Used a ball end mill instead of drill through holes I find Less holes easier to clean.
Grind is my trade, the vice is precision grind precise .
3.030 jaw width - 1.765 jaw depth - 6 ¼ jaw opening.
A large capacity grind vice will work for many operations on a small mill.
I made a tool holder for my Webb Milling machine last summer. I had a bunch of R8 tools in two drawers and it was always difficult to locate the one I wanted. I decided to hang them on the side of the mill. I got some 12" circles of 6061 T6 aluminum that was 1/4" thick from a local metal dealer. I laid out 30 holes in each one, IIRC. The holes are approximately 3/4". This is just large enough to slide an R8 holder down into the hole. Most of them are just dropped in and the larger ones in the bottom circle are held in with short 7/16-20 bolts and some thick washers.
There is a plastic spacer in between the two discs and the whole unit hangs from an arm that is bolted to the center of the ram. The same arm has the DRO unit on the other end.
There is a bronze bushing in the arm so that the unit rotates like a Lazy Susan. It works great and I always have what I need handy. When not in use, I cover it with an old towel. I give the tools a spray of WD-40 now and then to keep them from rusting, although with the climate where I am, rust really isn't a problem.
The whole thing cost about $10 for the aluminum discs and the rest was scrap.
My Craftex knee mill has a slowest spindle speed of 270 rpm. I wanted to slow it down so I can use some larger diameter home made cutters. Drill rod cutters and high speed steel should last longer.
The motor cone pulley shaft bore extends over an inch past the motor shaft so I made a shaft that would fit into the cone pulley and expand when the bolt was tightened to keep it in place. The intermediate and spindle pulleys have four grooves the motor only has three. The motor pulley can only drive three of the four intermediate pulley grooves. By adding the fourth pulley I was able to lower the spindle speed to about 160RPM.
There is a gap in speeds between 490 and 950 rpm that I was able to fix by running a single belt giving me 660rpm.
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