Homemade vise wide and low

[I. Klemetti]

Thank you for your kind comments. I have yet to use this device but your comments suggest it might be useful

The jaws don't have tenons as I thought it would be an advantage to be able to adjust the jaws to hacksaw-sawn workpieces. (Or was I just lazy?) The screws of the moveable block are tightened just enough to remove any slack between the block and the table.

The standard milling vise will not hold long&wide&thin jobs. Clamp on the sides is waste of material and also having to trim off the sides.

Gus, these are exactly the reasons I ended up making this.

I always have problems getting supplies of bright steel but I reckon I could use pieces of keysteel which is readily available for this.

By coincidence, I made mine from keysteel as I just happened to have some.

Ilkka

 

[bazmak]

Anybody else going to build.Just a thought,rebate 2 corners for different sized steps .Buy and adapt the threaded section of a couple of G clamps to form the pusher screws.Anybody else please build on this thread and see what grows

 

[DJP]

As much as I like my wide and low home made vise it can't beat a bolt down clamp set for rigidity. Holding a work piece by the edges has meant light cuts in my experience and the jaws tend to loosen so they need constant checking.

A low and wide is nice to make use of the full table area but it is not as strong as you may think.

Just some comments of caution for the discussion.

 

[bazmak]

I agree with what you have said,however i do use the steps in vise jaws quite a lot.rather than paralels.Most milling on small bench mills is light anyway
and i do like this design for drilling multiple holes in larger plts

 

[I. Klemetti]

I am aware of the limitations of this way to hold workpieces. My mill is Proxxon FF 230 so I really cannot plunge into metal with it.

Well, as blocks with some holes is good so blocks with more holes should be even better. So I drilled and tapped twelve more. Now I can hold circular pieces as well. As you can see in the last picture the movable block can not be re-tightened after a large piece is clamped. I cannot do that with a conventional vise either.

Ilkka

 

[petertha]

That's a neat idea. Do you do anything special like round over the ends of lateral clamping bolts or recess the block where the bolt ends contact?

I've heard that good milling vises have geometry which results in some secondary element of down force into the part (in this assembly, tending to seat the part down into the recess groove as opposed to 100% straight horizontal force. But maybe that's more headache and/or not necessary.

I like the fact that its low profile for larger slabs outside the range of mill vise, even if just for fly cutting.

 

[I. Klemetti]

Do you do anything special like round over the ends of lateral clamping bolts or recess the block where the bolt ends contact?

No, the bolt ends are left as is. And no recesses for the bolts in the middle block. I thought this would allow the block to conform to the workpiece more freely. (Another lazy man's excuse.)

ilkka

 

[DJP]

The movable jaw will lift when tightened in this simple vise design which I compare to a drill press vise. My solution has been to let it lift then as a final tightening step, clamp down the movable jaw tight to the bed. This wedges the jaw harder into the work piece for max holding.

A vertical groove cut into one jaw will hole round pieces well.

The best part of this simple design is that it can remain at the ends of the bed and not interfere with a precision vice mounted in the middle of the bed which holds 90% of my work.

I like this separate jaw vise design as it is easily made. You don't need a vise to make this vise so it's like bootstrapping a new mill to make it more productive. Making this vise should be the first project for anyone new to milling when they acquire their first machine.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

DJP,

So the bolts just bear against the side of the movable jaw?

 

[DJP]

I'm not sure of your question. My homebuilt vice has horizontal bolts that push the moveable jaw towards the fixed jaw but it also has vertical bolts that run in the table slot to T nuts. The fixed jaw is always squared and tightened down while the moveable jaw T nut is left slightly loose until the last step which takes away the jaw lift and further tightens against the work piece.

The vise design works but it's not as simple as tightening up a Kurt type milling vise, in my experience. My home built wide and low is not my primary holding vice. It's actually my third choice if precision vice and hold down clamps are not usable.

 

[FCJimmy]

I love that idea of the extra bolts sticking up to do odd shapes or round work. I chose not to put the small step in the top of my jaws to hold thin stock just because I wanted to be able to still clamp small model engine type parts at the top edge of the jaws, and figured I'd just make do with parallels if needed. With your method, thin stock could still be worked by using bolts or pins or something the right thickness on top of the jaws to grip whatever is laying on top of them. I'm now going to further modify mine, but attached are current pictures of the vise I just finished making as my first milling project. The first pic is narrowing of some T nuts I had that wouldn't quite fit in my mill table grooves. The next pic shows all the parts upside down. I use the ball bearings between the jaw-tightening bolts and the slide rods which push the jaw forward, as that makes the bolts turn easier with less friction. The third pic shows that by making the end holes oblong (oval), the stationary jaw can be angled quite a bit.

 

[bazmak]

Another improvement.Combine 2 short slide pins in line with the pusher screws
and still have hold down screws for the moving jaw.Things are getting better from a simple idea.Will try combine all to my next set. Maybe a ball inbetween the slide pin and end of the pusher screw Thanks Barry

 

[FCJimmy]

I drilled and reamed the holes for the slide pins through both the moving jaw and the "anchor" block very accurately so that the moving jaw can only lift if the rods bend or spring, and when setting up to hold a part the rods are all the way into the "anchor" block, and when I tighten the vise "push bolts" the jaw is only about 1/32 to 1/16 inch away from the "anchor block" I may find that for really accurate work I will need to put in a hold-down bolt in the center of the moving jaw, and maybe even the other small jaw, but so far it seems that won't be necessary. As I said, this is my first actual milling job, so time will tell