Modular vice hold down clamps

**thehomeengineer** · May 21, 2024, 08:50 AM

Hi All
I was very lucky a friend contacted me to say the engineering company he worked for were throwing away some tools I would definitely be interested in, so get down here quick before it all ends up in the skip. The first item was a Rohm modular vice (along with many other pieces I was able to have).

The reason given for the tools being discarded, is all machines are now 5 Axis with integrated work holding systems so the vice, angle plates, tilting plates, dividing heads etc were surplus to requirements and taking up valuable storage space. I did find this quite sad that traditional machining methods are being lost but modern machining process are so impressive. So why would you use a dividing head etc. when the machine that costs thousands of pounds can do it for you? I was very grateful to receive these items for my outdated workshop

and for free!

The vice came with the operating handle (after a quick look in the skip) but I was unable to find the hold down clamps for the vice. So the only item I needed to come up with was the clamps.

I decided to make them from a old block of aluminium I had laying about and set about cutting up 4 blanks to make the clamps.

The photos below show the vice being clamped to my mill table using the homemade clamps. I possibly could have got away with 2 clamps as most vices use only two bolts and tee nuts. But the vice is quite long so opted for four. The large chamfer was purely cosmetic as the clamps looked cumbersome without this detail.

I decided to use M8 socket head cap screws as the loose jaw on the vice uses a 6mm Allan key to adjust the leadscrew nut and lock into position along the vice bed. So M8 tee nuts were also made so the clamps are always ready to go.

The only other item I added was two dogs bolted to the underside of the vice to engage in the tee slot to align vice.