- Joined
- Nov 8, 2020
- Messages
- 44
The mill vise on my ol' Deckel FP1 is still the original that it was shipped with, so probably over 60 years old and this thing was bugging me lately. For one, the vise bottom at the front is worn to where it drops about 0,1mm over 50mm (0,004" over 2"), but the big one I noticed radomly while cleaning... the casting at the fixed jaw had a crack over the entire width and probably half way through the bottom. On further disassembly I also noticed the casting of the movable jaw had a severe crack. So I thought it was time to finally put that thing to retirement.
I talked to a friend about this and he had a Röhm vise that, except for minor discoloration from storage, has never been used. I knew it would be on the bigger side for my Deckel FP1 but at a pricepoint of 320€ I didn't think twice and had him ship it to me. (This vise starts at around 700...800€ new). The jaw width is 150mm (5,9") and the max. spannable part length is 300mm (11,8").
So the last job on the old vise will be two "alignment nuts" for the new one...
Material is C45 (1045). First roughing out the shape with an indexable carbide endmill and then finishing with a HSS endmill. I went for a -0,01...-0,02mm tolerance (-0,0004...-0,0008") and hit the target spot on, these nuts really fit well...
The vise has recesses for M14 socket hat caps screws for screwing it onto the mill table. Since the table only has 12mm wide t-nut openings, I decided to use M14 socket hat cap screws and turn the shaft down to an M10 thread instead of using M10 bolts and washers:
So there it is. YES the vise is pretty big, it almost makes the Deckel FP1 look like a toy. But for the price point I got it, I will roll with it for now. At least I can now clamp parts spanning the entire travel of the mill. And who knows, if there is maybe someday a FP2 crossing my way, this would be the perfect match... who knows.
I talked to a friend about this and he had a Röhm vise that, except for minor discoloration from storage, has never been used. I knew it would be on the bigger side for my Deckel FP1 but at a pricepoint of 320€ I didn't think twice and had him ship it to me. (This vise starts at around 700...800€ new). The jaw width is 150mm (5,9") and the max. spannable part length is 300mm (11,8").
So the last job on the old vise will be two "alignment nuts" for the new one...
Material is C45 (1045). First roughing out the shape with an indexable carbide endmill and then finishing with a HSS endmill. I went for a -0,01...-0,02mm tolerance (-0,0004...-0,0008") and hit the target spot on, these nuts really fit well...
The vise has recesses for M14 socket hat caps screws for screwing it onto the mill table. Since the table only has 12mm wide t-nut openings, I decided to use M14 socket hat cap screws and turn the shaft down to an M10 thread instead of using M10 bolts and washers:
So there it is. YES the vise is pretty big, it almost makes the Deckel FP1 look like a toy. But for the price point I got it, I will roll with it for now. At least I can now clamp parts spanning the entire travel of the mill. And who knows, if there is maybe someday a FP2 crossing my way, this would be the perfect match... who knows.
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