Idea / Thought on Vise to Fixture Table

[smokediver576]

Food for thought on this Thursday....

I have one of John Saunders PCNC 1100 fixture plates and love it (was thinking about purchasing one of his new steel ones but since I just purchased a new Slant Pro this morning - it'll have to wait). Been thinking of ways to speed up switching back and forth on stuff and it got me to thinking about the vise. Rarely am I in an issue where I do not have enough Z axis, so this is not an issue. So here's my thought.

Get some 1/2" aluminum plate stock and cut it larger (say 2" all the way around) than the base of my Tormach 5" CNC vise. Machine/press in some threaded inserts (1/2"-13) on the back side for the vise hold downs (4) and machine in the matching dowel pin holes to match the fixture plate with holes that also line up with to bolt down holes. Then set the plate in place and tighten it up, put the vise onto the plate and align it, then tighten it down to the new plate.

Now.... in theory, I can just unbolt the vise plate (leaving the vise secured to the new plate) and lift the plate/vise off. Then when I need to go back to a vise, I just wipe/blow everything out, put the pins in and place the plate/vise into position, tighten it down and all should be square....

Thoughts?

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[sharmstr]

I do the same on my tosa plate but the vise plate is steel.

Edit: I should mention that as time goes by since I got the fixture plate, I use my vise less and less. I've been using self made module pitbull clamps for a lot of the stuff I use to put in a vise. https://www.miteebite.com/products/m...itbull-clamps/

[smokediver576]

I do the same on my tosa plate but the vise plate is steel.

Edit: I should mention that as time goes by since I got the fixture plate, I use my vise less and less. I've been using self made module pitbull clamps for a lot of the stuff I use to put in a vise. https://www.miteebite.com/products/m...itbull-clamps/

Care to share some photos of both?

[sharmstr]

The vise plate was made by tosa so you can find that on their website.

Here's a few insta posts where you can see me using the pitbulls

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUeskgDA...en-by=sharmstr

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ9wIjAA...en-by=sharmstr

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZww6vOg...en-by=sharmstr

I have plans to make a longer one that will allow for faster setups:

[Jim Dawson]

I would be concerned about leaving a semi-permanently attached plate on the mill table due to potential rusting issues under it. Maybe waxing the table and the plate with some good paste wax would eliminate that problem. Maybe grease or oil?

I would Heli-Coil the vice hold down holes. I do that in aluminum fixtures quite often.

Other than that, it should work fine.

[smokediver576]

The vise plate was made by tosa so you can find that on their website.

Here's a few insta posts where you can see me using the pitbulls

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUeskgDA...en-by=sharmstr

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ9wIjAA...en-by=sharmstr

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZww6vOg...en-by=sharmstr

I have plans to make a longer one that will allow for faster setups:

Do you make the inserts as well or just the bases? Really interested in what you've done.

[sharmstr]

I bought the pitbull "inserts". I made the clamp bodies. I made them not knowing I'd end up using them all the time. I made mine in aluminum and they are already seeing wear so next will be out of steel.

The bodies that Miteebite makes are really nice and have some features that I left out:

- made of steel
- precision ground (though on mine, I lined them up after I made them and faced the stepped part where the stock sits so they were all the same height)
- they have a relief where the stock sits to allow for stock that doesnt have exact 90 degree sides
- they angled the shoulder where the cap screw sits which makes it more difficult for the bodies to move (probably not necessary for our whimpy Tormachs)

[joshetect]

My Kurt has keys that attach to the bottom.. they are amazing!

I'd look into something similar, would be nice if you could do the same spacing as your sub plate so you could put the vise where ever

[mountaindew]

Food for thought on this Thursday....

I have one of John Saunders PCNC 1100 fixture plates and love it (was thinking about purchasing one of his new steel ones but since I just purchased a new Slant Pro this morning - it'll have to wait). Been thinking of ways to speed up switching back and forth on stuff and it got me to thinking about the vise. Rarely am I in an issue where I do not have enough Z axis, so this is not an issue. So here's my thought.

Get some 1/2" aluminum plate stock and cut it larger (say 2" all the way around) than the base of my Tormach 5" CNC vise. Machine/press in some threaded inserts (1/2"-13) on the back side for the vise hold downs (4) and machine in the matching dowel pin holes to match the fixture plate with holes that also line up with to bolt down holes. Then set the plate in place and tighten it up, put the vise onto the plate and align it, then tighten it down to the new plate.

Now.... in theory, I can just unbolt the vise plate (leaving the vise secured to the new plate) and lift the plate/vise off. Then when I need to go back to a vise, I just wipe/blow everything out, put the pins in and place the plate/vise into position, tighten it down and all should be square....

Thoughts?

Congrats on new sbl15! Always nice to have new shiny tools. I was thinking Saunders did a video where he drilled and put dowel location pins on one of his mill beds to remove and or relocate fixtures faster. You could do same thing on one of those plates, Line everything up on mill, drill / ream your vice plate and main plate at same time. Then every time you remove and replace the pins will act like keys, with no key slots.

[al010964]

Thanks for sharing!

Yet another project/thing I will have to draw up and make., as I really like the idea.

Cheers,
.adrian

[IMT]

The vise plate was made by tosa so you can find that on their website.

Here's a few insta posts where you can see me using the pitbulls

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUeskgDA...en-by=sharmstr

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ9wIjAA...en-by=sharmstr

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZww6vOg...en-by=sharmstr

I have plans to make a longer one that will allow for faster setups:

I like it! I've made a few dedicated fixtures using pitbull clamps and thought about doing some sort of modular setup, but never got around to it. This gets me thinking. Thanks for posting.

[al010964]

I bought the pitbull "inserts". I made the clamp bodies. I made them not knowing I'd end up using them all the time. I made mine in aluminum and they are already seeing wear so next will be out of steel.

The bodies that Miteebite makes are really nice and have some features that I left out: the

- made of steel
- precision ground (though on mine, I lined them up after I made them and faced the stepped part where the stock sits so they were all the same height)
- they have a relief where the stock sits to allow for stock that doesnt have exact 90 degree sides
- they angled the shoulder where the cap screw sits which makes it more difficult for the bodies to move (probably not necessary for our whimpy Tormachs)

What size pit bull clamps did you go with? I will probably make the bodies out of 6061 so would use helicoils as have used them successfully in the past. Probably only need the holding pressure of 4-40 but would probably go 8-32 as will be less fidley with the heli coils.

Thoughts anyone?

[sharmstr]

For the clamps I use on the table, I used 26050 (.750 wide, knife edge).

I also made a set of small clamps that slide in a 6" x 7.5" fixture. I used 26020 (.500, knife edge) and 32050 (Talon Grips). This model doesnt show all of the clamps but should explain how it works. This fits in my vise.

[al010964]

Yep thanks for that have, I can see what you have done with your design. The 26020 is 8/32 and 26050 is 1/4-20 so will try the smaller ones first as will likely get more use when making smaller parts, as already have some larger miteebites for that end of the work holding spectrum.

Cheers,
.afrian

[jcoahran]

sharmstr - I really like this idea for using a fixture plate with the pitbull clamps. I've had a fixture plate for some time, and this looks to be the best concept I've seen in how to use it most effectively. Would you be willing to share the .step or or other type of design for the long clamp above?

Thanks,
Joe