Holding vice to table advice

**mekanik** · 20-11-2014

To be honest the clamp shown in the photo you provided is a far better option and just needs on hole drilling in a piece of plate that can be done on a pillar drill. The type i described are so easy to make also, i have 4 that i use in conjunction with various lengths of stud iron to clamp stuff to my lathe cross slide when jig drilling holes ect, pack the ends with some coventry die chasers.
Regards
Mike

**irving2008** · 20-11-2014

Originally Posted by lateAtNight

Mike / Irving thanks very much for replying guys, its all good advice.

I emailed Arc to see what they said and they were kind enough to give me a call to try and explain their solution involving the stepped angle blocks from the kit. To be honest I didn't understand what they were saying. I would happily recommend Arc to someone. They seem like good people who don't mind giving advice over the phone and their stuff is very well priced, but I got the feeling that although there maybe some way of using the kit, I'm not sure if its a particularly good one. They did suggest that I could mill my own clamps at one point - chicken and egg type situation, a little frustrating - can't make something like that until I have a vice that clamps down!

Irving... I was dubious about the paper thing. I'll try it without the paper and only go down that route if I find the vice slipping. And yes, I am a proud owner of a very heavy set of parallels and a dial indicator :). I bought the machine and then slowly purchased the extras as my bank balance recovered... part of the reason I've yet to cut anything!

Bit of a tangent when you mentioned parallels, but its seems to me that metric based equipment is in the minority?! Arc was one of the few places I could find selling metric parallels and the only place I could find selling the metric equivelent to 1-2-3 blocks. Most of the world with the exception of the states is on metric right?! So silly.

Thanks again,
David.

You could use a stepped block, I'd hazard a guess they were suggesting something like this, though you'd need to experiment and you may need something under the back edge of the upturned stepped block to force it to rotate down onto the vice.

If the vice and table are clean, and that means no oil/lube/coolant residue, and securely clamped it wont slip.

Metric parallels aren't essential, what's critical is that they are parallel. you don't use them for measuring, just for supporting stuff in the vice or off the table. if you want to measure, you use gauge blocks.

**lateAtNight** · 20-11-2014

Originally Posted by irving2008

you don't use them for measuring, just for supporting stuff in the vice or off the table.

Lol, ok, got it... might need to buy some gauges then. Is there any end?! But you still need to know how much stock is above and below the vice jaws right? I guess what I'm saying is I just don't / can't think in imperial measurements at all. I can look at something and say 18mm parallels will hold that nicely... can't think 1 and 3/16 or whatever.