Quick load mill soft jaws & drilling jig

[jimsehr]

I made these soft mill jaws so they can be loaded and unloaded
with a 1/4 turn of Allen wrench. Only takes seconds.
Also put a series of 1/4 press fit holes in jaws so they can be moved where needed. Now if a round part that need a hole drilled on centerline use a wiggler to find center . Lock table and part centerline will repeat. Also if you need to mill a slot on OD of part once part is nested in pins you can use a woodruff type cutter close jaws and you are good to go. Just keep centerline above top of jaws .
Jim Sehr

[cmiller231]

Jim : I like your idea a lot ,as it takes time to change jaws on a kurt.
Question . Are the 1/4" dowel holes in both jaws used together ? in conjuntion with each other??If so, how would they be aliegned ?
Now, just a thought , how about putting in holes for 45,30,60 deg ect ect?I think some body sells jaws with them already in , but that would'nt be fun.

Great job like your ideas! Chris

[mochinist]

Originally Posted by cmiller231

Jim : I like your idea a lot ,as it takes time to change jaws on a kurt.
Question . Are the 1/4" dowel holes in both jaws used together ? in conjuntion with each other??If so, how would they be aliegned ?
Now, just a thought , how about putting in holes for 45,30,60 deg ect ect?I think some body sells jaws with them already in , but that would'nt be fun.

Great job like your ideas! Chris

There was a thread about those jaws awhile back, I believe it was Iowolfs buddy 3phaselightbulb that wrote a small computer program to do the hole layout.

[lazlo]

Originally Posted by mochinist

There was a thread about those jaws awhile back, I believe it was Iowolfs buddy 3phaselightbulb that wrote a small computer program to do the hole layout.

I bought a set of soft jaws from that guy on Ebay who did this -- its got sine plate pegs with spacers that give you any arbitrary angle from 0 - 90°

He's been clearing these out for awhile on Ebay, and when I thought about the amount of time it would take to locate and drill all those holes, it seemed like a bargain:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=190106885198

[jimsehr]

cmiller231
Both jaws are drilled together . So I guess you could put long pins in 2 holes before you tighten vise bolts . But I have only used 1 jaw for my parts .
I have used cad to locate where holes should be for angles. Pretty easy just use 3 holes . 2 holes to lay part on and 1 hole for stop.
Lazlo
I like the idea of the sine jaws .
I think you will be suprised at how often the 2 pins work well for drilling and milling set ups.
I sometimes use 1 pin just for a stop.
Jim Sehr
jims

[Wareagle]

Heck of an idea! Thanks for sharing. I really like the idea of being able to slide them in and out quickly.

Has there been any short comings with the height of the jaws?

[jimsehr]

wareagle
I made those jaws 1/2 higher then standard. But I have made them the standard hieght also and could see no difference. If you make them higher you can always cut them down again.
I often use soft jaws rather then parallels Just be sure to tighten jaws against a piece of stock before you mill them.This takes the slop out of jaws.
And this makes them dead true. Flat and square to machine.
Jim Sehr

[BobWarfield]

Jim and others, I did a Rhino drawing for those who want to make a set of jaws in this style for angle setting purposes:



This particular drawing uses 1/8" dowel pins to cover angles from 5 degrees to 45 degrees in 5 degree increments. The DRO coordinates are called out with the origin as the lower left corner of the vise jaws. Jaws are 6" x 2" for a Kurt 6" vise.

You could do this easy with a rotary table, but if you don't have one, a DRO or even mark out with a height gage ought to get you there. You can plug in 2 pins to get the angles, or make a little bar with 2 pins. If you choose the latter route, you'll need 2 bars with the pins on a radius of 2" and 2.5".

Cheers,

BW

[ARFF79]

There is a commercial version of these jaws on the market. They are know as "Snap Jaws" and come in all configurations, both as hard and soft jaws. Stepped, grooved: both horizontal and vertical, sine and if I recall correctly adjustable to accomadate irregular or tapered work pieces, in 4" 6" 8" vise ranges. They are also expensive. I have been looking for them at auctions but have yet to find any. There is also a set of jaws known as "Dove Loc". Master dovetailed jaw plates with interchangable insert jaws that look like Aloris tool holders. These allow you to machine custom reccessed jaws for those parts that you normally just can't hold in a vice, due to bulges in the part. Think odd castings. Again expensive plus they eat up the vices usable open space. both of these systems are worth looking at to get ideas to make them for your own use.

[studentjim]

Nifty idea there Jim, I don't know how many times that I've needed to hold something at an angle on my shaper in a mousy little 4" milling vise. This looks like the ticket. Thanks for sharing.