Building a small Machinist Vise

[kizmit99]

I remade the fixed jaw...



Then turned to the movable jaw...



Made the thing the movable jaw pulls against this afternoon:



At this point it's basically complete:



And even works:



Plans for the next steps are to fly cut the top, sides and end to make all the edges on the separate pieces as smooth as possible. Then to bevel a slight undercut on the inside bottom edges of the jaws so I can run a mill across the faces of the jaws to try to get them as flat and true as I can. Then finally a couple of grooves on the movable jaw to help hold round stock...

Almost there...

 

[David Kirtley]

Looking really nice.

 

[Rick Leslie]

This has turned out really well. I like the hold down much better than the usual cross pin. That's my beef with mine: removing the pin to adjust the jaws. Looks like I might be building a new vise...

 

[Andre]

Looks great, good job!

Do you know anybody who might be able to surface grind it for you?

 

[kizmit99]

Do you know anybody who might be able to surface grind it for you?

Unfortunately no - but I have high hopes for the fly-cutting. I'm going to have to do some experimenting first though, I've only ever done that on aluminum and I suspect this steel is going to react quite a bit differently... fingers-crossed though.

 

[JimDawson]

Unfortunately no - but I have high hopes for the fly-cutting. I'm going to have to do some experimenting first though, I've only ever done that on aluminum and I suspect this steel is going to react quite a bit differently... fingers-crossed though.

About 40 some years ago I watched a guy flycut some v-blocks he made that had been case hardened. He was using a carbide (or maybe ceramic?) cutter at very high speed in a Bridgeport. Very light cut, and slow feed. Sparks were flying. The surface looked like it had been ground when he was finished. I've never tried this, but with some experimenting I think it would be a good option.

 

[John Hasler]

Unfortunately no - but I have high hopes for the fly-cutting. I'm going to have to do some experimenting first though, I've only ever done that on aluminum and I suspect this steel is going to react quite a bit differently... fingers-crossed though.

Flycutting steel is to flycutting aluminum as turning steel is to turning aluminum.

 

[kizmit99]

Thanks for the input guys!

I just ran the fly-cutter at about 250rpm and had the table feed at a reasonably slow rate. Took 2-3 thousands each pass and everything was fine. I'm not getting the criss-cross pattern, and the "tail" of the cutter is actually taking a bite - so I think I'm going to have to re-tram my mill head. For what I'm doing here though, I think it's good-enough... The overall finish certainly isn't polished, but it is significantly smoother than it looks in the pic. And to the best of my ability to measure it, the sides, ends and top are all square to the bottom.



So, now I'm on to the final step - truing up the faces of the jaws...
You can probably see from the pic above that the faces are not meeting flush with each other. They meet at the bottom edge, closest to the camera, and are furthest apart (.008") on the upper corner farthest from the camera.

I think I need some advice on this one. At first I was thinking I would cut a relief into the bottom edge of each jaw face, then mount this vise in my mill vise and run an end-mill across each face, using very light passes. I'm now second guessing this approach. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks in advance!

 

[zmotorsports]

Very nice job on the vise.

Mike.

 

[dulltool17]

Fantastic! I really like this design. Now I'm gonna have to make one too!

As for the .008 mis-align, I'll let other, more experienced fellas advise.

Do you plan on making any v-grooves for round stock?