Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Split Vise

I am writing this post in a showflat on National Day. Most of us dislike working on a public holiday, me included. For my friends in the other part of the globe, August 9 is Singapore's independence day. This year is the 46th year since we were separated from Malaysia. The celebration will start in about 2 hour's time at the Marina. It will also be telecast live on all local stations in 4 languages. But me and my buddy here will be sitting at this showflat till it closes. Sigh... I wish I can be home with my family watching the telecast munching snacks. Anyway...


Having only about half an hour to spare in the shop before lunch with my parents and before my showflat duty at Thomson Grand, I couldn't start on something too elaborate (to me as a newbie, I mean). The plan was to do up a split vise featured on "Tips from Sherline Machinists". This is Tip 51 from the master, Jerry Kieffer. The split vise allows long parts greater than the maximum capacity of the original vise (~2") to be clamped.

Since I've 2 Sherline's milling vise, I "scarified" the older one for this.





The straight edge clamp was used to guide the back of the fixed jaw. The bandsaw struggled a bit midway through the cut. Was that a sign of blade getting blunt? Strange if it is, as I barely use the bandsaw since the last blade change.





After quite some minutes, I've the 2" vise in 2.





The 2 cut faces looked pretty clean. Little deburring was needed. I plan to face the cut surfaces to make them smoother.





An aluminum plate mounted on the split vise. Couldn't get this piece in the 2" vise before the split. I am to face it to 6.5mm thick for the top piece of the leadscrew nut holder later.

4 sets of vise hold down are needed with 2 on each side. Even so, I still feel that the fixed jaw lifting a little when I fastened the stock down. Will mill the hold down slots on the 2 sides for additional clamping places. Alignment is a little tricky during setup, but I think as long as the 2 jaws are parallel to each other, a little misalignment on their sides should be fine. I can also make a straight piece in aluminum to help the side alignment. Will write about that if I ever get to doing it.


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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Clever thinking and an excellent adaptation in the spirit of the home workshop.

Regards.

Wongster said...

Thank you. Its not my idea but from Sherline Tips section.