Reference Fence for Milling Vice

As we here in SA have another 2 hours of load shedding, I have to bore you with another "had to do this a long time ago" tool/Aid.

I am in the process of building a CNC Router so have lots of little blocks to make to house the linear bearings, rod supports and lead screw holders.

As I have to be as accurate as possible I was using my edge finder before any new operation.

So it was quite easy to establish that the front face of the vice will always stay in the same place so it was only the "Y" axis that was changing. So to eliminate this I added a "FENCE" to the side of my vice. I wanted it to be easy to quickly fit and remove.

A bit of a mission to drill into the vice as I do not have a second one to clamp this one in, but where there is a will there is a way.:confused:

Attachment 32956 Attachment 32957

So 3 x M5 tapped at 15mm and was sorted.

I made a little clamp plate that will secure a piece of HSS to side of the vice. I can now easily fit it and just push the work piece against it and that will reference the work piece in the same position is you have to make multiples of the same part and I can just crank it up to where the DRO tells me to take it to.

Attachment 32958