Mill Vises Again

Mill Vises Again

I mentioned that I was struggling with machining a particular part. I've decided that there is no substitute for having a better mill vise. What comes with the Sherline vertical mill just doesn't have enough clamping force--and the jaws are too low--to hold this piece of Delrin in the vertical position. Doing it horizontally with clamps against the table doesn't work so well, because the Delrin flexes as you machine it, unless you have fully supported on the far side.

Little Machine Shop sells a mill vise that is big enough--indeed, a bit too big. It is just a bit too big for the Sherline vertical mill's table, both in dimensions and weight. I may try to figure out something that I can machine myself that does what I want.

It needs to be wide enough to take a 2.62" wide workpiece. It needs to clamp the workpiece with a lot of force--so the 10-32 Allan head screw that the Sherline mill vise uses just isn't going to do the job. I'm thinking something with a handle on a 3/8"-16 bolt so that I can make the workpiece absolutely immobile.

I'm also beginning to think that in addition to clamping across the workpiece (in the Z axis), it might be useful to have some way to clamp the workpiece in the Y axis as well. This way, any tendency for the forces of the end mill to move the workpiece in that direction will be resisted also.