Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 6.6 The home-made long piece vice. The fixed jaw, moving jaw and end clamp-
ing block are made out of square or rectangular bar. The fixed jaw and clamping
block are bolted down to the table while the moving jaw just rests on the table and is
fixed when the two end bolts are tightened up.
WORKING WITH THE VICE
Squaring up a workpiece
One of the commonest jobs on the milling machine is milling a block of metal
square, parallel and flat.
Method 1
If you can, start off using a piece of metal thicker than needed. This way, you
can hold the workpiece on the waste piece with the finished block all above
the top surface of the vice. Then you can machine across the top of the block
and around all four of the edges at one setting. Then deburr the block, turn
it over in the vice and machine the top surface so the final face is flat and to
size. This way five of the surfaces are guaranteed to be square with each oth-
er, and if you are careful the final surface will be square and parallel as well.
You can use this oversize block method to machine five out of six faces on
any shape of block.
Fig. 6.7 Method of machining five faces of a block square at the same setting. You
can machine any profile you like before removing the waste material. If the resulting
profile is hard to hold you could hold it in a shaped nest.
