The Fabled and Legendary Perverti-Vise

[MrWhoopee]

While Carving My Own Tombstone (https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/carving-my-own-tombstone.81474/), I realized that the angle plate in question was big enough to be more than just an angle plate.

Here is the angle plate I started with. It was from an unknown piece of dedicated tooling and was ground as square as I could measure all over.




My original intent was to put a handle on it and drill and tap it 1/2-13 for tie down bolts. Then I added some tapped holes on the sides to mount side plates when needed.





It was at this point that I realized that this thing could be more, so much more. I took my inspiration from the Verti-Vise that Fred purchased when I was working for him.



I set about making a set of vise jaws from some 1 in. O-6 tool steel I had lying around. First the fixed jaw.



While working on the fixed jaw, I realized that this thing could serve another purpose (hint: note the large counterbores in the edge). The locations of mounting holes were constantly having to be adjusted to avoid the existing holes, bolts and dowels (which I assumed had been used, but couldn't see.)

Being designed on the fly, the moving jaw and its attachment took a couple of detours. My original intent was to use the 1/2-13 holes I had already put in the plate to mount the moving jaw. I had to rethink this after the holes for the guide pins proved to be in the way. This necessitated adding 8 more 1/2-13 holes to the angle plate. It's looking more swiss cheesy all the time.







So there we have it, the (soon to be) fabled and legendary Perverti-Vise (Regus Patoff). Maximum capacity is 5 in. (barely). I'm planning a few other details, including a series of holes in the fixed jaw for a dowel pin to serve as an adjustable stock support.


Oh wait, I almost forgot, I mentioned another purpose.



A two-piece table vise, capacity limited only by the length of the table.

That's all for now, I'll post updates as appropriate.

 

[thomas s]

Nice job I like the vise.

 

[brino]

Some great ideas there.
Thanks for sharing this!
-brino

 

[Chewy]

I like the way you got double the use out of your vice jaws. Putting it on my list to make!!!

 

[markba633csi]

Oh that is so what I need for my Diamond mill since it has limited vertical travel- I would have never thought of it
Mark

 

[Bob Korves]

Good thinking and equally good execution! That is a real versa-vise, copy-able by others without too much difficulty. When are you going to start selling plans?

 

[epanzella]

That's an awesome idea. I like the way it can clamp right to the mill table for unlimited capacity. I do have a concern about downforce and vertical lift. Does the placement of the threaded rod and guide bolts effectively counteract lift?

 

[MrWhoopee]

Does the placement of the threaded rod and guide bolts effectively counteract lift?

It does tend to resist the lift of the jaw, but it's no AngLock. I haven't really put it to the test yet. Because the pressure of the screw is in the middle of the jaw, when clamping items less than 1/2 jaw height the jaw has a slight tendency to tilt the open (top) side toward the fixed jaw creating some downward force on the part. I say slight because the fit of the shoulder bolts is very close in their guide bushings. The whole moving jaw assembly (and fixed jaw too) will flex outward under sufficient pressure.

If this had been built exclusively as a table vise, I would have made the jaws twice as wide as they are tall, with the anchor bolts as close to the clamping surface as practical. Space limitations prevented this on the angle plate. Also, because the moving jaw is infinitely adjustable on the table, the screw and guides can be very short which improves rigidity.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I just went out and did a little testing. With a 1-2-3 block seated against the angle plate and at the top of the vise, which puts the bottom outside corner of the block roughly in line with the CL of the screw, the moving jaw actually pulls down about .005 under pressure. This is with the screw extended about 2/3 of max.

I had originally thought about trying to arrange some sort of down force mechanism like an Anglock, but realized that with the unsupported length of the 1/2-10 acme screw, it would probably be useless, or worse could bend the screw.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I made the part support today and drilled the fixed jaw so the support can be moved up and down to adjust for part length.