It's been a while since I posted anything. I have seen a couple Youtube videos on float vises for drilling and decided to have a go. What I ended up with was similar to the drawings that I found but modified to fit what I had in the shop and my skill level.
There were challenges, here is my shaggy dog story. When I started I found a 5/8" rod in my stash that had very good diameter consistency, less than half a thou. This was fine until I started to figure out what I needed to get a precise honed 5/8" hole. I didn't have a 39/64 drill and really didn't want to buy one. I settled on using a 5/8 drill that I had and a 5/8 hone. The result was a loose fit on the fixed rod that I had to deal with later.
The next issue was the threaded rod. It turns out that 1/2-10 acme threaded rods are cheap. I found a acme tap on ebay for am acceptable price. I sort of knew that an acme tap had to remove a lot of metal and could be a challenge. It was... It took the better part of an hour to tap the hole. Lots of small steps forward and back. But, still have a working tap along with a threaded jaw.
The final issue was that the loose fit on the fixed rod allowed the moveable jaw to deflect and the grip was poor. My fix was to put a .040 taper on the moveable jaw. That made the moveable jaw align with the fixed jaw under tension. I used a 1/4-20 cap screw to secure the fixed jaw and it is solid. I don't see this as a functional concern. The only reference plane is the drill press table. Everything else just holds the work piece where needed.
Everything else knobs, clamp block, etc. were basic machining. The ones on the web have a fancy knob to tighten the vise. I may have a go in the future,
Will
There were challenges, here is my shaggy dog story. When I started I found a 5/8" rod in my stash that had very good diameter consistency, less than half a thou. This was fine until I started to figure out what I needed to get a precise honed 5/8" hole. I didn't have a 39/64 drill and really didn't want to buy one. I settled on using a 5/8 drill that I had and a 5/8 hone. The result was a loose fit on the fixed rod that I had to deal with later.
The next issue was the threaded rod. It turns out that 1/2-10 acme threaded rods are cheap. I found a acme tap on ebay for am acceptable price. I sort of knew that an acme tap had to remove a lot of metal and could be a challenge. It was... It took the better part of an hour to tap the hole. Lots of small steps forward and back. But, still have a working tap along with a threaded jaw.
The final issue was that the loose fit on the fixed rod allowed the moveable jaw to deflect and the grip was poor. My fix was to put a .040 taper on the moveable jaw. That made the moveable jaw align with the fixed jaw under tension. I used a 1/4-20 cap screw to secure the fixed jaw and it is solid. I don't see this as a functional concern. The only reference plane is the drill press table. Everything else just holds the work piece where needed.
Everything else knobs, clamp block, etc. were basic machining. The ones on the web have a fancy knob to tighten the vise. I may have a go in the future,
Will
. I will show the bent drill bits.