Machine Vices

This Free-Vice will lock your job directly to the milling table, allowing heavy cuts to be taken across the entire surface.

We've all faced those puzzles where the milling vice is not big enough and hold-down clamps get in the way. Where you may have needed to clamp then re-clamp work in the past, you can now enjoy that single facing cut!

The vice is 1 1/4" (32mm) tall and the two 3 3/4" (95mm) jaw plates are left soft to avoid cutter damage. The moving jaw plate also provides a downward force to resist the pull of RH helical cutters. With both halves together, the vice is just 4.7" (120mm) long - allowing long items to be seated securely. The iron casting for the Fixed and Moving Jaws will accommodate T-slot spacings of between 1.25"-3.5" (32-90mm), making the vice suitable for all common milling machines. The original Ludwig Gack design from the 1960's now includes a nut-cartridge to smoothly power the moving jaw. Your 8mm Hex Key acts as the vice handle.

The project is elegantly straightforward and the kit includes all necessary materials, drawings and construction notes.

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If you have ever struggled to position a delicate component in an oversized vice you will find this to be a very useful addition to the workshop. The jaws are 1½" wide, 5/8" deep and open to 1½". The entire vice is just 4 1/8" long, 2 ¾" wide and 1 3/8" high. The fixing hole positions will particularly suit Myford owners but would equally suit any drill, lathe or mill.

The kit includes iron castings for the body and sliding jaw and there is an interesting thrust arrangement to ensure that an even load is maintained. All supporting material is included together with drawings and construction notes.

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Designed by Mr. C. Tidy, this vice is of particular value to owners of small milling and shaping machines. The vice stands just 2 3/8"high, winning at least an inch of precious "daylight" over commercial items of comparable rigidity. The jaws are 2 1/2" wide, opening to 2" and the sliding jaw is of box form to minimise distortion when clamping.

Swivelling 360°, the vice can be accurately set to any angle. The base dimensions are 4 ½" by 6", allowing a wide choice of tenon or locating positions.

The Swivelling Machine Vice is offered as a set of three iron castings, along with all fasteners, steel, phosphor bronze, drawings and constructional notes by Mr. Tidy.

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Related products:

1. Ø25mm x 60° Dovetail Cutter (Ref: SP 1001)

As in so many fields of human endeavour, suitable tools are a prerequisite to progress. Once the sideline of cutlers, instrument making has a long and distinguished history with elite craftsmen working hand-in-hand with surgeons, chemists, physicists, astronomers and industrialists of every flavour to develop the equipment necessary to analyse results then exploit new scientific findings.

Within the instrument maker's workshop, highly prized manual skills are developed over many, many years. Filing, sawing, lapping, chasing, honing, scraping and polishing small parts to within infinitesimal tolerances to create world-changing devices.

This versatile vice provides movement in virtually all planes, allowing a workpiece to be firmly gripped then locked in exactly the right attitude for further finishing. The 1½" wide jaws open to 1" to accept flat or cylindrical work. The vice's iron base is cast with an integral 4" long tenon so that it can be securely held in a larger bench vice. The kit arrives with all necessary material, drawings and construction notes for this hugely useful platform.

Click here for General Arrangement Drawing