Bad vises...

[old mart]

The damage to the Kurt couldn't have been done on a manual mill accidentally, one furrow, but not a set. With a high end vise like Kurt, there will be spare parts available.

[ImFred]

Ironically the jaws on that don't look too bad. At least the vise stop looks salvageable lol.

I don't see a vise stop in any of the photos in this thread.

[Dan Dubeau]

I don't see a vise stop in any of the photos in this thread.

Circled in red is a kurt vise stop. It goes in the top of the slotted fixed jaw. Pretty handy little thing

[old mart]

You should have seen the previous set of jaws on that Kurt, 3/8" lower than those replacements.

[tom_d]

Obviously you are not the person in charge of that shop. It is that person, supervisor or manager, who needs to know about this.

But I can understand if there are other factors involved so do what is best for yourself. And when you need a good vise and none are available, then ask for a new one or the parts needed to repair that one.

Good luck. And that is a serious wish.

Just as children are a product of their parents, the employee's work is a reflection of the management's abilities.

[tom_d]

I drilled a divot into the RAIL of one vise, by just plain forgetting what I was doing, and how much of it I had already done. I have it, and use it still, as a reminder not to do that again.

Job shop humor in the old days, we would say that a little hole in the table was fixable by drilling it deep enough to tap and inserting a set screw flush with the surface to fill the hole. Then all that was needed was to get out the letter punches and stamp the location "oil".

[mochinist]

I wont judge the vise without knowing the story… I replaced a kurt movable vise jaw last year, the jaw and a rebuild kit was $200 + shipping and it took an hour or so to rebuild. For the right job and situation, I’d drill and mill into if needed and bill it into the job. Yeah there is probably a better way, but the customer may need the part yesterday and this will get it done now.

My slow cnc mill, rapids at 1000 ipm and the faster cnc’s rapid at 1400 ipm. Oh sh!t moments happen really fast and everyone of us has hit a jaw and worse. You should see the look on someones face when they have to come in and tell you they just rapid fed your Renishaw probe into the table and destroyed it, that was an expensive hand coding mistake… We have setup processes to try and prevent things like that from happening but mistakes can still happen from fat fingering a decimal in the wrong place, mistakingly loading the tools in the wrong order, setting the wrong coordinate system(g54,g55) etc. Still none of our vises look like this, usually when I see vises like this, it is the mechanic shop at a local factory. They almost always have at least one beat up Bridgeport clone with a mangled vise on it. Nobody that uses it is a machinist, frankly they are barely maintenance mechanics, but thats their job title and they beat the crap out of machines and tooling.

[JRouche]

Job shop humor in the old days, we would say that a little hole in the table was fixable by drilling it deep enough to tap and inserting a set screw flush with the surface to fill the hole. Then all that was needed was to get out the letter punches and stamp the location "oil".

Funny! So thats what all those are all over my lathes. JR

[vectorwarbirds]

Which one is the 'oil hole'? (Is this it Doozer?)

[eKretz]

Which one is the 'oil hole'? (Is this it Doozer?)

I think maybe that it's the one that's circled...heh. That thing looks like a piece of iron swiss cheese.

[J Tiers]

This is the table of the Atlas/Clausing DP as received. it still looks like that, I have not seen any reason to do a "fix". Obviously run by folks who were unaware that the big hole on the middle is to clear the drill.

[Tim Clarke]

This is the table of the Atlas/Clausing DP as received. it still looks like that, I have not seen any reason to do a "fix". Obviously run by folks who were unaware that the big hole on the middle is to clear the drill.

Ya, not fixing is a good plan. That way if you do screw up, nobody will be able to tell the difference!

[J Tiers]

Ya, not fixing is a good plan. That way if you do screw up, nobody will be able to tell the difference!

Any new mistakes would be shiny.................

But. on a practical level, what would be a "repair"? Most things which might be done are essentially cosmetic, and do not increase the utility or strength of the table. Plus, I do not have a lathe that will swing the table, so flattening the table after any brazing etc would be a nuisance, to say the least.

It seems more practical to just leave it, especially since I almost never put anything down directly on the table for drilling. I have an x-y table on it.

[Tobias-B]

I consider my bad vises to be buying too many cars and too many saxophones...

heh

t
also drinks to moderation, and procrastinates professionally

[J Tiers]

I consider my bad vises to be buying ............. too many saxophones..............

That's not bad, it's good.... that way you don't have as much money for accordions.