Justifying 3 vises

Post date: Jul 6, 2019 8:27:18 PM

Sometimes you need to machine long parts. Obviously this justifies having 3 vises:

The goal of this part was to make a piece that would register to the t-slots and give me an easily-indexed edge parallel to the X axis. The part machined fine:

Not perfect, but functional. Except it seems my t-slot table isn't really up to snuff- it appears the spacing between slots is something just barely over 2 inches. Which means my 2-inch-pitch registration won't work.

On to plan B- just index to the edge of the table. This is a much simpler part, with a step to index to the edge of the table, holes to lock it down to the table, and a machined edge parallel to the X axis:

It doesn't look exciting, but it does the job. And I can actually remove it now- previously I had that same piece just clamped in position, which meant re-machining the edge every time I removed it.