Vises
Last updated on Thursday, October 21, 2010 06:30:44 PM Eastern US Time Zone

Mill Vises, Indicating Animation, Drill Press Vises, Screwless Vises, Sine Vises, Bench Vise, Bench Vise Animation, Soft Jaws, Pin Vises, Anvils

A vise is one of the quickest & easiest ways to securely hold a rectangular or round part.
Thus it follows that you can't have too many vises.

Mill Vises

6", 75 lbs Parlec mill vise mounted on the RF-25. Massive, precise, durable with very high clamping forces.
The Kurt-like closing mechanism has a wedge that applies downward force as the jaw is tightened.
Parlec PWS-6900 Single Station vise parts list.

Indicating Animation

Indicating the Parlec solid jaw animation. The slot on the top of the solid jaw can also be used.
See instructions on how to set tip geometry & see illustration.

Indicating the Parlec bottom surface, animation.


A 4-inch 37 lbs Kurt-style milling vise (manual) that has moderate accuracy.

Swivel base for the 4-inch mill vise.

Quick-mount bar clamped by another mill vise. Note, a vise in a vise uses up a lot of Z.

Drill Press Vises

4-inch, low-profile Delta drill press vise.


Eron 3-inch drill press vise. Sides are also ground flat & true.

Palmgren 1½ inch, variable angle drill press vise.



Palmgren 3" wide, 1⅛" deep, 6.5" square base, 13lbs, cradle-style, variable angle drill press vise (import).
Positive pin stops at 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, & 90°. Hand-tightened lock at all positions; 0 to 90° by 1° scale.
Solid jaw has vertical & horizontal grooves. The base has ½" shoulder slots for bolting down to a drill press table.

The Palmgren vise color is now a dark gray and has a metal nameplate attached.

This vise has moderate accuracy. Cradle-style vise manual.

Screwless Vises

3-inch screwless vise mounted on the Taig mill. This style is vise pulls the movable jaw down as it closes.

2-inch screwless vise.  Screwless vise exploded diagram

2-inch vise being used in the hand tapper.

Detail of the spring-loaded ball bearing detent for adapter retention in the precision ground spindle.
The flat spring has been rotated to expose the ball bearing detent. The vise is allowed to float in two
 directions enabling easy tap/hole alignment. The example shows tapping eight, #7 holes, with ¼-20
threads. A rotary table was used to drill every 45°.

Mounted in t he RF-25 mill, showing a #2 center drill which was then followed by a #21 drill.
Held the part in a smaller vise so the setup could be easily transferred to the hand tapper for threading.

Hand tapper used to make the 10-32 threads. This set screw matches that used on the OEM pulley.
Ground the set-screw tip smooth & flat so it would not gouge the motor shaft & leave burrs.

1-inch screwless vise with built-in parallels.

Very small pieces can be held in the miniature vise, then held in other vises or set-ups.
The small vise can be transferred from machine to machine while still retaining a part's orientation.
 Parallels (steps) are ground into the jaws. The movable jaw is not as wide as the solid jaw allowing
it to be adjusted while still clamped in a larger vise. Tolerances are ± 0.0002"

One-inch screwless vise mount on a 4-inch Sherline rotary table.

Sine Vises

2-inch & 3-inch wide sine vises that are both 4-inchs between rolls.
See sine vise/bar angle calculation.

The ubiquitous, obligatory Bench Vise.

Upgraded to a 5", rotating-head, Palmgren bench vise. The mount uses a ½" thick sub-plate & hex bolts.
Three, ⅜-16, six-inch long mounting bolts (with washers) pass all the way through the bench's edge.

 High-grade steel & three types of replaceable, hardened steel jaws. The movable jaw & slide bar are one piece.
 Full 360° rotation with 12-positions (every 30°) with a spring-loaded detent that holds head position during setups.
I would not buy this type of vise if it did not have the detent mechanism to hold a given jaw position during setup.
56 lbs of precision machined vise made in Taiwan. Attached the bench to the wall for maximum stability.

Pipe & V-jaws.

Bench Vise Animation

12 position, rotating vise head animation. Two O-rings were placed at each end of the sliding handle.

 A Columbian 4½ inch (USA) bench vise. Milled, smooth-finish, soft aluminum replacement jaws.
To remove sideways play in the slide bar, I drilled & tapped (¼-20) the vise body for a set screw (other side).
I put a small (3mm) length of Teflon rod in between the screw & slide bar to reduce friction.

Pin Vises

This pin vise stores drill bits in the handle (USA).


The chuck has a ¼" (0.25" or 6.35mm) capacity.


This pin vise has a reversible collet to hold both 1/16" (0.0625" or 1.6mm) & 3/32" (0.09375 or 2.4mm) sizes.

Anvils

Low-cost anvils.

Round, hardened anvil for parts assembly & disassembly.

Mill Vises, Indicating Animation, Drill Press Vises, Screwless Vises, Sine Vises, Bench Vise, Bench Vise Animation, Soft Jaws, Pin Vises, Anvils