Aligning multiple vises

[300sniper]

I am no toach God by any means and it sounds like that would work. I like the drill rid of you know it is perfect and can chuck it up - I am running the tts so can't go bigger than 1/2" diameter.
I personally like the idea of putting a precision bar between two buses so one can indicate and index the to what the job requires.

What's the diameter of the R8 collet that holds your TTS?

There will be so little runout with a 3/4" drill rod protruding an inch or so out of your R8 collet. Obviously, you double check your vise with a DTI after but it's going to be very close.

[WOTDesigns]

Seems like double the work to me. I am sure I can set my DTI faster than I could change to a drill rod and jog into place. The DTI I manually position 0.1 away from the left side of the vise jaw, then in 2 sweeps it's zeroed. I can align 3 vises in 5 minutes and know they are all within 0.0005 of square over their face.

I know it's probably trivial but rubbing/pushing the jaws/vise with another piece of metal seems destructive over time.

If I need multiple vises aligned together (which is rare) I clamp all three on the bar I pictured earlier in the thread and sweep from the first vise to the last and snug.

If you don't already have a quick adjustment mag holder I strongly recommend springing for one. Takes less than 30 seconds to install, position, tighten, and start sweeping.

Brian
WOT Designs

[WOTDesigns]

I still have nightmares of fighting those stupid two sticks with two knobs holders. Takes several tries to get it in a position that MIGHT hold the dial at the right angle with the fine adjustment on the right side and have enough travel to make a sweep/test

Brian
WOT Designs

[Steve Seebold]

I put a DTI in an ER collet holder to keep it as rigid as possible. Then I will indicate one vise straight and tighten it down. After one vise is straight, put a piece of inch and a half steel in the first and second vise, just to get the second vise close. Snug that vise down, remove the steel and fine tune the second vise to the first then tighten it down.

I have a customer who does it this way, and he'll put as many as 12 vises in a row on his machine and he'll do 2 rows of vises, but he has a machine that moves 720 inches in the X axis and I think 168 inches in the Y axis. That machine has 3 independent 15,000 RPM spindles and each spindle has a 100 horsepower motor.

Needless to say, he makes some pretty big parts. But I have also seen him make 24 of the same part in one set up. In a case like that, his machine might run for 2 or 3 days non stop.

[WOTDesigns]

I put a DTI in an ER collet holder to keep it as rigid as possible. Then I will indicate one vise straight and tighten it down. After one vise is straight, put a piece of inch and a half steel in the first and second vise, just to get the second vise close. Snug that vise down, remove the steel and fine tune the second vise to the first then tighten it down.

I have a customer who does it this way, and he'll put as many as 12 vises in a row on his machine and he'll do 2 rows of vises, but he has a machine that moves 720 inches in the X axis and I think 168 inches in the Y axis. That machine has 3 independent 15,000 RPM spindles and each spindle has a 100 horsepower motor.

Needless to say, he makes some pretty big parts. But I have also seen him make 24 of the same part in one set up. In a case like that, his machine might run for 2 or 3 days non stop.

I just started drooling...

Brian
WOT Designs

[BAMCNC.COM]

Yeah, wouldn't that be sweet to have a mill like that!

[WOTDesigns]

It would be pretty crazy to have to plan a full 8 hour day to pull a few fixture plates, clean the table, install vises, align vises install software jaws, machine soft jaws.

Brian
WOT Designs