IT'S TOO BIGGGGG!

[opensourcefan]

You know, I had (have) a small 2" vise on my mini mill. Great for small things obviously but not so much for anything big or for making aggressive cuts. So I thought it was time to get something bigger, better, more accurate, more cool looking.

Well, apparently a 4" CNC vise is almost as big as my mill!!

Now I need a new mill, seriously.

 

[DavidR8]

For a small mill I have always thought the small vises that tighten with the hex wrench were a good size.

 

[Ironman]

Wait til that little mill grows up, then he can use that vise

 

[Susquatch]

Now I need a new mill, seriously.

At least you have your priorities straight.

If it makes you feel any better, you should see the size of the vise on my Drill Press! If I ever loosened the post clamp, someone in Australia would be plenty pissed!

 

[LenVW]

And I thought my 3” Vise took up a lot of room on my mini-mill.
That TORMACH is a monster !!

 

[140mower]

You know, I had (have) a small 2" vise on my mini mill. Great for small things obviously but not so much for anything big or for making aggressive cuts. So I thought it was time to get something bigger, better, more accurate, more cool looking.

Well, apparently a 4" CNC vise is almost as big as my mill!!

View attachment 44402

Now I need a new mill, seriously.

....... well, if it's going to be this easy, may I suggest that you buy a bigger vice....
The little one you just bought and the tiny one you had will be fine on the bigger machine.

 

[Susquatch]

The little one you just bought

I think that might be too subtle for some Don....But I am still laughing! I cry!

 

[opensourcefan]

Gave it a good run today and noticed immediately that my vibrations have moved more into the depths of the mill vs on the top of the table with my little 2" vise. It's BIG but it's working. I can actually hold some collet blocks now too! Yay for me!

 

[garageguy]

Clearly, you need a bigger mill.

 

[CWret]

I upgraded from my Precision Matthews 5” machine vise to a 6” Gerardi. I was afraid when I bought it that it would be TOOOOO BIG for my RF45 clone. But it was a beautiful vise and an awesome Kijiji find - so it followed me home. Now that I’ve lived with it for a few months, I can say that yes it is big but definitely not too big. It does everything the smaller one did plus it has the ability to do a lot more.
Here’s a picture (from this morning) with the Gerardi beside the 8” rotary table. The RT is also big for this mill - but not too big.
Love em both

Going to sell the 5”

 

[CWret]

Just for the fun of it - I went out to the mill and put my 3” tool vise in my 6” Gerardi.
Couldn’t do this with a 5” and even a lot of 6” vises would struggle.

 

[LenVW]

Now bolt the Girardi to the rotary table to mill a few skued grooves.
Just kidding . . .
Creative use of your tooling will allow you to get into all types of setups.
Just be careful when you are combining units where assembly clearances can add up.

Isn’t that 3” Vise from a surface grinder ?

 

[CWret]

Isn’t that 3” Vise from a surface grinder ?

A neighbour gave a pair of them to me. Nice little vises. I thought they were ‘tool maker’ vises.

 

[CWret]

Now bolt the Girardi to the rotary table

No intention to do that. But the project seen in these pics is making the centring pin for a 13” diameter fixture plate for the 8” RT. Then indeed, I could clamp the Girardi to the RT.

 

[Susquatch]

A neighbour gave a pair of them to me. Nice little vises. I thought they were ‘tool maker’ vises.

This is another one of those things like Vernier and indicators.

I see them called machinists vise, or tool makers vise, or grinding vise. So far that hasn't been a problem for me but it would be nice to get a good solid clarification.