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Thursday, June 18, 2020

Building Better Mill Vise Clamps

I mentioned a while back an absolutely spiffy milling vise I bought from Little Machine Shop. It was a second but they forgot to include what made it a second.   The Sherline milling vise attaches to the table with little clamps that use 8-32 screws into T-slots.  These did not fit the clamping slots in the sides of the new milling vise (too short), so I made two clamps similar in style to the Sherline clamps.  Why only 2? There should be four to use both front and rear T-slots but the side slots on the new vise do not go far enough back.  They were adequate for cutting materials that did not exert too much cutting force, but I needed a better solution.   I cut a piece of steel that uses both T-slots but still secures most of the side slot on the vise.

Much stronger hold with the risk of too much force on the T-nut, which can damage the T-slot.  I am using the first one to hold the vise more firmly to increase feed rate while cutting the second 2 hold down clamp.  Much better.  With both installed it should make machining steel and aluminum much easier. 

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