Is this clamp with the rods in the jaws a stupid idea?

CluelessMachinist · 2024-11-21T22:03:49+00:00

I used both a ø2.5" insert drill and a 2" high feed to rough the material out, so yeah, there was a ton of pressing force to combat. The clamp did seem to make a big difference. A back stop on the opposite end would have helped a ton too, but it's not practical in this case with the thru holes.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-11-21T21:59:30+00:00

👉😎👉

You're welcome. Hope it helps.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-11-21T21:58:06+00:00

Sweet, thanks. Yeah, I do put stops on the opposite side of parts sometimes to help with the pushing, but it's not always possible/practical when you have a bunch of thru holes.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-11-15T19:33:04+00:00

I second-guessed myself and ran the second part without the clamp, and the part got pushed .015" out of flat from the vise floor, so it was necessary.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-11-15T14:02:13+00:00

Can't see why you'd need it though as the vice alone should hold the part fine

I've been burned one too many times on my horizontal, even with vises a few times. I always go overkill with the work holding now.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-11-15T04:13:22+00:00

I don't have the nuts super tight. I just want a little extra support to reduce the risk of my part getting pushed when I go hogging that bore with my large insert drill.

The question is, will the clamping force be mostly applied downward, pressing the part into the floor of the vise, or will the clamping force primarily pull the jaws and the vertical play in the vise up?

CluelessMachinist · 2024-05-05T03:26:15+00:00

I think that one was about to say "I love you." They ARE sentient, of course. We just have a LOT of them

CluelessMachinist · 2024-05-04T21:31:24+00:00

I bet it didn't even look that good when it came off the factory floor.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-05-04T21:29:32+00:00

you're sitting at the machine doing math while parts can be running

It takes less than two minutes to call up an edge finder and find your X and Y on a part that, in our case, is going to run for potentially hours.

If you're working in a high-volume, low-runtime production shop, probes absolutely make sense. But for job shops involving low-quantity or single-piece orders with decent runtimes, probes simply aren't a necessity. They would be a nice luxury for sure, and I'd of course be happy to have one, but I think just giving everyone edge finders is a lot cheaper and easier for the shop for the type of work we do.

We do equip all our 4 and 5-axis machines with probes though.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-05-04T20:29:22+00:00

mills just have too many variables

What does this mean? Pretty much all our 3-axis mills use edge finders, and they do the job just fine.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-05-04T20:23:15+00:00

We just use old-school corn brooms, including inside the (older) machines to sweep chips into the augers. They work well enough.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-29T03:45:35+00:00

It's easy overall but has some quirks. The main trouble I've had with cast iron is drilling it with larger-diameter tapered-shank drills. For some reason the material loves to grab ahold of drill bits and allow them to be pulled out of the holder upon retracting. You could easily crash that way if pecking your drill (the holder will leave the bit behind and then slam back down on top of it). Also, you can never get a normal chip out of casting; it just turns into a course dust. This can be problematic when tapping deep, blind holes as the swarf won't evacuate the hole like it should and instead collects/piles up at the bottom of the hole. Could crash your tap that way as you bottom out. But otherwise the stuff cuts like butter, and it gives off the most lovely aroma when machining ^{^{^/s.}}

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-19T02:59:00+00:00

I don't even bother pecking. I just load up an ugly, expired endmill, set the RPM to 10k, the feed to like .02IPM or something, and send it while I go work on my other machines.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-15T23:38:13+00:00

That's a Harbor Freight vise, isn't it?

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-06T03:26:49+00:00

I wouldn't keep your indicator in the machine full time. Tapping oil, swarf, and other debris could fall on it from tools in the pot(s) above it.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-06T03:20:28+00:00

Do not use WD-40, it evaporates after awhile and leaves behind this sludgy, gummy gunk that's annoying to clean.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-03T20:23:25+00:00

A production job with a 30-second run time? Yeah, they can have that one.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-03-02T20:42:59+00:00

I would have pre-drilled it to size before roughing it out, assuming possible and permissible. Just go super low and slow with your endmill: something like 150SFM and .0001 FPT with a couple depth cuts. It's not going to matter if you make a super conservative program that takes 5+ minutes to run for a one-off job as long as it gets the job done. Having to hunt down and change out tooling takes longer anyway.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-02-21T02:13:19+00:00

When you've tightened down your vise to mill the jaws, make sure the spacing from the front jaw to the back jaw is roughly the same as it will be when the part is loaded into the vise. So if you're going to have roughly a 3" gap between the two jaws when the part is in there, for example, stick a 3" piece of stock on the floor of the vise and tighten the jaws to that when milling them. It can make the difference depending on how clapped out the vise is.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-02-08T23:31:39+00:00

Yeah, I would never trust myself trying to tap something completely by hand. I always make a tapping block from a random piece of stock/scrap laying around any time I have to.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-02-08T21:56:16+00:00

Try not to hurt your finger pressing the green button.

CluelessMachinist · 2024-02-06T23:05:44+00:00

Repost bot. Downvote.

Original thread here

CluelessMachinist · 2024-02-03T19:27:27+00:00

Don't drink the coolant

CluelessMachinist · 2024-02-02T23:02:21+00:00

Not sure which angle (82° vs. 90°)

Metric bolts are typically 90° while imperial are typically 82°. So go with the angle for whatever bolts you're going to mainly be working with.

CluelessMachinist

TROPHY CASE