[How do I?] I need to mill my new Kurt 6" vice soft jaws for holding round stock?

caddguy

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I have a nice 6" Kurt d675 and bought some AL soft jaw blanks for it. I need to hold alot of different sized round tubes and other solid stock, so I want to mill out lengthwise a continuous chamfer in each of the jaws. (It would be nice to get another slot milled in center so I can hold round stock vertically also). what is the best way to do this in my mill? Use a chamfer end mill? If so, what size shank and cutter should I buy?

Thanks!
Dave
 
Does your mill head tilt so as to be able to cut at a 45 degree angle? That's one way to do it with a standard side cutting end mill and
the vise you have now
I'd use something like a 1/2" endmill. 4 flute, HSS.
Mark S.
 
I milled a "V" lengthwise in the center of my aluminum jaws using a regular end mill. I canted it at 45 degrees on each side.
 
Absent any diameters that you may require it would be foolhardy to make any suggestions.

Just make them fit the part needed at the time, soft jaws are disposable so cut them until there is little left. One may also hold round parts in V-Blocks in a vice both vertically and horizontally.
 
I restored a 3hp supermax kneemill. Yes I can tilt the head in any direction I just wasn't crazy about re-tramming. I am machining round aluminum stock from 1/2 " to 1 1/2" in diameter for flute and whistle bodies.IMG_1731.JPGIMG_1732.JPG
 
I would do as Wreck suggests and just use a V-block for that, especially if you may need to cut an angle for which the jaws are not grooved for.
 
I have a nice 6" Kurt d675 and bought some AL soft jaw blanks for it. I need to hold alot of different sized round tubes and other solid stock...

Soft jaws aside, tube holding is often done with collets. It's unlikely your cutting
forces are so high that a heavy vise would be required, if the tubes aren't thickwalled.
Up to 1" diameter, 5C collets are useful, and many 5C collet closing and positioning
gizmos are available. For transverse hole boring, spin indexer with 5C collet would
be particularly handy..
 
You sure could do them in your lathe . I'd pin them or bolt thru to keep the location. Set them in a four jaw indicate to where you want the bore. Then drill and bore to size -3 to 10 thou should work .
 
There is not much to do on these flute bodies on a lathe except turning and boring. I need them in the mill to drill and team the tone holes to size. That cannot be done in a lathe. I also have to mill solid al stock for the head windways.
 
I made a set of soft jaws for my mill vise for round stock, instead of tilting the head, I just made the cut with a 3/4" endmill into the soft jaw. I forget where I saw this, there point was that it gave you 2 points of contact per side. It seems to work well, I typically work with tubing 1" and up so it was fine for me. I put a vertical cut in each jaw also. I don't use that as much, but it's there anyway...

Ymmv
Rich
 
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