Vice

[Julian Ashcroft]

Just ordered a self centering vice to use on the fiber laser. Hopefully once I have set it up correctly on the lasers base plate, it will make positioning certain items that much easier.

I had an enquiry to engrave the top flat edge of a knife, this vice will hopefully make that easier to do.

347999

[Scott Anders]

Where'd you get that from Julian? I bought one years ago from cncplus in Germany which has been great but it's not very deep (made for rotary engravers).

[Julian Ashcroft]

Where'd you get that from Julian? I bought one years ago from cncplus in Germany which has been great but it's not very deep (made for rotary engravers).

A company called Axminster in the UK. They have a web presence. Don't know if I'm allowed to post links.

There's quite a few self centering vices out there, but this one looked as if it could be quite accurate.

[Mike Null]

I have one but not that elaborate. That's really neat.

[Kev Williams]

Self centering clamps are great. I've been relying on them since day one--

One of the perks of all the New Hermes machines is I have spare clamps I can use on any machine, plus a 40 year assortment of NH and home-made fixtures for them that allow me to hold almost anything. I use these two regularly in my lasers. The one holding the xmas tree is from one of my XT machines, I use it on the fiber regularly. The one holding the bracelet came off my first C2000 that's in mothballs, I Cermark those bracelets in the LS900...

The beauty of these things is once you nail down dead center, anything you put in them will be correctly aligned, really cuts down the setup time.
348019

[Brian Leavitt]

One of the perks of all the New Hermes machines is I have spare clamps I can use on any machine, plus a 40 year assortment of NH and home-made fixtures for them that allow me to hold almost anything. I use these two regularly in my lasers. The one holding the xmas tree is from one of my XT machines, I use it on the fiber regularly. The one holding the bracelet came off my first C2000 that's in mothballs, I Cermark those bracelets in the LS900...

Dang I didn't know they use the same one on all of their machines. I'll have to keep that in mind as I have probably six of them from the C2000's.

[Bruce Page]

A company called Axminster in the UK. They have a web presence. Don't know if I'm allowed to post links.

There's quite a few self centering vices out there, but this one looked as if it could be quite accurate.

Julian, in this and in most cases posting links is fine. See the TOS for more info.

[Julian Ashcroft]

Julian, in this and in most cases posting links is fine. See the TOS for more info.

Okay, in that case here's the link:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-self-centring-precision-machine-vices-ax947952

not sure if they supply further afield than the U.K. , they do loads of different types of vices.

[Kev Williams]

Dang I didn't know they use the same one on all of their machines. I'll have to keep that in mind as I have probably six of them from the C2000's.
The C2000's and many of the Vanguards used the same clamp. My XT clamp is screwed to a 300x200mm piece of aluminum, when parked in the home corner, the center of the clamp was automatic to the software when choosing 'center'- like the 2000. The 2000 clamps are screwed to a toothed turret, just remove the turret and screw it to something else, or use as is! (screwed to something else provides for more ways to secure it to the fiber's scissor table or whatever you have)

The newer NH machines (if you can call mid-90's machines 'newer') use taller clamps that are pretty bulky, but all hold the same jigs. That is, until the NEWER newer machines, when they made everything metric. But funny thing, my IS400's clamp is identical to my 1981 C2000 clamp, it's just longer... :)

[Klaus Madsen]

Just ordered a self centering vice to use on the fiber laser. Hopefully once I have set it up correctly on the lasers base plate, it will make positioning certain items that much easier.

I had an enquiry to engrave the top flat edge of a knife, this vice will hopefully make that easier to do.

347999

Sorry if this for you guys are a dumb question, but self centering, how does that works?

Thanks

[Keith Winter]

Thanks for that photo Kev, I can see how that would be handy. Photo is a thousand words!


Self centering clamps are great. I've been relying on them since day one--

One of the perks of all the New Hermes machines is I have spare clamps I can use on any machine, plus a 40 year assortment of NH and home-made fixtures for them that allow me to hold almost anything. I use these two regularly in my lasers. The one holding the xmas tree is from one of my XT machines, I use it on the fiber regularly. The one holding the bracelet came off my first C2000 that's in mothballs, I Cermark those bracelets in the LS900...

The beauty of these things is once you nail down dead center, anything you put in them will be correctly aligned, really cuts down the setup time.
348019

[Gary Hair]

Sorry if this for you guys are a dumb question, but self centering, how does that works?

Thanks

One end of the threaded rod is threaded clockwise and the other side counter-clockwise so that the jaws both move in to the center.

[Klaus Madsen]

Ahhh ok that makes sense, thanks.