, and using the software that comes with it, to capture snapshots, during a video replay, so I may have some movement going on that the snapshot is taking, that makes it look a little out of focus.
---------------------------

I need to correct myself on the last post, where I said about tapping the nut portion on the moveable jaw. That is wrong, That is a drilled and reamed blind hole, to contain the end of the leadscrew. The only tapping has already been done on the vice body in the back to drive the lead screw.

Todays progress
Time to make the base assembly to assemble temporarily the dovetail slides to check for running fit.

The blank all milled to proper dimensions.





The blank is to big for my vice, by a 1/4"





I could take the back soft jaw off and it would fit,





or I could use my bigger vice, it is a screwless kind,





Now all the edge locating















 to find the center of the workpiece. and drill a reference hole,





now secure the written down dimensions





and start drilling 3/32" holes for 2-56 screws, for the assembly screw holes to mount the top portion to the base.






I decided to give a quick check, 





and I'm glad I did, because my math was off about a 1/4" 
first I checked actual dimensions on the drawing





then transfered that to the drilled workpiece, to see how much error was made





drew the lines to show how far the holes needed to be over too





So to fix it, I used a 3/32" carbide circuit board bit to rout out a slot at each hole location















Now back on track, it was time to drill and tap for 2-56 screws into the bottoms of each dovetail slide piece. First I used a parrallel bar to line the flat bottom portion, of the workpiece up with the vice, to make everything parrallel to the table,





then located , to drill and tap.





anf to check for a sliding fit of the mechanical dovetail slide. Make sure everything lines up after the slots had to be milled out.





Now itts time to do all the slot featurees on the base.
This time when I put the workpiece in my bigger vice, I put the bigger vice into the smaller vice, so I didn't have to take my original small vice back off again. (The kind of setup toolmakers use, with those small toolmakers vices.)





Now since I am starting to put final sanding finishes on these workpieces, I won't scratch any more layout marks, I'll use a soft lead pencil, to locate the center, and any other layout markings.





Now I can drill all the start and stop holes for my mill cutter can than work into.





and the milling at these holes, for slot features on the base of the workpiece.










Now some corner rounding filing





and what is done so far,















Next I'll start setting up to mill a recess on the one dovetailed upright to incorporate a angle guage sticker, and some milling ontop to place a logo sticker of the vice, and drill for pin locations into the dovetail section, as well as a locking pin on the other dovetail section, and a depth stop, ect..
still a little bit more to do, yet,,,

Thanks for looking in,
have a great day...


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## zeeprogrammer (Jul 17, 2011)

I just finished reading this thread through. Very enjoyable...I can't get enough of these kinds of projects. I appreciate the detail too.

Just a side note...re the digital camera. You should be able to get a power cord for it. It's not that expensive and pays for itself (against batteries) quickly. But you do have to be careful with the cord...it's a trip hazard.


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## hobby (Jul 19, 2011)

Carl, (zeep)
Thanks, for looking in.
Also thankyou for the suggestion of getting an AC adaptor, for my camera, I have one ordered, from the amazon.com. Along with another workshop series book, "spindles"

---------------------------------------------------

Ok the progress on this model, is in the area of patience and clear thinking thru on setups.
I want to see if I can duplicate as much as possible the mechanical, and asthetic functions, from the original vise, in this model.

I am now looking over the original vise, and seeing what parts I can do on the model and what I can't do, to keep it close to fidelity, with the original.

These are the areas I would have skipped over, when I first got into this hobby, but now that I have seen the great details that you guys do on your models, I have the inspiration to forge ahead in trying to perfect my abilities in this hobby as well.

So this is the start of the fine details to work on next., To take this from a abstract build, to a close to accurate build of a scale model.

With that all said, here is the details I'm processing now.

On this side of the original vise is a 1/8" deep recess,





and on the other side is another recess, with a angle guage printed on it.





So I need to setup my rotary table to make this cuttings, first I need to once again secure the radius dimensions,





indicate in my RT.





Now, comes some thinking thru, this setup, since I no longer have the original radius hole in the workpieces, I have no way of setting the distance for the radius turning on these pieces.
Several ideas come to mind, such as make a jig to hold the workpieces the required distance away from the RT center, along those lines,

 OR, just set the rotary table the offset distance required, on the 'Y' axis, as I would normally do if I had a radius reference hole present, 





Thennnnn.... do this.....











The spindle was not running, I just set the spindle on the 'Z' axis low enough to make good pencil point contact, then rotated the RT, to make the reference circle.

I know your wondering how acurate that would be, with the drill chuck holding a pencil, well it's not accurate at all, the pencil wobbles quite a bit,

Thats why before I did all that above, I did this FIRST,,,,,,,





even though the pencil body swirved around, the point stayed right on center like a wiggler does.

Time to test fit the workpiece to see if I got a accurate reference circle to line up too.





looks good so far, ok now I'll use some double stick tape





and paste them down onto the wood faceplate, to align them up for later clamping.





hotmelt glue on some backer wood strips to keep everything in alignment










and now the machining of these pieces.
















Thanks for looking in....


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## steamer (Jul 19, 2011)

That's looking AWESOME!  Very well documented! I like the set ups!

Dave


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## Chazz (Jul 20, 2011)

WOW! Thm: 

Chazz


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## hobby (Jul 20, 2011)

Steamer (Dave), and Chazz,

Thankyou Gentleman, for the kind compliments.
It is much appreciated.
------------------------------------------------

This evening has been, one of careful thinking and laying out of areas for machining on the workpiece.

I am working on making the clamping system 










it utilizes three components
a clamping screw, and a gib washer, (more on that in a moment) and a block with a tapped hole to recieve the clamping screw, situated on the interior of the vice floor.





the gib washer is a washer that has a dovetail feature cut into it at the top





it is located in the hole bored into the vice dovetailed bottom slide










then the clamping screw bolts onto the inside block.





The system is set up so that the dovetailed slide has a hole cut part way through it





 to allow the dovetailed washer





 to bear against the top dovetail portion of the vice, so when the clamp screw is tightened, it forces the washer to cinch the top of the vice dovetail portion, thereby clamping it in position.

Now further investigation of this shows that the hole bored into the vice, does not go all the way through, but allows a small portion of the dovetail slide to stay intact




this is so that the top dovetail slide will have a continuous bearing surface to ride smoothly on, as well as keeping the strength of this intact as well.

Now this leftover portion is raised a bit 





above the nut housing block





here you can see the continuation of the dovetail slide with the hole bore partly trough it.





OK, the best way for me to duplicate this marvelous mechanical design of a clamping system, is to choose reference points to work from.
The most obvious and best choice would be to reference everything from the center of the bore





I'll use the left edge





and the top




to locate the bore on the workpiece

clamping a straight edge to the back side I can get dimensions needed





and setting a parrallel on top to get these dimensions needed.





transfer these dimensions to the workpiece










then checking for hole alignment I used a compass to draw a 1/2' circle to represent the final bore size for my model




the original bore size is 1" so to keep to scale I using 1/2"

Now to make sure I know when to stop the bore so as to keep the leftover material intact, I need one last measurement of the thickness of the workpiece.





Now even though I used the top edge of the original vise to get the dimensions to locate the bore,
I will now use the bottom of the workpiece to do all edge finding 





and secure dimensions




to do all the machining.

The reason for this is because when I layout the nut block to get it in the right position, so the holes line up with the center of this bore, I will need to use the bottom of the block to reference off of, the top has no bearing on this matter seeing it is sticking up in the air and not grounded to anything with the piece it mates to.
But the bottom of both workpieces have a common ground.

machining operation begins





Now if I can I like to make a locating hole as soon as possible before any major work is done
since I'll be tapping with a 10-32 thread I can use a #21 bit to satisfy the locator hole.





Now I better check and make sure this hole did NOT get into the dovetail portion,, how acurate was my layout, well I can only tell by using a mirror to get underneath all this stuff to take a look





UH OH, OH NO, that hole is pretty close to the dovetail, AHH, did I mess up that much,

lets see how the original looks




WHEWWW, the original has its clearance hole close to its dovetail too, OK, then looks like it is close to scale at this point, so it should be ok then.

OK now I can set the depth of cut





Nope can't use these largish dia. drill bits, I wanted to use a 31/64 drill bit drill to specific depth, then ream to 1/2" diameter, buuuuttt, the depth I'm going is only around 1/4" and the large dia. bits have there large flutes in that area, I need a round flat bottom hole,

OK, I'll use these




start out small, and work my way up to 1/2" dia.

Now that the depth stop is set, I'll need to lacate the 'Z' axis for each change of endmill.





and away we go...















glad that's done.




see the slot at the top to allow the dovetailed washer to bear against the slide.

Here, see if this shows it better.....





alright how about this way.....does it show more that way...





 it is probably hard to tsee itl, but I'm sticking a 1/2" piece of rod into the bore, to check for it protruding through the interior dovetail..





As the top portion is in position, you can see it's dovetailed slide through this clamping slot.





and this part is acomplished, Thank GOD...





Thanks for looking in,
Have fun in the shop..


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## gbritnell (Jul 21, 2011)

Hi Hobby,
 I have been following your thread from day one. You are doing a great job on an interesting project but I must ask, what kind of camera are you using? Is there a macro adjustment or some kind of close up setting that you could use? It's a shame to document your entire build with 'fuzzy' pictures. Sometimes it's just a matter of hitting the right button to help with the focus.
 At any rate, keep up the good work and I will still be following along.
gbritnell


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## hobby (Jul 21, 2011)

Hi George,
Thankyou very much for the compliment, and thankyou, for folowing along in this thread, it means a lot to me.

The camera I am using is my "flip video" camera, I can take a couple seconds shot of video, (I try to hold everything still during these shots just as if I were using a still photography camera), and then I use the program that is built inside it, that automatically is installed on my computer, to use the option of "snapshot" it allows me to replay the video, then stop it and save it as a snapshot, the camera I believe is very good in clarity, when I take videos from a normal distance, it seems like it is the very closeups, that get all fuzzy.

I think I know how to remedy that, instead of bringing the camera real closeup to the subject, I should keep the normal distance, and use it's zoom lens feature, I think that may work better.

I do have a cable power adaptor coming for my 10 yr. old digital camera, but It is very difficult to use, because the button is on the right side, and I do most of my snapshots holding the camera in my left hand, so as to have my right hand available to do the shopwork.

So I really would like to keep on using my video camera, which when put on it's stand I can have both hands available for shop work,, so hopefully by using the zoom feature, it would make the closeups more clearer, if not than I'll go back to my digital camera with the power cable.

I'll have to play around with this in this thread.

I was wondering I made some videos in this thread also, I don't know if anyone really wanted to view them or not, mainly because it looks like you have to click on a link to bring up my youtube channel, and I personally know that when I see those links, I don't bother to watch them, because they take so long to get to the video, but if there is a youtube video picture embeded right in the persons post, I always click on it, knowing it would start up quickly.

I don't know why my youtube links don't put a picture embeded into my posts, instead it always puts a link to my chennel, that's enough to deter people from bothering to look at it.

But these links do bring up the video very quickly, because they are embeded in my posts.

Thanks again for following along,

George, you and quite a few other people on here, are a great inspiration to hobby machining, it's because I see how you take the time to set up your RT, even if its for a few operations only, then reset your vise back on the table, it's seeing how you take that extra effort, and your builds exceeds all these efforts, with magnificent results.
It is these small things you show in your post, that makes me want to take the extra time and effort to go that extra distance to produce results above the ordinary, ordinary for me are square corners, no filling or sanding but abstract block construction, with mechanical movements.

So thanks for how you share your talents with us, and give us that extra boost to take our machining to the next level.


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## kustomkb (Jul 21, 2011)

You are doing a great job on this project and this thread!

Did you complete the sim?

For photographing in the shop I tapped a piece of 3/8 stock and bottom out a short length of 1/4-20 stud with a jam nut. This screws into the tripod mount of your camera (if it has one) and the 3/8's end is held in a mag base. For bench shots I put the mag base on a heavy block of steel. This really helps to steady the camera.

Have fun!


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## hobby (Jul 22, 2011)

KustomKB,
 Thanks for looking in 
and thanks for the suggestion about the camera, I have a tripod for my flip video, it will fit in the digital still camera too, about the "sim" project, it is on hold for now, I am done with all the model engineering aspect of it, (machining, and mechanical design).
But I will work on it later on, which will be making a light weight (maybe balsa wood) structure for it, as the photo shows, it will be a project of model design and building, like those old stick model airtplanes, we used to build back in years yonder...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today I wanted to work on this part of the vice, it is the locking nut housing with a rib connecting to a zero adjustment bolt flange.





I sketched out the relevant positions on the workpiece.





Now I began to take some dimensions, such as the length between the housing and the flange





I'll start by taking the depth of cut needed from the backside of the nut housing to the backside of the adjustment bolt flange.





And by taking a 1" diameter round rod (alumminum) and chucking it into my 5C collet spin jig.
I transfer these dimensions to the workpiece.





Touch off and set the 'Z' axis to final depth of cut, on the backside of the workpiece.





Using the backside as a zero reference, on the spin jig.





I now cut to the bolt flange





that would be this area here on the model base.





which is this area here on the original subject.





the back side milled to the flange





Now that the backside is milled flat, I want to machine a flat bottom, to know how much to machine off I guage the width of the nut housing block from the previous machuined back section to the front, this will determine how far into the round bar I need to machine to get this width cut.





To machune the bottom I turn the spin jig 90* backwards or at the 270* mark shown on the jig.





Now the backside is facing the front, so the bottom side is ontop, ready for machining.





Now with my guage set to the width of the nut housing, from previous measurement, I can now mark the front side of the workpiece using the dividers referenced off the back edge, (which is now at the fromt in this photo), by making a mark, like this




it establishes the width of the nut housing, as well as the depth of cut needed to attain that width
.
So now I can set the depth of cut to this mark.





And machine away the material needed to establish the bottom section.





Now to recap,

I set the jig to 270*





to machine the bottom side,





I set the jig to 0* 





to machine the back side.





I set the jig to 90*





to machine the top side





and set the jig to 180*





to machine the front side.





Now I spin the jig so that the front side is ontop .





so it can be machined to final width in dimensioin











which will end up here on the model





Now I need to secure the heigth dimension of the nut housing





and transfer that dim. to the workpiece





set the depthstop to that mark





and machine away the material to bring the top height in.





that is this area here (the heigth dimension) on the original.





Now I establish the length of the nut housing and transfer that dimension to the workpiece





that mark will be the start of the machining of the connecting rib shown here on the original





I need to get another dimension, and that is to scale down this width of the rib, on the original





transfer the last two dimensions to the workpiece, this will establish the heigth, length and width of this rib feature.





Now to make the start position of this rib, I take a little at a time on the 'Y' axis and using an endmill, I drive the 'Z' axis into the workpiece, about 50 thou. of 'Y' travel for each plunge of 'Z' 










Then work the 'X' axis across to make the entire rib length. This is the front of the rib section being machined out.





Now that plunge cut at the nut housing intersection, left a rounded interior edge, so the nice thing about a spinjig setup, is I can rotate the jig to make this side be ontop so as to machine that rounded edge to a square corner.




Did I mention, I like to use my spin jig, for complicated workpieces like this.
Rather than a vice. When facets need to be machined on 2 or more sides.

likje this





now the top of the rib machined to final heigth.










looking at the original, the zero adj. bolt flange is at the same heigth as the top of the rib





So I'll take a transfer measurment of the length of this whole section





and transfer that as a mark on the workpiece





as well as the final distasnce between the nut housing and bolt flange





and transfer that mark on here





and now the finish dimensional milling to bring everything into specs.

























done to this point

























Now machine the end to finished length, 





to temporarily c heck for finish fit in the model










Next will be some filling and profile work on this piece, then probably work on the rest of the base, and work my way up to the top section, all the lathe work I'll save for last.

Have a great day..


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## hobby (Jul 23, 2011)

Today I attached the nut housing / bolt flange, to the model base. 





with 1-64 screws at the bottom of the base





then with everything in place I traced out the outline





to mimick the void in the original





with it all marked out





I drilled the start and stop holes





And cut out the interior with a 3/16" endmill





Then took it aside to do some filling work to the base .





and the nut housing / bolt flange

























and the tilting angle.





Now I'll take my time to do the finish work on the pieces, as well as the other items to machine to put on this model. The locking mechanism, and the leadscrew, and stabilizer bar. ect...

Have fun in the shop..


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 24, 2011)

Looking really good!!


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## steamer (Jul 24, 2011)

Hi Hobby,

Nice bit of thinking there....hanging on to that part via the "Mother piece" and an indexer is about the easiest way I can think of to do it.  

Dave


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## zeeprogrammer (Jul 24, 2011)

Beautiful work hobby.


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## hobby (Jul 24, 2011)

Steve, Dave, Carl

Thankyou guys, for the compliments, it's much appreciated...
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did some small work on the base of the model today.
I drilled and tapped for 10-32 thread for the locking mechanism,
I put the whole model base assembly in the vice on my drill press, and used the 1/2" endmill I used earlier to CB this hole, as a line up tool,





Then drilled and tapped.





Now here I needed to use my CAD program, 





but not for drafting, but for art work,
I needed to accurately print out a angle guage,





then to reinforce the printside, I put a piece of clear scotch tape over it,











then using JB WELD I glued it on to the model base





I'm working on the base of the model first before I move up to the vise part.

Probably the next thing would be to make the locking mechanism, so as to be able to lock it in posistion as I drill the index holes on the gauge side.
Than the base part would be done on this model.

Have fun in the shop...


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## kcmillin (Jul 24, 2011)

Very Nice Job Hobs. I love your attention to the details. This is something to be proud of for sure. :bow:

Kel


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## hobby (Jul 27, 2011)

Kel,
Thanks for the compliment, and thanks for looking in.

------------------------------------

I put about an hour in this evening, to get the locking mechanism built.
I machined a piece of aluminum rod, down to 1/2" dia. and drilled a thru hole to fit a body diameter screw of 10-32..






The only way I could think of to mark the location of the dovetail cut was to put this blank into it's hole, and mark whwere it sticks thru on the inside like this.










Then line it up in my milling vice





and cut the dovetail into it.










Now to take a depth measurement





and mark it on the rod, to use a cutoff tool on it,















This tightens up fairly well, and does not do any damage to the top dovetail slide, so it fits quite well, here I'm using a 10-32 screw to test the locking part of it.





Now that I can lock it pretty good, next to do on this, will be to make the pointer for it, and install it, then using the pointer and guage, and locking mechanism, together I could then drill the appropriate indexing holes, then it will be time to work on the lathe parts of this model.
As well as some soft jaws for it too.
Still have some more finishing details to do to it yet.

Have fun in the shop...


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## hobby (Jul 29, 2011)

Hello,
Another hour's work this evening in my shop.

I'm making this angle guage pointer





so using some hobby shop brass sheet




I can make this part from.

Take some measurements on the model to know how big to make the pointer length





as well as actual width measurements on the original





so I can scale it down





sketch it on the workpiece




and cut it out.






Now I need to adjust the angle of the model vise, to a zero level, the best way to do that is to use a travel indicator, and sweep it from front to back on the model vise rail. To get a zero reading.





Now I can mark the zero on the model 





to know where to put the pointer piece, using contact cement.





with the model vise locked in position with the pointer on the zero, I can set it up in my drill press, to drill the indexing holes.





the first hole drilled, this is the zero angle indexed hiole. Also the main index pin hole in the frontice piece.





every 15* another indexing hole is drilled in.





until a full 90* is reached.





to finish the base of this model, looks like indexing pin and chain, and locking bar, and zero adjust bolt, which is pretty much all lathe work.

Have fun in the shop...


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## hobby (Jul 30, 2011)

Hello,
Today starts the lathe work, on the model's base features.

Start with making the zero adjustment bolt and nut.










which will go here on the model





There made from aluminum round bar stock,
The process begins:


















































and fitted in its position.





Now the indexing pin





and its process






























and the chain connector





all these pieces are from aluminum round stock
its process

























both index pin and connector





need to tap into the front, for the chain connector, 2-56 thread.





I don't have any model chain on hand, so I'm using dark green enamaled wire to substitute,
the indexing pin is now connected to the connector, via the wire chain and the pin is in place on the 30* angle guage.





Here is the temporary 10-32 screw used to test the locking mechanism on the model.





I'm going to replace it now with the handle system as shown on the original





start with the locking screw part










I need to check the dia. so as to scale it down to know what size hole





 to bore into the workpiece. to recieve the handle bar.





that part done.





and in place





now the last part is the handle itself.





This consists af the entire locking mechanism, the dovetail locking gib bushing at the top, the locking screw, and the handle bar, the handle bar is made in two pieces





so it can be screwed together for final assembly to the locking screw.





OK,,,sit back and enjoy the rest of this slide show.




































Ok that should take care of all the model pieces on the base system, now I can start moving into the vise top section, I'll need to take my time and not rush things to make this look and function properly.

Thanks for looking in,
Have a great day..


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 30, 2011)

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## dsquire (Jul 31, 2011)

hobby

Very interesting build, I'll be watching till the end. Great job hobby. :bow: :bow:

Cheers 

Don


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## hobby (Aug 5, 2011)

Steve, Don,

Thankyou guys for looking in, and the compliments.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Now it's time to machine a set screw





which will go here





as like this, preparing the moveable jaw for the setscrew





and now the set setscrew, made from aluminum round rod





make a screwdriver slot





mini hacksaw it off










and put it in it's place on the moveable jaw.





now the stabilizing bar





and on the model





Now to make the leadscrew





my leadscrew will be 5/16-18 so need to secure the body dimensions from a cap screw of thast size.





now take all the leadscrew dimensions from the original










And the fabrication begins










check for threaded fit, with the model itself.





now to make the relief at the end of the leadscrew that goes into the moveable jaw at this area





and on the model





get all the dimensions needed from the model workpiece, such as hole depth





transfer it to the leadscrew





and machine it to size





check for sliding fit





now to locate where the setscrew will be located on the leadscrew










theres the mark left by the setscrew bearing down on it here





now I need to cut a recess in this area for the setscrew to float inside of it




















now to check to make sure the slot (recess is deep enough to allow the setscrew to penetrate the empty space far enough





here are both ppieces ready for assembly





now to make the handle for the leadscrew,















I need to drill and tap a threaded hole on one end to allow a cap to be put on after the handle is in place on the leadscrew.










cut to final length of the handle before second endcap is put on.










now the endcap is made















temp. put together





now to locate and drill a hole in the leadscrew to recieve the handle subassembly.










Now I turn my attention to machining the softjaws,





I need to fabricate 4 cap screws like the original shown here, these hold the softjaws on the hard jaws,





but first I need to drill the thru holes in the hardjaws on the model, so I'll center each hole in between the recesses cutout on the moveable jaw first, 





with everything set up and located I can drill the body diameter holes first for 4-40 screws





Now I need to counterbore for the capscrews , I don't want to use an endmill, it may grab the workpiece, in my drillpress, so I opted, to use a dremel round profile burr, as shown here





it did a nice job of cutting very smoothly a CB.










Now when I made those last two holes, I used the recesses machined in the workpiece to center the holes, however, on the front jaw, there is one continuous recess machined throughout, therefor, I need to use the center of the inside recess as the reference point to work off of, but first I need to transfer the distance each hole is off center of the moveable jaw here,





to make these holes line up with the fixed jaw over here,





now the hole model top assembly containing the fixed jaw, is setup in the drillpress, for hole locations





and now the drilling process is underway










Next will be the making and assembly of the softjaws on the model, and do some final finishing work and it will be a completed model.

I will then post a picture of it in the next post, with a short video clip of it, being put through it's mechnaical movements.

Thanks for looking in.

Have a great day..


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## ShedBoy (Aug 5, 2011)

This little vice is looking great! Nice work Hobby 
Brock


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## hobby (Aug 6, 2011)

Thankyou Brock, for the compliment
-------------------------------------

Hello everyone, 

This project is now completed, it was an enjoyable project, it had a major challenge, which was doing the radial dovetailing, figuring a way to hold the workpieces to machine those.
Also I tried to keep as much to scale as possible, for me, as well as keeping as much of the details incorporated into the model, as the original.

The screw fastneners I used to assemble the workpieces are not part of the original, because the original used a casting, so those fasteners are commercialy available and those I used.
But any other fastners used in the original, I fabricated from aluminum round stock, as these were scaled down versions, as well as part of the feaures needed to be modeled.
For example,The hex bolt and nut for zero adjustment as well as any setscrews, and capscrews.
To substitute for the chain, used to keep the index pin, I used some solid green enameled wire, which works ok for this application.

I also incorporated the same components used in the locking device, which utilizes a locking dovetailed gib bushing, and bolt and threaded block in the back of the unit.

Here is a series of pictures taken with my digital camera, for better clarity, of the finished model.
























































Thankyou everyone for following along in this thread, and thankyou for the compliments throughout this thread.

Have a great day.


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## stevehuckss396 (Aug 6, 2011)

Bravo Hobby!

I really enjoyed this thread. Love it when someone goes off in a different direction to create something original. Great idea and execution. Thanks for posting progress so we could follow along.


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## steamer (Aug 6, 2011)

Nicely done Hobby!

A karma from me

Dave


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## kcmillin (Aug 6, 2011)

Well Done Hobb's!! This is a great project, with Awesome results.

So, are you going to use it?

Kel


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## hobby (Aug 6, 2011)

Steve:
 I'm glad you enjoyed following along in this thread.
Thankyou for your perseverance, and the encouraging compliments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave:
 Thankyou for your encouraging compliments, and your perseverance also.
and yes also, thanks for the Karma point.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kel::
Thankyou also for your perseverance, and the encouragements you gave me along the way.
This project was done strictly as a model, not intended for any shop use, but just to display along with my other projects.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to see if I have enough experiance in my shop now, to be able to take my time and build as close as possible a scaled version of a mechanical device.
Building to scale is fun to do, although my scale versions are not entirely precise as more seasoned modelers are able to do in this hobby.
But this is just a start, now I'll try to improve on the concepts of scale modeling, as I learn by doing more projects, in this hobby.

Thanks guys for looking into my thread
and all the encouragements you shared with me.

Have a great day....


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## gbritnell (Aug 7, 2011)

Great work Hobby,
I agree with Steve. It' nice to see a different type of project worked on. Of course why wouldn't I say that, I like doing the same types of things. Very nice documentation and execution. 
gbritnell


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## kustomkb (Aug 7, 2011)

That turned out really slick hobby!

Thanks for the tips and detailed progress reports.


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## hobby (Aug 7, 2011)

George, and Kevin,

Thankyou guys for the nice complements,
and thanks for following along, it's been a pleasure presenting it.

Have a great day.


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## zeeprogrammer (Aug 7, 2011)

Beautiful work and a great thread. Very enjoyable.
I like these kinds of projects...it makes one think about more possibilities.


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## dsquire (Aug 7, 2011)

Hobby

I haven't posted about this before but I have been watching if come to life as you worked on it. You can be proud of your accomplishment and I look forward to see what your next challenge will be. Thanks for the excellent way in which you presented the build log to us. :bow:

Cheers 

Don


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## hobby (Aug 8, 2011)

Carl:
 Thankyou for the complement, and folowing along, 

Your right, I know what you mean, about the more possibilities,
even the very simple things of todays manufacturing, may be simple to make comercially,
but in the "hobby" field of machining, it can provide some quite unusual challenges to try to replicate that same thing. 


Don:
Thankyou, also, for the very encouraging complement, and following along in this thread.


Thanks guys,
have a great day.


----------

