Mill Vises

Space Teams Metal Shop
1

I did some maintenance work on the three main vises for the manual mills, mainly lubricating their ways and screws. I noted several new marks on the vises; please take greater care to avoid running your tool into them. We can get new jaws for them if necessary, but I’d rather avoid that expense, and use the money for additional tooling.

One of the Shars vises will be the primary vise for the Precision Matthews mill, and I want the second to be available for a matching two vise setup on that mill. It will stay in the machine shop cabinet otherwise.

That leaves the Tormach brand vise on the Rong Fu. That one had been difficult to open beyond about two inches; but I’ve gotten it freed up now. It’s lacking a standard handle, but someone is working on machining a replacement. (Could you contact me with a status update?) In the meantime, that vise can be turned with the 19 mm end of the wrench that is dedicated to the Rong Fu for collets and the vise nuts. I’ve also located a 19 mm speed wrench and left it on that vise. That’s almost more convenient than a regular handle. (If you’re not familiar with speed wrenches, just know that they don’t have a ratchet reverse mechanism; instead you just flip the wrench over to reverse.)

The Tormach brand vise is 5" wide, which can make using the standard 4" wide parallels feel awkward. There are some 6" wide parallels in the top drawer of the Tormach toolbox if you want to use them.

Please be aware that the vise bolts holding whatever vise is on the Rong Fu are unique to the Rong Fu and must stay there. (They are 1/2" threads to match the T-track but with a 19 mm head so that we only need a single wrench dedicated to the machine.) And two other pairs of T-track bolts were cut specifically for holding vises on the Precision Matthews machine; they should stay with the other two vises. They can also be used to hold down the rotary vise.

1 Like
2

Does that mean there isn’t a traditional milling vice that is “dedicated” to the Tormach at this point? (Only mod vises?)

3

I thought the Tormach had that new clamping system that worked for everything. If you do need a standard vise on the Tormach, odds are very high that at least one of these three will be available.

That possibility just further emphasizes my main point for these designations, which is to put the crappy old Tormach brand vise on the crappy old Rong Fu, leaving a spare good vise for either the Tormach or for a dual vise setup on the PM Mill.

4

I really don’t understand why anyone would use the Rong Fu when the Precision Matthews is available. The transition document needs a few minor updates but otherwise it is quite straight forward.

5

Yeah there’s really not much reason to use a standard vise on the Tormach unless you need to hold something tall.

6

Thank you.