Mill Vise Stop

J

JRT

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This project was my most ambitious to date. I didn't know how to use an edge finder before this, lol. I do now! It's a whole mishmash of materials I had laying around and while it's not absolutely perfect, it is definitely usable. The part that connects to the rear of the vise is hot rolled steel (A32 I believe), the arm that the stop rod slides on is cold rolled steel (1018 I believe), the rod holder/slider is 6061 aluminum & the stop rod is W1 tool steel. I probably should have done most of it out of aluminum but sometimes I like to make things more difficult.

I made a few small errors in measurements along the way and didn't have all the perfect fixturing/work holding solutions. I made it work though. I learned that my lathes' cross slide graduations are for radius and not diameter, and if I wanted to remove 10 thousandths I needed to adjust it to 5 thousandths, which now makes perfect sense seeing that it's a rotating circle. I think it's also time for some new end mills. While most of the ones I have are okay enough, they are old and showing it I believe. They came with my Rockwell mill so I just use them as I learn. At some point I will purchase some new ones. The gentleman I got the mill from was 94 years young and had been prototyping with them for years.

Enough rambling, happy Friday all! -John


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Nice project. It looks neat. You definitely had a good opportunity to learn some techniques making that stop. Now that will help you learn more!


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Nice job!!
Looks a bunch better that my 1st attempt at a vise stop, which bolted to the table!
 
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If you set the main support bar parallel to the X axis and level with the bed the arm can be swung up and down to suit different height parts without losing the X axis reference. You will need to make a collar to rotate against. I use a die spring to keep the pivot tight so I don't have to unlock it to swivel the arm. Video showing the principle here.


A quick tip is to always set the stop rod in the centre of the datum face. Here is a video showing why.
 
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