Looking for help or advise on modifying IS400 Volume flat surface side.

[David DiPietro]

Hello,
My name is David and I have a New Hermes/Gravograph IS600 table engraver which is becoming used less and less lately. I also have a IS400 Volume which is very useful and used quite often.
I would like to actually sell off the IS600 and try to do most of my current work on the IS400.
My dilemma, I would love to sell the IS600 and convert the rotary side of the IS400 to hold larger items than it is really designed for. I know the actual allowable engraving size would not change but if I had the ability to hold in larger items it would kind of solve my problems.

For example, I engrave some larger silverplated trays which I currently place on the IS600 table without any real difficulty but I can't open the "standard" vise enough on the IS400 to do the same job.
I was thinking if I could modify the lead screw (hope that term is right) by making it longer I could solve the issue. Are those screws a standard type item?

I have an old vise attachment from a V3400, placed on the image attached for reference only, that I could use for general parts. I guess my real question here is, and I am repeating myself I know, is the screw...

Has anyone modified these with success?
Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

IS400.jpg IS400 vise mod.jpg
Pic on left is the standard vise side as the pic on the right is where I would like to do the modification.

[Kev Williams]

I'm the king of Jerry-rigging so keep that in mind

I've never seen a Volume in person, but I have an IS400 P/S, and I also have the same rotary setup for my LS900 laser, the only difference is your head & tailstock legs are about twice as tall, and my slide is smaller. Your tailstock already has 1/2" or so of horizontal travel to snug up what you're engraving in the rotary, so-- it should be able to snug up a tray much the same as your too-short vice. You just need to raise the tray up far enough it's higher than the lower leg of the tailstock to where you can clamp it. I run into these situations all the time, and I just do whatever works. So all I'd do is get a nice square length of 4x4, just a bit shorter than what I'm clamping, and just set it on the slide to set the part on. If a bit of table is needed, I'd just screw an 8x10" piece of 1/2" plywood to the 4x4 to act as a table top. And I'm not afraid to drill holes, if I didn't like the 4x4 just sitting there (or I keep knocking it off the slide) I'd just drill a couple of holes thru it and the slide and bolt it down. Take the jaws off the chuck and you have a nice flat surface to clamp against. I'd also cut some 1/2" ply to set between the part and the clamp edges, the wood is forgiving, it lets you squeeze a bit harder and less risk of damaging the part. When I'm done, it all comes off like it was never there

But that's me

Here's one example--
I have a customer who needs me to engrave these 12" dia pieces of PVC tubing...
c1.jpg

But my old 3400 Orbiter is only good for 10" dia, and how to hold the things?
so my customer, another Jerryrigger, fabbed up some parts to help.

This is the 'clamp'...not much to it, the tips are spring-loaded pins...
c5.jpgc6.jpg
I just work a tube onto it, adjust it till it runs true, and go--
and believe it or not, I've engraved 48 of these tubes so far, and for some reason they stay put and don't move?

Had to raise the headstock, which does involve unthreading it and removing it from the slide altogether.
This is the biggest pain of this setup. My customer machined a 1-1/4" block of aluminum, it's not dovetailed,
it just sits over the existing dovetail...
Note it's just held in place with C-clamps...
c4.jpg

The tailstock on this machine has a riser block with fixture pins to match those on the headstock,
for using all the basic New Hermes fixtures and a tabletop. The block was high enough as is,
so the tailstock remained as usual. Customer supplied a bearing block to match the 'clamp' shaft,
which I just clamped, with ONE clamp, to the riser block. The only other thing holding it in place
is the bolt you see, it's just poking thru the 2nd hole, and is resting on the riser flat.
The vice clamp snugs the rotary clamp in place, then I'm good to go...
c3.jpg

It's about a 20 minute job to set up, and break down, but it works!
c2.jpg

I can't make any fixture setup like this permanent because of all the different jobs it can do

SO, if you can just make some Home Depot stuff work, that beats trying to re-invent a whole new clamp!

[David DiPietro]

Holy cow Kev, that is some rigging...lucky you, you have customers who actually help with the projects. You may be right in the thinking that I may be just creating too much work for myself.
I do have an old GTX engraver that may just have some parts I need to simplify the project. I was trying to make this as simple as I could so my engravers really would not have to fiddle much just put the large tray down, do so programming and its done.
The idea with modifying the lead screw was it would insure centering but hopefully we all know how to measure and use a ruler...however some of my past hires could not read one.

Once I figure out what I am going to do I'll take a pic and post it, maybe you'll see it.
Thanks for very informative reply...appreciated!

[Kev Williams]

self-centering is great, but so is knowing the left edge is always ZERO

Yes, it's amazing how many humans can't comprehend that total distance /2 equals the middle...

[David DiPietro]

And let's not even bring PI into the mix....