Another mill vise backstop

[arnoldb]

Shop time was a bit scarce of late...

At least the fishing trip the previous weekend was fun; we had beautiful weather, and it was really nice to be out of the town for a change  :


Saturday I spent between fixing a neighbour's wife's treadmill (I tried to convince them to junk it so I could get the motor, but that didn't work out  ) and upgrading my satellite TV installation as my receiver had packed up last week.  At least the new receiver have some nice features that will allow me to record the few programs I like to watch; these are usually in shop time, so I'll most likely get more shop from now on and watch the programs later 

Sunday dawned, and I didn't feel like precision machining, but wanted to make chips anyway.  So I settled on making a vise back stop for my mill; something I've wanted to do for a long time.  Material was scrounged from whatever I had around, and I pretty much followed Bogs' build with some minor differences to adapt to my vise and the material I had on hand.

My vise has two 8mm threaded holes on the back of the fixed jaw, so I decided to mount the stop there rather than to drill and tap the vise:


I salvaged a bit of ~25mm hot-rolled round and some bits of 20x5mm hot-rolled flat bar from the odds 'n ends bin and set to work.  The round was turned down bit to neaten it up , drilled and then threaded M6 before sawn off to length and the other side just faced to clean it up.  I then milled a flat on the other end.  A suitable bit of the flat bar was drilled to fit the mounting holes on the vise, and one end flat milled down slightly to get rid of the black scale and the end squared up to mate with the flat on the round bit.  Four pop marks with a punch on the milled bit, and I ended up with this:


The clean-up and punch marks on the flat bar was so that I could silver solder the two together leaving a bit of a gap for the solder to wick into.  Its easier than welding (well, at least my stick welding  ) or fitting screws to join the parts.  After silver soldering and a couple of minutes with a wire wheel, I had this:


Fits nicely on the back of the vise  :


Then I milled a slot and poked a 12mm hole in another bit of 20x5mm flat bar:


Another bit of HRS round was turned down with a press-fit step on one end for the 12mm hole in the flat bar and drilled and reamed 6mm and the two pressed together after cleaning the mill scale from the flat bar with the wire wheel.  I rounded over the ends of the flat bar by eye with a file - just to get a pleasing look, and cut a suitable bit of 6mm silver steel for the stop; this was faced and polished on both ends.  All together so far:


And mocked up on the vise:


Had to stop there as some social commitments came up; I still need to make both the locking handles, as well as drill and tap for the adjusting bar locking handle.  I can flip the stop over to work from the right-hand-side as well, but I don't think I'll do that too often, as I normally machine on the right-hand side of the vise (or from right to left) so that I don't have to do the blue-chip-dance all the time if I get cranking.

 , Arnold

[DaveH]

Arnold,

So far so good.

I like your mill vice.
 
DaveH

[DaveH]

Sorry posted twice.
 
DaveH

[andyf]

I really must get round to making one of those, Arnold.

Dave, you're repeating yourself. My 92 year old mother-in-law does a bit of that, too. She lived in Joburg for a few years, so perhaps that accounts for it.

Dave, you're repeating yourself. My 92 year old mother-in-law does a bit of that, too.
Oh dear; I've never lived there 

Andy

[DaveH]

Andy,

Thanks Andy, good job someone is awake ..... I know what I did -pressed "Quote" instead of "Modify"

Should have checked, could be something in the water
 
DaveH

[picclock]

Hi ArnoldB

Just a couple of points. When you mount that on the back of the vice doesn't that limit the Y travel ? I know it would on mine. Other point is why mount it on the back of the vice as opposed to mounting it on the side of the vice body ?

Sorry to be critical but I'm having a miserable day so I thought I'd share it around 

Best Regards (no harm intended)

picclock

[arnoldb]

  Cheers Gents 

Dave & Andy, I'm pretty sure it's not the water....  The times I've had to go to JHB it was the AIR  .  You can't breathe it; you have to chew and swallow all the time  - I don't know why they made most of Oliver Tambo airport a no-smoking zone; it's better to go to the smoker's lounge and just get good old plain filtered tobacco flavoured air - MUCH easier to breathe

  Share along picclock - no harm perceived; I have rhinoceros skin   
You brought up some good points though.  As to limiting Y travel, yes, that could and will happen in some cases on bigger jobs on my mill.  For the most part though, I won't have problems with it, as I'd estimate 90+ % of the time I do smaller work.  In fact, my mill is overkill for most of the work I do; an X1, Taig or Sherline would meet my needs most of the time.  I bought the RF45 clone as that's what was available locally...  besides, it helps to have bigger machines  .  I mounted it on the back of the vise as I'm not too keen on modifying my vise and the holes were conveniently there.  IMHO there are pros and cons; pros being that I don't modify the vise and thus maintain it's integrity.  Cons are as you suggested.  It's just one of those scenarios where nothing is a perfect fit, and I go for what will suit me and the jobs I do most of the time.  For the times nothing works, I'll just take other approaches .  And please, just call me Arnold, not ArnoldB :-)

I sneaked a couple of minutes in the shop after work...

Turned and half-way parted a bit of aluminium bar, drilled and tapped for M5 and screwed a bit of M5 threaded brass into it with a coating of high-strength tread retainer.  The two nuts on the brass rod were locked together to allow a bit of torque on the threaded rod to screw it tightly into the aluminium without damaging the threads:


A quick knurl:


And after parting off, removing the parting pip, a bit of filing and rubbing the parted face on emery , I ended up with this:


Then I cross-drilled the adjuster end of the stop 4.2mm and passed the 6mm hand-reamer trough the bore to remove the burs on the inside:


Some hand-tapping:


And the adjuster stop knob was done:


A mad selection of bits 'n bobs for the stop, but I'd like to add that they were actually chosen...  The aluminium knob won't rust from sweat on fingers (it gets hot here in Namibia:) ) and will not need oiling to prevent rust, the brass screw won't harm the silver steel stop arm making it difficult to move, and the brass threaded rod and aluminium knob are pretty much "seized up" on their treads - that's beside the thread retainer I added, so won't easily come unscrewed.

Regards, Arnold

[AdeV]

Nicely done & shown Arnold. As I have the same vice as you (or very similar anyway), I'm definitely going to be hoiking your idea of using those holes in the backside to mount on. They are, as I'm sure you know, supposed to be for mounting the rear jaw of the vice, thus increasing its capacity.

And after parting off, removing the parting pip, a bit of filing and rubbing the parted face on emery , I ended up with this:

You know - there's loads of brilliant and amazing things made by all sorts of people on this site - from jaw-dropping robots to fabulous steam & IC engines, but it's the little things like this that really bring a smile to my face & make me positively glow with the fact that "I can MAKE one of those!". For years, I've seen hifi and other audio gear with these beautiful brushed or knurled aluminium knobs, and the fact that I can now MAKE them is, well, almost indescribable.

Mind you, I can't make mine float above the desk like yours does.... did you soak it in helium or something? 

[DMIOM]

Thanks Arnold - nicely done & shown, and that's lovely crisp knurling.

....Mind you, I can't make mine float above the desk like yours does.... did you soak it in helium or something?  ......

Ade,
I suspect the glass or perspex that looks to be covering the desk might have something to do with it    

Dave

[Rob.Wilson]

Must be nice an warm over there Arnold ,now your back in the shop   


Rob 

[Stilldrillin]

Very nicely done, and shown Arnold! 

Every few weeks I make do, without a vice stop. One of these days, I will make one........ 

Meanwhile.... Have you a little of that warmth spare? Was (already) having finger/ machine interface problems, this afternoon...... 

David D

[arnoldb]

  Cheers Ade.  I have to agree with you; I've only been machining for about as long as you have; but it gets easier all the time.  At first it was a struggle to just get parts made to some level of getting things to go together; now I routinely find myself adding a bit of "detail" like the knob...  And this one was just a quicky!

Thanks Dave     You're right; the knob is lying on a sheet of glass that I use as my surface plate.    That's the only bit of space in my shop where I can put down something to photograph it  It does seem to help with photographing smaller parts though, as it lets a bit of light around small parts.

Rob, Cheers mate  .    Heating up nicely; running in the low to mid 30Cs in daytime  No shop tonight though; have to run "those other white machines" in the house   

  David, Thanks.  I wish I could send you some of the warmth on; if you're getting that cold already this year sounds like it's going to be a really cold winter in the UK.  I've been wanting to make the vise stop since I got my mill...  So I decided to just get down and do it.  It's like so many other things; one constantly finds oneself wishing "I'd made that already"; at the end of the day it just pays off in time saving. 

 , Arnold

[arnoldb]

This morning I finished the last bit; a bigger knob for the back; countersunk and tapped M6 to accept a cap screw:


I don't have suitable screws in stock for the back mounting; I want M8 cap screws for that, so I'll buy those when I get a chance to go shopping again.  For now, just two M8 bolts holding it on; the bolts are a bit long, but I didn't want to shorten them for a temporary job, so nuts screwed on them to bolt the stop in place.  I also added a washer between the rear aluminium knob and the slide; otherwise it will give problems with galling and wear very quickly.  Mounted on the vise in out-of-the-way mode:


And in "In-Use" mode:


That didn't take too long to finish today, so I spent the rest of the day giving all my machines a good clean and service.  Now its time for an engine build for a change...  One Elmer coming up 

 , Arnold