Milling Machine Vice Key Issue

[dan.taylor.1]

Hi folks,

Was having a nice morning until I flipped my newly keyed vice over to find it was 0.25mm out of line still with the machine.

I clamped a piece of brand new, VERY snug fitting, 5/8" key steel in the jaws, inverted the vice, tapped it into the tee slot at the front of the table so I could do longitudinal slots too for if I ever spin the vice 90° and used a new 5/8" end mill to make 4 slots using the dro to position after finding the centre location from the swivel base dowel hole.

I levelled the vice base to match the table, had it clamped tight, had the opposite way to the slots I was milling locked and took it easy cutting, all seemed lovely, until I flipped it, clamped down with tee nuts etc and stuck an indicator on the fixed jaw. Left to right I'm 0.25mm out over the 150mm (I think it's that long) jaw, which owing to the snugness of the keys I can't bump out.

Annoyed to say the least, I think the remedy will be some step keys and mill the slots out bigger, but how could it be so far off having it clamped to the key steel in the slot?!

Any advice and help much appreciated.

Cheers, Dan

 

[Rrobson]

Stepped keys are the easy answer, then you aren’t restricted by the size. Are the other slots in line? You could open them well up, machine an insert and then re-machine that after.
For me, it takes a couple of minutes to clock a vice into a machine so I wouldnt use this method anyway. I appreciate it makes setting up quicker but I’d always feel the need to check which defeats the object…
There’s nothing to say the bed is exactly machined so if you move the vice along the bed it might be different.

 

[Brad93]

Check the slots on your table. They're not always in-line.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Check the slots on your table. They're not always in-line.

I'll check it tomorrow, did you get that PayPal I sent you for inserts?

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Stepped keys are the easy answer, then you aren’t restricted by the size. Are the other slots in line? You could open them well up, machine an insert and then re-machine that after.
For me, it takes a couple of minutes to clock a vice into a machine so I wouldnt use this method anyway. I appreciate it makes setting up quicker but I’d always feel the need to check which defeats the object…
There’s nothing to say the bed is exactly machined so if you move the vice along the bed it might be different.

I milled all the slots fresh today, there were none when I started, there aren't any on the swivel base either.

 

[Brad93]

I'll check it tomorrow, did you get that PayPal I sent you for inserts?

I did i'll get those out to you tomorrow, had a number of headaches today. I'm having the same thing as you with one of my customers, they think 51 day payment terms are acceptable.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

I did i'll get those out to you tomorrow, had a number of headaches today. I'm having the same thing as you with one of my customers, they think 51 day payment terms are acceptable.

51 days is that all... did some subbing for a company locally who if you have some powdercoat or whatever done they want payment immediately, but you do work for them and it's 90 days... Was not impressed, thankfully the boss is a friend so went to the top!

 

[Brad93]

51 days is that all... did some subbing for a company locally who if you have some powdercoat or whatever done they want payment immediately, but you do work for them and it's 90 days... Was not impressed, thankfully the boss is a friend so went to the top!

I wouldn't mind if that was what we agreed, but it was agreed on 30

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Right, I've run 2 indicators along the table, a 0.01mm verdict finger one and a baty 0.01mm dial one, both show the same max variation of 0.065mm over the max travel of the table (restricted by power feed and dro scale) of 750mm ish. So I've messed up somehow milling the slots.