[mountaindew]

Recently I set down at drawing board to work on some small part holding solutions. Soft jaws for my 5” machinist vise look big and a waste for such small parts. After deciding what I needed I also wanted to use this distraction as an opportunity to do some design refinement and have some fun just making some tools to use and see what really works best, saves time and or improves quality. Also add a little design flare if possible and make them fun to use. I call these my 8-32 vises because they use 8-32 screws “lots of them” .
Draw some parts
Attachment 285512

Cam some parts
Attachment 285514

Mill some parts check fit and finish assemble and you’re done “sounds easy”. Then no decent tool comes without a storage box. So build some fun boxes to hold everything. Pair of vises pictured alongside the tray of tts used to make them.

Attachment 285516

Picture of a few normal soft jaw options like step jaws, v jaws also some matching mini pallets "small square flat plates with screw holes" to hold small parts flat.

Attachment 285518

Picture showing vise squad setup to perform operations on 2 sides of a part. One holds the part on step jaws for drilling operations. Another holds part flat on pallet and mills all exterior features. Also shows a few options for work stop placement. This is something I use often and they are always in the way of operations and wanted to try some different options for mounting out of the way of mill operations like arbor saws.

Attachment 285520

I always enjoy a few close up pictures.

Attachment 285522


Attachment 285524

Have some fun with the design by moving fixed jaw to center of vise and add another movable jaw. This allows 2 sets of small parts to be setup on one vise base. A fun and efficient design for small part soft jaws setups.

Attachment 285526

This jaw design allows the vises to work together and provide another work holding option.

Attachment 285528

Complete with work stops and pinned locked positions.

Attachment 285530

Some fun tools to use and make. I also have a number of other design options like swivel base about done and ready to cam. Like to note with the base soft jaw setup in sprutcam, I can delete that model and load new model and have a new soft jaw design ready to mill about as fast as I can draw them. Also these are designed with parametric properties to change from 8-32 to 0.25-20 and have a complete new design and size “maybe” this does not always work right 

Fun project I figured others might get ideas from for their fixture needs
Special thanks to tormach and sprutcam for the tools to make the shiny stuff I draw and cnc zone for sharing the results and ideas. Honorable mention to don clement who mentioned a while back that over time you will collect a bunch of these in all shapes and sizes. .
Thanks for reading.

[popspipes]

Nice Pics MD!

Its always nice to see what others are doing and how they go about it.........

[Gilmax]

Nice! I like it. What is the bed height on your vises? Will these be for sale?

[pickled]

Very well done! The best designs are a product of a "need". I am sure that you will refine these even more as time goes by. One nice thing about those vises is that you won't get a hernia if you stumble while carrying one over to the work bench :-). Thanks for posting the great pics and Sprut porn!

[mountaindew]

Nice Pics MD!

Its always nice to see what others are doing and how they go about it.........

Thanks, I also enjoy looking at what others are up and get ideas for my stuff.

Nice! I like it. What is the bed height on your vises? Will these be for sale?

This design has a total height of about 1.5 with jaws as shown. In reality the design can be scaled up, down or stretched for longer or wider bases, just about any size I want or need.

Very well done! The best designs are a product of a "need". I am sure that you will refine these even more as time goes by. One nice thing about those vises is that you won't get a hernia if you stumble while carrying one over to the work bench :-). Thanks for posting the great pics and Sprut porn!

Thanks again
Already have more revisions and versions in mind. I get stuck in cam if I cant get the fixtures worked out and having options helps me think it thru. And yup they are small and light. The idea is to load one with material and put in big vise. then run program while loading another vise with material to swap out. Also set them side by side for operations on 2 parts at same time doing 2 sides of those parts in 1 program. Make a fleet of them and mount to fixture plate for bigger jobs. I see a number of ways to use these tools.

Some more cam pictures of these in action already!

Attachment 285618

And another picture of future possible use on 4th axis tomb stone

Attachment 285616

Thanks again for looking and reading.
Foot note: The acrylic boxes were hand made and took about as much time as the vises that go in them. Kudos to the person in china making the little wooden boxes for the tools I buy

[luv2ride]

Hey MD, did you make the entire vise? Whats is made of?

Things like this are awesome for forums but I can see why these meetups and things are so popular. I would love to sit down local with a computer and machine and talk shop with some of you guys!

[mountaindew]

Hey MD, did you make the entire vise? Whats is made of?

Things like this are awesome for forums but I can see why these meetups and things are so popular. I would love to sit down local with a computer and machine and talk shop with some of you guys!

Yes, Made of aluminum, 1/4" steel rod and 8-32 screws. Takes 4 cam / g-code files for vise and another dozen cam/ g-code files for the accessories. Not hard to make, the mill does most the work. I only fixture stock, run code, set x,y,z, rotate sides and a little de-burring here and there.
what meetup are you talking about? Tormach open house or other?

[ClaudDKLyons]

Things like this are awesome for forums but I can see why these meetups and things are so popular. I would love to sit down local with a computer and machine and talk shop with some of you guys!

[luv2ride]

Yes, Made of aluminum, 1/4" steel rod and 8-32 screws. Takes 4 cam / g-code files for vise and another dozen cam/ g-code files for the accessories. Not hard to make, the mill does most the work. I only fixture stock, run code, set x,y,z, rotate sides and a little de-burring here and there.

Awesome. That is what I expected. I would think the aluminum would last plenty long in a hobby world.

what meetup are you talking about? Tormach open house or other?

There's an app for that! Meetup is an app where you can find groups to meet with. They have some makerspace and tech stuff around me I have found out lately (thanks to my wife). They meet at a local place and discuss ideas. I haven't looked into any yet but they are out there.

[Uman]

This is really a nice presentation and inspirational.
Thanks MD, you rock.
Uman

[MichaelHenry]

MD - too bad you don't do video. A YouTube channel with some of your SprutCAM tips and machining projects would be very interesting. Will you be going to the Tormach Open House next month?

Mike

[mountaindew]

This is really a nice presentation and inspirational.
Thanks MD, you rock.
Uman

Thanks !
More fun showing your skills and hard work with some effort also put into nice pictures and layout. Otherwise its just metal on the bench! lol

MD - too bad you don't do video. A YouTube channel with some of your SprutCAM tips and machining projects would be very interesting. Will you be going to the Tormach Open House next month?

Mike

Thanks for the interest Mike!
I would like to do some video work. My problem is no decent software for screen video capture and editing. What I have now is limited and time consuming to use. Makes it hard to capture a project and edit it for interesting content. What does all the you tube video people use?

Attending an open house to network with other users and or some class time at Tormach would be awesome . I just don't have much of a travel budget these days.
Maybe next one.

[pickled]

Hey MD. I use Camtasia for procedures and the YouTube stuff. It is hammer simple to use and fit my price point.

[MichaelHenry]

Thanks for the interest Mike!
I would like to do some video work. My problem is no decent software for screen video capture and editing. What I have now is limited and time consuming to use. Makes it hard to capture a project and edit it for interesting content. What does all the you tube video people use?

Attending an open house to network with other users and or some class time at Tormach would be awesome . I just don't have much of a travel budget these days.
Maybe next one.

Someone (Pickled?) mentioned Camtasia for screen recording and lots of folks seem to like that. So far as camera gear and video editing, maybe David Jones blog on the subject would be useful:

https://usesthis.com/interviews/dave.jones/

He creates the EEVBlog YouTube channel, which has 2 million subscribers and can be a real hoot to watch if you are into electronics.

Hope you can make the next Tormach Open House. The recent one on the lathe was well worth the trip.

[mountaindew]

A set of monster jaws in back and some mini jaws for holding small soft-jaw parts for size.
The scale explains part of the reason I wanted some small tool vises with small soft jaws.
Also when your in sprutcam they look way to big to have a couple little parts held in them.

Attachment 286790

Not that the little jaws are saving money. More like less waste and store in smaller drawer
Monster jaws are well priced and less work to make because you only mill for use and not the jaw itself.

[phoneman]

MD

Very nice vises
Are you selling these vises or are the drawing files available for down load or sale.

Dave

[mountaindew]

MD

Very nice vises
Are you selling these vises or are the drawing files available for down load or sale.

Dave

Thank you so much!
No plans to make and sell! Might consider putting iges models out for download.
There is another 2 dozen part models not shown , swivel base, vise keys, toe clamps , extended bases , extended jaws, fixture plates, and tap holders. Just about any thing I can think of. Some of these need more design refinement both utility and for fabrication out of nominal material sizes, the rest are ready to run at mill with decent cam setups done and basic g-code compiled. Waiting on me to get material and run them.
I will look over the model set and see if its clean enough for public use. Can igs model files be edited? I have only exported them never tried to edit one. Or would people want a pdf with drawings and make their own models?
md

[phoneman]

Md

I have imported Igs files and worked with them. You of course do not get all the part history. I have added holes. removed faces, added material to faces etc. What 3D CAD program are you working with. Folks that have the same program or a program that will load your programs file format may be interested in getting files in native format. I use Alibre/Geomagic and Solidworks.

Because you have so meany files burning them to DVD and then the person receiving the files could PayPal you for the disc and postage. I know I would be willing to do that.

It would of course be up to the person receiving the files to CAM them up for there machine and you would have no liability if they do something wrong that causes damage to there machine.

Dave

[MichaelHenry]

I believe that IGES or STEP files should both come in as dumb solids. Most competent 3D CAD software should be able to modify them to some extent but there will be none of the design constraints in the part files so something like direct editing might need to be used.

Personally, I'd rather see PDF drawing files. It should be trivial to model the parts in any CAD system with that info. I hope that you make the designs available - the vises look useful.

[mountaindew]

Was side tracked and forgot about people wanting to make these or use the models. Recently I had a couple people asking about this and decided to follow up.
I looked at dimension drawings and decided its to much work to make them readable at this time.
Anyway if you pm me your email address, I can send a igs assembly model. This can be broken apart into the igs parts and modify or cam as desired.
If dimensions are needed you can also dimension the models with your own style
Enjoy!