Careful on that ladder mate.
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JCDammeyer's 42 projects
- Thread starter jcdammeyer
- Start date
Yes. For sure.
Trying to crawl to that point in the house inside the attic scared the piss out of me. Just too enclosed and tough on the knees. The ladder is a cakewalk compared to that. What I did see was what looked like a nest made up from fibreglass and stuff which blocked all the light. Which is why I couldn't see the hole from the inside.
But yes, it's two stories up so quite high. That's why I'd rather have a contractor who does soffits and gutters do the overall repair.
Yahoo. I get to travel again. 
Off to Coquitlam to pick up parts and completed PC boards.
Ferry at 11AM. Then driving. Pick up stuff. Then Driving. Back onto ferry at 5PM.
I could have it shipped but there's a few plastic file boxes with folders and the last time they ended up badly damaged from rough treatment. I keep all my surface mount parts in hanging file folders. Two totes with nothing but capacitors. Three with ICs. Four with resistors and one with diodes and LEDs.
Easiest way to organize reels and strips of parts for surface mount PC boards. Through hole parts are stored in drawers since they tend to be bulkier.
To put a project together I pull the folders from the appropriate totes and put them into totes in spread sheet component order. For my antique brain it's the easiest way to make sure I have enough of everything. When parts that I'm short of arrive from Mouser or Digikey etc I just unpack their box and slide the reels into the appropriate empty folder.
When all is said and done the folders are returned to their original box.
Off to Coquitlam to pick up parts and completed PC boards. Ferry at 11AM. Then driving. Pick up stuff. Then Driving. Back onto ferry at 5PM.
I could have it shipped but there's a few plastic file boxes with folders and the last time they ended up badly damaged from rough treatment. I keep all my surface mount parts in hanging file folders. Two totes with nothing but capacitors. Three with ICs. Four with resistors and one with diodes and LEDs.
Easiest way to organize reels and strips of parts for surface mount PC boards. Through hole parts are stored in drawers since they tend to be bulkier.
To put a project together I pull the folders from the appropriate totes and put them into totes in spread sheet component order. For my antique brain it's the easiest way to make sure I have enough of everything. When parts that I'm short of arrive from Mouser or Digikey etc I just unpack their box and slide the reels into the appropriate empty folder.
When all is said and done the folders are returned to their original box.
Drive safe, it’s a madhouse out there!Yahoo. I get to travel again.
Ferry at 11AM. Then driving. Pick up stuff. Then Driving. Back onto ferry at 5PM.
I could have it shipped but there's a few plastic file boxes with folders and the last time they ended up badly damaged from rough treatment. I keep all my surface mount parts in hanging file folders. Two totes with nothing but capacitors. Three with ICs. Four with resistors and one with diodes and LEDs.
Easiest way to organize reels and strips of parts for surface mount PC boards. Through hole parts are stored in drawers since they tend to be bulkier.
To put a project together I pull the folders from the appropriate totes and put them into totes in spread sheet component order. For my antique brain it's the easiest way to make sure I have enough of everything. When parts that I'm short of arrive from Mouser or Digikey etc I just unpack their box and slide the reels into the appropriate empty folder.
When all is said and done the folders are returned to their original box.
View attachment 57452
Mini project today. I have two of these types of vises. One really tiny one I bought on a whim and never used and this one also never used.
Problem is every time I loosened it the pin in the bottom would slip out of the groove and then it was a bear to get it back in and to hold the piece that needed milling.
Then I noticed that the holes along the bottom were also about 6mm and lined up with the slots underneath. As the Southbend had a piece in process I used my Gingery to make a small 6mm (approx) pin that was about 40mm long. Now the clamping screw assembly doesn't fall out.
Of course I'm keeping the short piece as there may well be times it's easier to use it.
Problem is every time I loosened it the pin in the bottom would slip out of the groove and then it was a bear to get it back in and to hold the piece that needed milling.
Then I noticed that the holes along the bottom were also about 6mm and lined up with the slots underneath. As the Southbend had a piece in process I used my Gingery to make a small 6mm (approx) pin that was about 40mm long. Now the clamping screw assembly doesn't fall out.
Of course I'm keeping the short piece as there may well be times it's easier to use it.
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I machined a new pin system for mine as well. It was very sloppy laterally within the slot recess so was getting canted & hung up sliding into position. The pin was pretty sad too so got replaced with a dowel. I may have tuned up the spherical washer too, can't recall. And the usual edge deburring in the slot area that will cut your fingers. Aside from this I measured it on my surface plate & they are very accurate, so good value IMO. I just had it out the other day to make baby gib strips.
These have a variety of names -tool makers vise is most common I think.
They are often an apprentice's assignment or project. They come in a variety of slightly different configurations.
I have a couple:
The one on the left has a pin that can quickly skip (leap frog) to a new location - but the one on the right requires relocating a pin.
I prefer the one on the left. Once you get use to it - then it is much faster to adjust in and out.
It’s not that obvious in the picture- but the apprentice doing the one on the left gets a fail. I had to machine the slot a bit deeper for the pin to leap frog properly. Before that it would only work with a longer pin like the vise on the right.
(Which explains why the one on the left had a short pin and a long pin)
They are often an apprentice's assignment or project. They come in a variety of slightly different configurations.
I have a couple:
The one on the left has a pin that can quickly skip (leap frog) to a new location - but the one on the right requires relocating a pin.
I prefer the one on the left. Once you get use to it - then it is much faster to adjust in and out.
It’s not that obvious in the picture- but the apprentice doing the one on the left gets a fail. I had to machine the slot a bit deeper for the pin to leap frog properly. Before that it would only work with a longer pin like the vise on the right.
(Which explains why the one on the left had a short pin and a long pin)
I couldn't do that because the area where you have your wing nut is clamped in the larger milling vise. So I had to machine a long pin that wouldn't pop out but wouldn't interfere.
I think if this vise had a rubber or foam strip to keep the pin in the grooves when loosened it would be fine. Or a spring loaded plate. Something to keep it from falling out but allows it out when pressure is applied.
BTW, the purpose of using this little vise was because the beautiful heatsinks that @kstrauss milled for me came with an oops. His sample that I evaluated fit onto the PC board perfectly. Cleared the capacitors. Only the main plate was a bit thin so I passed that info back and he then made 25 of them for me.
Problem was I overlooked that a recess was missing because I didn't have any PC boards at the time to do a trial fit. The PC board extends into the recess. My bad. Had I caught it Ken would have machined it.
So now I was faced with: send them back and have him fix it or do it myself. The fins are 0.030" thick. Milling anything from the side will bend it. So I had to approach it head on with a 3mm 3 flute end mill, running 2950 RPM and ultimately 0.6 IPM.
Took under 2 minutes per piece. While the next one was being cut I used a small flat file to remove the burrs and air to blow out the parts. No mist coolant. Just air from the mist hose.\
G-Code was easy. First used the MDI to set up each move and do it manually. Then cut and pasted that into a file and cleaned up adding CNC feed values.
Nothing touches. A good thing. Underneath the heat sink are 4 FET devices coupled to the heat sink via Silpad material. The end of the heat sink is pressed against the PC board with heat sink compound. On the other side is the driver chip which is soldered on the bottom. The heat sink pulls heat from that point and there's a fan blowing air across the aluminum fins. A 250W power supply.
Problem was I overlooked that a recess was missing because I didn't have any PC boards at the time to do a trial fit. The PC board extends into the recess. My bad. Had I caught it Ken would have machined it.
So now I was faced with: send them back and have him fix it or do it myself. The fins are 0.030" thick. Milling anything from the side will bend it. So I had to approach it head on with a 3mm 3 flute end mill, running 2950 RPM and ultimately 0.6 IPM.
Took under 2 minutes per piece. While the next one was being cut I used a small flat file to remove the burrs and air to blow out the parts. No mist coolant. Just air from the mist hose.\
G-Code was easy. First used the MDI to set up each move and do it manually. Then cut and pasted that into a file and cleaned up adding CNC feed values.
Nothing touches. A good thing. Underneath the heat sink are 4 FET devices coupled to the heat sink via Silpad material. The end of the heat sink is pressed against the PC board with heat sink compound. On the other side is the driver chip which is soldered on the bottom. The heat sink pulls heat from that point and there's a fan blowing air across the aluminum fins. A 250W power supply.
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
The trick with the grinding vice clamp screws is to NOT use a ball end hex key. Use a flat end, and you can lever the pin up into the slots while you tighten.
I don't use my ball end keys unless I need them, so no worries there. I never thought about using the key to lever the pin into position.
Thanks for that tip!
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
It's about the only time I use flat end hex keys, as I prefer balls for everything. That and holding screws for insertion into tight places.
Because the name varies so much, I think it's almost regional. I think I have a half dozen or more. One purchased new a long time ago, and the rest parts of lot sales or Kijiji buys.
Around here the most common name is "Machinists Vise".
But I've heard them called tool maker's vise, grinding vise (they are fantastic on the Mag chuck of a surface grinder...), secondary vise (they work great clamped in a bigger vise), precision vise (prolly just cuz they are often small), tool room vise, and Apprentice Vise. I always wondered where apprentice vise came from so thanks for clearing that up Craig.
My most common usage is as a secondary vise, and then as a grinding vise.
When I was at Ex-Cell-O, this type of vise was only used on surface grinders for accurate finishing passes. Never in a mill for heavy cuts, the retaining fasteners were always on an angle and keeping the moveable jaw DOWN and HOLDING against the fixed jaw.
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
I've always heard them called and referred to them as a grinding vise, or toolmakers vise. The only place I've ever used them too is on a grinder, besides the occasional vise in a vise operation for doing compound angles in a mill. But I mostly used Gerardi vises for that. Gonna ruffle some feathers here, but that was the best use I ever found for a Gerardi vise......didn't like them for milling.......Not the work I did anyway. Anyway.....If you stuck a grinding vise on the table of a milling machine in any of the shops I worked at, you would have gathered an immediate audience, as everybody would have stopped what they were doing, Especially the stubborn old timers, to see just what the hell you were up to......Doing anything outside the ordinary textbook way of doing stuff, would have had the same response too. lol
The grinding vise found a different home in the smaller sized home shop machines, as it was the highest quality work holding option for small work envelopes. Scaled down Kurt Anglock and clones, really don't scale well to small milling machines as they eat up too much valuable Y real estate, so the monolithic grinding vise became the better option. I wouldn't trust one for any heavy milling though. But I DO understand why they're so popular for small milling machines, and I don't blame people for using them for that. No judgement here from me. Do what works best.
The grinding vise found a different home in the smaller sized home shop machines, as it was the highest quality work holding option for small work envelopes. Scaled down Kurt Anglock and clones, really don't scale well to small milling machines as they eat up too much valuable Y real estate, so the monolithic grinding vise became the better option. I wouldn't trust one for any heavy milling though. But I DO understand why they're so popular for small milling machines, and I don't blame people for using them for that. No judgement here from me. Do what works best.
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Each to their own I guess. No feathers ruffled here. I figure somebody prolly abused you as a child with a Gerardi. Only legitimate reason I can think of why you don't love them on a mill table.
I can picture that sooooo easy. Old timers love to watch others do something different.
When I got my swing plow, the whole area showed up out front to watch me use it. Word spread FAST and about a half hour later there was Pickup trucks lined up on the road out front like they used to do at auctions. Gotta watch that old man trying to plow with that crazy contraption he bought......
Now it seems there are a lot of switch plows and rollover plows around. Nobody likes to work around debt rows, and the efficiency is hard to beat. Lots of farmers here plowing and doing sprayer rows now too. Guess I wasn't so crazy after all!
I'd never put my Gerardi in a grinding environment though. To be honest, I worry about using abrasives near a grinding vise let alone a Girardi!
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
No abuse. From a vise anyway lol. It was mostly the need for a truly fixed jaw for machine reference, and the need for utility from replaceable soft jaws of a kurt style. Gerardi vises are great workholding tools. I think they actually hold stock better, and square-er than kurt style, but the moving fixed jaw was a non starter for me. For my needs I need that to stay put, and not move. Kurt style simply had more pluses for the work I mostly did. We had 3 Geradi vises in the shop though, and we used them for vise in vise compounding quite a lot. For that they were amazing because they held the parts secure and square, and they fit sideways in a 6" kurt vise perfectly. I had no issues or concerns doing milling operations with some pretty janky looking setups like that either ( I would block them up with jacks and clamps though), but they were mostly used for putting holes in from CMM set toolmaker buttons.
Grinding swarf though. Meh, concerns are overblown......just clean it off, blow it out. It's a tool, use it like a tool......Grinding swarf around machines though....Ya, that's an issue. I watched our really good condition HLV-H at my old job get destroyed in a few short years by a guy because he would polish pins to fit on it (because he couldn't grind to size lol) without covering the ways, or cleaning up after. dished out the ways near the headstock very badly, and made the machine next to useless compared to what it once was. When that comes up for auction, steer clear.....
Grinding swarf though. Meh, concerns are overblown......just clean it off, blow it out. It's a tool, use it like a tool......Grinding swarf around machines though....Ya, that's an issue. I watched our really good condition HLV-H at my old job get destroyed in a few short years by a guy because he would polish pins to fit on it (because he couldn't grind to size lol) without covering the ways, or cleaning up after. dished out the ways near the headstock very badly, and made the machine next to useless compared to what it once was. When that comes up for auction, steer clear.....
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