I hate my vice

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dnalot

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From trash to treasure.

I hate my old vice, the one on the left. My new vice the one on the right is great. No I didn't get that crossed, the mangy looking vice on the right IS my new one. The crappy one has the drive screw under the jaws. When they come together the jaws peak upward leaving the part tilted and lose. No amount of adjustment corrected the problem. It's now my new doorstop. My old doorstop for the past 20 years has been a part of a milling fixture I picked up at Boeing surplus ( I miss that place). Rusted hunk of Cra* with a dovetail and two dovetailed blocks. I think it was used in machining gears. It was almost a vice but it had no jaws. So a day soaking in vinegar to get the rust off and two hours fitting two pieces of 5/8 hot roll steel into jaws. Took me two days scrapping and honing them till true. The screw has finer threads and it drives the jaw on center. What a difference, very little pressure needed to hold the part and the part doesn't need to be shimmed to make it square. I still tap the part down but I don't think I need to. Did I tell you I hate my old vice?

new vice.jpg
 
I hate most of my vices, too, but I'm pretty happy with my vise.

vice
vīs/
noun: immoral or wicked behavior

vise
vīs
noun: a metal tool with movable jaws that are used to hold an object firmly in place while work is done on it, typically attached to a workbench

Sorry. Some times I can't resist being a smart ass. :)

Reminds me of a Winston Churchill quote, said about another politician: "He has all of the virtues I dislike, and none of the vices I admire."

Nice new vise, tho! Nothing worse than fighting your vise all day. My doorstop is a Palmgren milling attachment that I bought for my Atlas Lathe for, I think, something like $129. One use and I tossed it across the shop. It landed by the door, which gave me the idea for a doorstop. Maybe I should see if I can make a vise out of it.
 
I like my vices:

Salt
Beer
Whiskey
Sugar
Fat
etc. :)

...ved.
 
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My only vice is being deceptive... Maybe


Sent from my iPad using Model Engines
 
My dad had a vise just like that on his Clausing mill they are a pain in the butt to work with.

Todd
 
Sorry. Some times I can't resist being a smart ass. :)
vice
/vʌɪs
A metal tool with movable jaws which are used to hold an object firmly in place while work is done on it, typically attached to a workbench.
(US vise)

nor can I :)
 
I made my own for everyday use. I do have a couple of others but these do most of what I want.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8PYsMuimqY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUvgjaFKOYZ2ICOBKcoQ-9jA[/ame]

Jim
 
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With conventional vices there has to be some play in the moving jaw, otherwise it would not move. There are long established methods for dealing with this and ensuring accurate work with an imperfect vice. The vice provides two datum faces: the top of the slideway, parallel to the work table; and the fixed jaw, perpendicular to it. To use the slideway as datum, rest the job on parallels and use pull-downs between the jaws and the work. Pull-downs are strips of metal with a parallelogram section:

_______........... _________
...........| _____ |
...Job....|/_____/|.....Jaw
...........|...........|

You have to rest them on packers while you put just enough pressure on to hold them in place, then with the packer pushed out the whole lot can be clamped up and the offset between the contact points with the job and the jaw result in a couple which pushes the job down onto slideway of the vice. If you have them the wrong way round they lift the job instead and you get a clattering noise and sundry pieces of metal widely scattered.

For using the fixed jaw as datum, you put a roller between the moving jaw and the job.

BTW the English spelling is 'vice', what Americans do is a matter for them.
 
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Argh! The ascii art above is mangled beacuse the system appears to condense white space.

Later edit: I have tried editing it by putting some white dots in, it makes more sense now. YMMV.
 
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Charles- Great tip, thanks! Can't wait to try it!
 
The vice on my shaper is a cheap import cobbled affair a drill press vice.
To buy a real shaper vice can cost more than I paid for the shaper.
It always comes down to :
find a work around
buy a better vice or
Build a better vise.
Like any other tool a good one is a pleasure . a poor one teaches us words we dare not speak in public. But also perseverance and creativity.

When I was in trade school we were taught to place a piece of round stock between the movable jaw and the stock to account for un square material to be squared in the mill. I have been know to use wood to
help hold uneven part . And I use a piece of brass hex regularly in the shaper vice to take up the uneven un square nature of the vise jaw.

Tin
 

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