Dual Kurt D688's Plus Kurt Magnetic Jaws, Parallels, Work Stops And Vice Keys.

Any progress on the DRO project? I'm waiting to see this thing covered in chips!
 
Hey Bray the DRO install gets underway today finally. I pulled the 2nd vise last night, installed the new replacement magnetic jaws and machined about .002 off its set of Kurt vise keys so I could align the two vices parallel. I moved both vises in to the center of the table (I'll post why in my PM935 thread later). I got them aligned parallel within .0005 over 15 inches. There is up to .0003 variance in a single vise jaw as you measure across it, so .0005 is fantastic. As you measure across the 15 inches I see plus 2, then minus, two, plus 4, minus 3, etc. with .0005 being the largest variance.

DRO Update: I have been mocking things up on X while waiting for UPS to deliver various things. To recap I'm going to mount the X scale on the front of the table instead of the back, otherwise I would lose 1.5 inches of Y travel with it mounted on the rear and I likes me some Y travel.

I still want to maintain the table stops and limit switch. I don't want to drill holes in the table. So I'm machining a spacer to clear the table stops and limit switch, then bolting a length of 1/2 aluminum bar 2.5 inches wide to the spacers, and installing the scale and chip cover on the aluminum bar. The bar/scale/spacer assembly bolts on using a T nut in the front of the table thus avoiding drilling any holes in the table. I have the aluminum bar cut to length and will begin machining on it this morning.

This was my original design. I spent a few days mocking up an alternative which combined the table slots, limit switch, scale and read head all mounted to the aluminum bar, machining a T slot in the aluminum bar for the table stops, and mounting the aluminum bar flat right onto the front of the table via 3 T nuts. With the chip cover eating up about .5 inch it was just crammed too close together and the combo limit switch/DRO read head mount was going to be a pain at best. It wasn't worth re-inventing the wheel, I already have the mounts for the limit switch and the T slot for the table slots, moving the DRO scale assembly out in front of that via the spacers and keeping these two systems separate kept it simple.

This thing will have a case of cable-itus, limit switch cables * 3 plus DRO cables * 3 power power feed power cables * 3 its a bit of a hairball, TBD how well I can route them keeping them out of my way, harms way, and so they don't become a chip magnet.
 
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Nice vises! How close are they to being a matched set?

By the way I noticed that Kurt advertises their vise beds to be matched within .0005 so I guess that's what they shoot for or better.
 
And here is my chance to get the vise keys I missed the first time around.

CYBER + MONDAY. 25% off and free shipping at Enco.
 
Good point kd, I mostly machine aluminum and stainless so not much of an issue but I'll remember this when working with steel/cast iron.
 
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