Mill Vice Alignment

[Brian Rupnow]

One of the things that has always made me a bit crazy is making sure that my milling vice is set up with its jaws perfectly parallel to the travel of the mill table. Even though I have keyed the bottom of the vice to fit into the T slots in the mil table, there is still enough "play" to allow a total runout of about 0.025" over the 11 inch travel of my milling table. Today I decided I was going to come up with a way to set things up easier. I took a good look at my craftex mill and discovered a couple of M5 tapped holes in the head just between the quill downfeed handle and the side of the head. I found a peice of 2" square Bosch aluminum extrusion x about 12" long that I could clamp in my milling vice. I drilled a couple of clearance holes in a peice of 1/2" x 3/8" aluminum bar x10" long to correspond with the tapped holes in the head of the mill. Then I bolted a peice of 1/2" x 3/4" aluminum bar to this vertical peice (it has red layout dye on it in the picture) and drilled a 3/8" hole though it to hold my dial indicator. I drilled and tapped a hole at the end for a #10-24 socket head cap screw and put a sawcut from the end of this horizontal peice thru to the 3/8" hole to let me clamp the shank of the dial indicator. Now I can set it up as shown in the picture, with about 3/4" of the extrusion sticking up above the top of the vice to provide a nice smooth flat surface for the end of the dial indicator to run on. By cranking the mill table back and forth over its full 11" of travel, I can quickly verify that the vice jaws are parallel to the mill table travel, and make any adjustments I need to the vice. When not in use I remove the two M5 bolts and hang my set-up tool on the wall behind the mill. this could have been done with a magnetic base and stand, but on my little Craftex mill there is nowhere on the head to stick the magnetic base.---Brian

 

[Deanofid]

Brian, do you suppose that extruded aluminum is really flat, or does it have machined surfaces? Can't tell for sure from the pic.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I know its flat. I indicated the vice to be exactly parallel, then reversed the extrusion end for end in the vice and checked again over the full length and the indicator never moved.

 

[lathe nut]

Thanks Brian, that is a neat way to do it, going to do that on my Mini Mill, Lathe Nut

 

[Omnimill]

I was taught to set up the vice by mounting a DTI (lever type) in a collet in the chuck. The vice has a parallel firmly mounted in the vice jaws as the bearing surface. This setup is very rigid so you can achieve a zero error.

Vic.

 

[Omnimill]

Third pic (animation) down, shows how it's done.

http://www.finelinehair.com/home/RF_mill_accessories.htm

Vic.

 

[itowbig]

vic that was good reading there for and the pics too thank u.

 

[Omnimill]

It's a pretty good website Sid with some good tips.

Vic.

 

[Kermit]

I guess I'm missing the true function of this jig.

How can using the side of the head casting assure the travel is parallel with the spindle?

Is this done after the head is aligned perfectly upright? ???


Newbie strikes again,
Kermit

 

[Kermit]

I've come back to this topic a dozen times today...

Plenty of people are reading it based on the view count that keeps rising and rising.

I'm tired of logging in and coming back to check this topic for an answer. I would post the question as a seperate topic on its own, but it occured to me while I was looking at Brians setup so I asked it here instead.

Stupid newbie expected an answer,

 

[vlmarshall]

How can using the side of the head casting assure the travel is parallel with the spindle?

I've come back to this topic a dozen times today...
Plenty of people are reading it based on the view count that keeps rising and rising.
I'm tired of logging in and coming back to check this topic for an answer. I would post the question as a seperate topic on its own, but it occured to me while I was looking at Brians setup so I asked it here instead.
Stupid newbie expected an answer,

It doesn't matter if the head is tilted; as long as it's not flopping around while the table is moving, the indicator is stationary and will measure the runout of the part in the vise.

 

[gary55ford]

Hi Vern
We have 3 manual mills, 1 cnc knee mill, and 1 cnc bed mill and we have set the mill vices by putting the DTI lever type in a collet in the spindle and a new piece of 3/4"x1-1/2"x18" precision ground tool steel in the vise and dial it in . Then we drilled& reamed 3/16" holes through the vise & mill table and put hardened steel dowel pins in it. Makes it real quick to put the vice back on just put the pins in and bolt it down. they have been pinned for over 15years and are still +/- .001 when indicated