Food for thought on this Thursday....
I have one of John Saunders PCNC 1100 fixture plates and love it (was thinking about purchasing one of his new steel ones but since I just purchased a new Slant Pro this morning - it'll have to wait). Been thinking of ways to speed up switching back and forth on stuff and it got me to thinking about the vise. Rarely am I in an issue where I do not have enough Z axis, so this is not an issue. So here's my thought.
Get some 1/2" aluminum plate stock and cut it larger (say 2" all the way around) than the base of my Tormach 5" CNC vise. Machine/press in some threaded inserts (1/2"-13) on the back side for the vise hold downs (4) and machine in the matching dowel pin holes to match the fixture plate with holes that also line up with to bolt down holes. Then set the plate in place and tighten it up, put the vise onto the plate and align it, then tighten it down to the new plate.
Now.... in theory, I can just unbolt the vise plate (leaving the vise secured to the new plate) and lift the plate/vise off. Then when I need to go back to a vise, I just wipe/blow everything out, put the pins in and place the plate/vise into position, tighten it down and all should be square....
Thoughts?