Hi guys, I know this might not be the right place for this question, but my mill does just still fit on a bench, so I thought I'd ask it here.

Does anyone have any good tips or links for setting up jobs on a horizontal mill with a vertical table (tombstone fixture)?

As you can see, my vice is vertical:
http://digits.smugmug.com/photos/241260508_KAMdg-M.jpg
and my spindle is horizontal.
http://digits.smugmug.com/photos/256944484_pENJG-M.jpg

My question is how do I use parallels etc in a vertically mounted vice without gravity to keep them in place while I tighten up the vice?

I will eventually have a tooling plate with tapped holes behind the vice, so simple clamping operations should be fairly eay, but I'd much rather use the vice and parallels whenever possible.

Cheers.

Hi Digits,

I don’t have any advice but just wanted to say it’s nice to see you up and running. I will also be interested to see how she performs. :)

John

Hi Digits,

I don’t have any advice but just wanted to say it’s nice to see you up and running. I will also be interested to see how she performs. :)

John

Cheers John, it's not quite there yet - I have seen the axes move, and watched the spindle run, but it hasn't cut anything (other than me) yet! The spindle belt drive is not perfect, so it has a gentle vibration - it sounds like a diesel loco at some speeds!

I mounted some test stock in the vice last night, using just a 1-2-3 block on the lower jaw to align it, but I really need a parallel at the top edge of the stock to get things properly true - hence this thread!

Springs between the parallels.

Just an idea could you mount some soft jaws in your vice and mill in a rebate on both to parallel your stock? I do this with my vice instead of using parallels.

Digits,

Take a close look here http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=414623&postcount=16 to see what I mean about clamping with rebates in the vice jaws.

John

Thanks for the links John - it's always nice to see the Widgetmaster in action!

I had a quick Google for commercial solutions. As well as finding this thread, I also found some clip-on parallel solutions from Kurt and Toolmex. They seem to use special master jaws and special parallels which stay on throughout machining. I'm so used to removing my paralles before starting that this hadn't really occured to me.

It got me thinking - I wonder if I can either magnetise my parallels, or stick thin fridge magnet material onto their front faces and then just stick them onto the steel jaws?

Springs between the parallels.

Have you got any pics of how that might work? My paralles do have holes in them, I suppose I could put a pair losely on a set of threaded rod, but I'd need a different length of rods per setup as my vice jaws are longer than my parallels.

Cheers.

Magnetising the parallels occurred to me also but you may get problems with chips sticking to them unless you are machining aluminium. Another option along the same lines might be to use double sided tape but I like my modified soft jaws the best.

Anyway I will keep quiet now and watch for more expert advice. :)

Good luck,
John

Hi digits, I don't have any solutions but I am interested in why you built such a configuration.

Phil

Hi guys, I know this might not be the right place for this question, but my mill does just still fit on a bench, so I thought I'd ask it here.

Does anyone have any good tips or links for setting up jobs on a horizontal mill with a vertical table (tombstone fixture)?

As you can see, my vice is vertical:
http://digits.smugmug.com/photos/241260508_KAMdg-M.jpg
and my spindle is horizontal.
http://digits.smugmug.com/photos/256944484_pENJG-M.jpg

My question is how do I use parallels etc in a vertically mounted vice without gravity to keep them in place while I tighten up the vice?

I will eventually have a tooling plate with tapped holes behind the vice, so simple clamping operations should be fairly eay, but I'd much rather use the vice and parallels whenever possible.

Cheers.

Hi digits, I don't have any solutions but I am interested in why you built such a configuration.

Phil

Right now, so am I!

Seriosuly though, I wanted 500x300x300 mm travels, without huge overhangs anywhere. My spindle axis is about 50mm from a pair of 35mm linear rail and 4 huge blocks, so it should be well supported, and all the weight of the 'head' is actually inside the column.

As pictured it is a pain to load and unload, but that vertical fixture should sit on top of a 200mm rotary table soon to give me 4 axes, sort of and side-loading. Once you can spin the fixture, you also have a lot more table space than a vertical mill - I can have a 4/5th axis one one side, vices permanently fixed on another, and maybe even a tool rack for some ATC action.

The first real part I need to cut though is a new 300x300x30mm saddle plate for the Y-axis (front to back). That should easily fit in that split-vice jobbie. Then I plan a 500x250mm tooling plate with a large matrix of tapped holes - I don't have a clever stepper-tapper attachment like hoss though, so they might all have to be tapped by hand!

Cheers.

Have you got any pics of how that might work? My paralles do have holes in them, I suppose I could put a pair losely on a set of threaded rod, but I'd need a different length of rods per setup as my vice jaws are longer than my parallels.


Kurt sells them. You could probably improvise something.

http://www.kurtworkholding.com/accessories/parallel_keeper.php

Kurt sells them. You could probably improvise something.

http://www.kurtworkholding.com/accessories/parallel_keeper.php

Thanks - I think that would probably work for my little vices, and I suppose I could adapt my parallels for it to work with my big vice.

Cheers.