I bought a 7x10" tilting table to be able to mill angles on my Enco Mill/Drill. Clamping everything
to the table is limiting and I needed a vise to fit on the table. Clamping my 6" Kurt clone to the tilting table really isn't practical. I wanted a vise with
6" (wide) jaws to clamp long skinny pieces, but needed a fairly short vise since the tilting table is already pretty tall. I could probably have found
a vise that would work, but decided to build one exactly the size I wanted. It isn't a really practical decision (the project cost me about $45 in parts,
materials, and worn out endmills), but I learned a lot from it and I wound up with a really nice vise that is just what I wanted. Working on this taught me
a lot about milling pieces to fit, clamping parts to the table, and milling steel.
I built the vise from 1018 HR steel purchased from my local supplier. It started as a piece of
6x1.5x30" steel (sawed into pieces with my bandsaw and there's enough left for a smaller vise to fit on the rotary table).
These are the basic pieces of the vise. The main body of the vise is at the right. It is about
6" long with a slot 2.5" wide and 1.1" deep milled into it. Milling this slot was lots of fun. I used a 5/8" cobalt roughing mill, taking cuts about
.25" deep almost the full width of the mill (0.600"). The chips really flew. The fixed jaw is set in place in this picture. It actually sits into a slot in the back, so clamping
pressure is not just on the bolts holding the jaw in place, but against the base of the vise.
At left is the front of the vise with the screw. This piece fits snuggly into a dovetail slot in the front of the base, and is held in place with two 3/8-16
cap screws. The screw is 5/8-6 acme thread. I bought the screw and the nuts from Enco (really cheap from the sale catalog). The only problem with
this plan is that with a right-hand thread the screw turns counterclockwise to close and clockwise to open. Oh well, left-hand threaded rod was really
expensive.
At the top-left of the picture are the two pieces of the sliding jaw and the nuts that fit on the screw to move the jaw.
The main part of the sliding jaw is T-shaped and fits down into the slot in the base. This piece has slots milled out to hold the nuts that ride on
the screw to move the jaw. The other part of the sliding jaw fits across the slot in the base. It extends down into the base only about 1/8" but fits into
a dovetail in the base. This keeps the jaw from lifting when it is clamped onto the workpiece.
To allow the screw to turn smoothly and easily, I made a couple of bronze bushings/bearings to bear the axial thrust. The bearings were turned on my lathe
from a scrap piece of marine bronze. This is interesting stuff to work. I think I'll buy more if I can find it. The bearings are pressed into holes bored
into the steel endpiece. One of them I got too small. I had to use a chisel to swage in the end of the hole to make the fit tight. The other one was just
right. I chilled the bearing in the freezer, heated the endpiece with the torch, pressed the bearing into the endpiece very quickly with my bench vise
and they are permanently attached.
At right is a close-up of the screw and mechanism for the vise. The hexagonal piece is from a bit of W1 toolsteel. I milled the hexagon on the mill/drill.
In this view you can see how the nut fits into the slot in the moveable jaw. You can also see the dovetail slot in the top of the base of the vise. The second
part of the moveable jaw (the part that fits into the dovetail) hasn't been attached yet.
This is the finished vise, with the sides milled to clean them up, a slot milled on each side to allow clamping and holes drilled to allow coolant to
escape. I built clamps and t-nuts to clamp the vise to the tilting table. The quarter in this view gives some perspective on the
size of the vise. The jaws are 6" wide and 1.25" deep. The maximum opening is ~3". The whole vise weighs about 40 pounds.
To hold the vise to the tilting table I built a set of clamps that fit into grooves milled into the sides of the vise. This mounting arrangement allows the position
of the vise to be changed fore-and-aft so that the workpiece can be more nearly centered on the mill. The arrangement seems to work really well.
This is the vise set up to mill 45 degree angles for some sight mounts I was building. (It isn't really
clamped to the table, I just set it up there for the picture.) It worked really well, although indicating in the vise in that many angles is a real trick.
I had a good time building it. If I had to do it again
I'd choose a different alloy. I expect that the un-hardened 1018 will wear pretty quickly. I don't have an oven large enough to case harden the whole
thing. A flame-hardening alloy would be really great. I also expect that this design will be sensitive to dirt and swarf. I'll have to keep it clean for it
to work well. Since it isn't my main vise I think it will work fine. You need a vise? Build one!
Cheers,
Kelly
I am not a professional machinist or engineer. I'm not giving advice, just my opinions. I'll endorse no use of this
information, nor accept any liability for its use or misuse.
I bought a 7x10" tilting table to be able to mill angles on my Enco Mill/Drill. Clamping everything
to the table is limiting and I needed a vise to fit on the table. Clamping my 6" Kurt clone to the tilting table really isn't practical. I wanted a vise with
6" (wide) jaws to clamp long skinny pieces, but needed a fairly short vise since the tilting table is already pretty tall. I could probably have found
a vise that would work, but decided to build one exactly the size I wanted. It isn't a really practical decision (the project cost me about $45 in parts,
materials, and worn out endmills), but I learned a lot from it and I wound up with a really nice vise that is just what I wanted. Working on this taught me
a lot about milling pieces to fit, clamping parts to the table, and milling steel.
I built the vise from 1018 HR steel purchased from my local supplier. It started as a piece of
6x1.5x30" steel (sawed into pieces with my bandsaw and there's enough left for a smaller vise to fit on the rotary table).
These are the basic pieces of the vise. The main body of the vise is at the right. It is about
6" long with a slot 2.5" wide and 1.1" deep milled into it. Milling this slot was lots of fun. I used a 5/8" cobalt roughing mill, taking cuts about
.25" deep almost the full width of the mill (0.600"). The chips really flew. The fixed jaw is set in place in this picture. It actually sits into a slot in the back, so clamping
pressure is not just on the bolts holding the jaw in place, but against the base of the vise. 
To allow the screw to turn smoothly and easily, I made a couple of bronze bushings/bearings to bear the axial thrust. The bearings were turned on my lathe
from a scrap piece of marine bronze. This is interesting stuff to work. I think I'll buy more if I can find it. The bearings are pressed into holes bored
into the steel endpiece. One of them I got too small. I had to use a chisel to swage in the end of the hole to make the fit tight. The other one was just
right. I chilled the bearing in the freezer, heated the endpiece with the torch, pressed the bearing into the endpiece very quickly with my bench vise
and they are permanently attached.
At right is a close-up of the screw and mechanism for the vise. The hexagonal piece is from a bit of W1 toolsteel. I milled the hexagon on the mill/drill.
In this view you can see how the nut fits into the slot in the moveable jaw. You can also see the dovetail slot in the top of the base of the vise. The second
part of the moveable jaw (the part that fits into the dovetail) hasn't been attached yet.
This is the finished vise, with the sides milled to clean them up, a slot milled on each side to allow clamping and holes drilled to allow coolant to
escape. I built clamps and t-nuts to clamp the vise to the tilting table. The quarter in this view gives some perspective on the
size of the vise. The jaws are 6" wide and 1.25" deep. The maximum opening is ~3". The whole vise weighs about 40 pounds. 
To hold the vise to the tilting table I built a set of clamps that fit into grooves milled into the sides of the vise. This mounting arrangement allows the position
of the vise to be changed fore-and-aft so that the workpiece can be more nearly centered on the mill. The arrangement seems to work really well.
This is the vise set up to mill 45 degree angles for some sight mounts I was building. (It isn't really
clamped to the table, I just set it up there for the picture.) It worked really well, although indicating in the vise in that many angles is a real trick.
I had a good time building it. If I had to do it again
I'd choose a different alloy. I expect that the un-hardened 1018 will wear pretty quickly. I don't have an oven large enough to case harden the whole
thing. A flame-hardening alloy would be really great. I also expect that this design will be sensitive to dirt and swarf. I'll have to keep it clean for it
to work well. Since it isn't my main vise I think it will work fine. You need a vise? Build one!