Tool Makers Vise

cathead

CATWERKS LTD
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Feb 7, 2013
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Yesterday with the cold weather keeping me in the shop I built a tool makers vise. It will
hold up to 3 inch material. The fixed jaw is bolted from the bottom with two cap screws and
pinned with two 5/16 diameter pins to keep it straight. The movable jaw slides in grooves
made with the cutter made just for this project. I machined a groove in the end mill with a
small carbide cut off so that I would be able to cut the slots. Surprisingly, a high speed end
mill machines quite easily with carbide. I didn't have any plans to go by so used the cut
and measure approach and looked at a few photos on E-Bay for general dimensions.
After it was basically together, I use a big fly cutter to face off all the main surfaces. A
surface grinder would have been nice but I don't have one so did the best with what I have.
The holes for the movable pin are one-half inch diameter and spaced every 5/8 inch leaving
an 1/8 inch web between each hole. I used a 5/16 fine thread cap screw for the jaw tightener.
It will be handy for machining features on small parts and would be easily indexed with a stop
on the mill vise. Also it will be handy to mount in the main vise at angles.
 
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