Congratulations! That's fun stuff.
To contain chips and coolant better, I build a shower curtain around my 1100. I'll never go back.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/tormac...ash_guard.html
I tend to make all my own jaws as I need specially designed ones for some of the stuff I do, but that monster-jaws.com is pretty neat and good to know about.
Wade
Congratulations! That's fun stuff.
To contain chips and coolant better, I build a shower curtain around my 1100. I'll never go back.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/tormac...ash_guard.html
The vise jaws wound up turning out great on the Tormach. It took a little dinking around to get them equal thickness as I don't have any parallels that were big enough.
Regardless, they turned out great. The tapped holes are so I can attach accessory clamping parts.
Even the shield I built around it worked great. A few chips over the front, but for the most part, not many. I'm just going to wind up raising the front shield to 28" instead of 18". That should take care of anyone sitting in front of the mill.
Till the next post,
Wade
Nice first parts, man!
Very cool! I know the feeling when I got my first Haas Mini-Mill and a SL-10 lathe in my garage. It was great!
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Personally I pick them up from monsterjaws in person for a cash discount by the dozen.
I bill $60-$90/hr. I make odd size ones myself and it takes about 30 minutes of machine down time on a REALLY good day. That means that to make these they cost me $6 if I dont have the right scrap plus $30-$45 worth of time at a minimum.
To make them even close to MonsterJaws you have to surface 12 faces after making 2 thick bandsaw cuts, then drill, pocket, counter bore four slots (I only use the double sided with slots so I can flip them over).
It all comes down to time vs money: if you have time and want to save a few bucks, or just want the enjoyment of making it- spend the time. If you have $3 to spare and no time- spend the money.
Monsterjaws charges $9.98 per set if you buy a dozen sets.
There's $8.50 just in material for you to make your own, that means you have to make them for $1.48. I'm fast, but I'm not that fast.
Granted, the more material you buy, the less it costs, but even at $1.75 per pound you still have $4.25 in material, and I don't care who you are, you can't cut the material, machine and chamfer 12 sides, drill and counterbore 4 holes and package the jaws for $5.75. YOU may be fast, but you ain't that fast.
12 sets of soft jaws machined, drilled and counterbored is going to take you at least 3 hours (and that's if the phone don't ring). At $75.00 per hour, that's $225.00 plus $49.00 for material is $274.00. Divided by 12 sets of jaws, that's $45.64 per pair. You just went in the hole $35.66 per pair.
I went to Monsterjaws Wednesday to pick up a dozen pair of jaws, and they have an awsome set up there. There was thousands of pounds of aluminum in the yard, and they have 6 horizontal machining centers making nothing but soft jaws.
They make both aluminum and steel jaws, and it looks like they are doing quite well at it. They have found a niche market and they are cashing in on it.
You can buy GOOD PARTS or you can buy CHEAP PARTS, but you can't buy GOOD CHEAP PARTS.
Wow that is crazy cheap !!! I normally make my own, but damn $10.... Thanks for the link, now what to do with all of that left over $$$ hmmmm
So you feel like you could make them just as well yourself, but it's not worth your time since this is a profession for you as opposed to a hobby. Certainly makes sense from that perspective.