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Fireball releases a giant vise - the Hardtail

My other thought was to put a "thick steel" Diablo blade on my old table saw, weld a angle iron "handle" to the back of each jaw and cut it out one kerf width at a time. Would be loud, but it seems like it should work slowly...

Aaron Z
:eek: I'd just jump off a bridge, less set up time with the same result.:lmao:

(I would seriously not do that)
 
My other thought was to put a "thick steel" Diablo blade on my old table saw, weld a angle iron "handle" to the back of each jaw and cut it out one kerf width at a time. Would be loud, but it seems like it should work slowly...

Aaron Z
I’ll cut the step for you before you do that.

If you guys can handle the tapping and drilling. I’ll just go slab them off at 8” on the band saw and cut the step. You guys can finish the length and figure out the drill and tap.

One op I’m good for on the mill. 3-4 per part then it gets dicey.
 
They should work with the thin jaws may have to go up to a 1 1/2x 2 jaw retainer. I used the 1x1 aluminum bar stock for my jaws. If you have the cutouts lay them on the table and see what the spacing is with the edges touching.
I'll have to check my dimensions against your parts tonight. I tweaked one thing I missed and it brought the gab down to under 1/4". I may have some 1.5" bar stock that I could use.....or I know my local scrap place has some bars in the 1.25-1.5" range.


My CNC is still fucked and I haven't had the patience to mess with it. I did get my manual mill up over the weekend. I just need to order a new power feed for it but I could probably make a few sets as well.

If I can start with good cut stock pieces, I could knock them out in 3 ops in a single setup - mill the ledge, drill, tap. I may swing by alro and see if they have any drops that would work. They'll cut them to length on the big bandsaw for a couple bucks.
 
I gonna buy a cnc mill just need to find the right one. There are some nice tm2-p nearby that are temping me. But I need to stay away from them. For another 10k I can get a real vf3 that is 10x the machine those tm’s are.

I'll have to check my dimensions against your parts tonight. I tweaked one thing I missed and it brought the gab down to under 1/4". I may have some 1.5" bar stock that I could use.....or I know my local scrap place has some bars in the 1.25-1.5" range.


My CNC is still fucked and I haven't had the patience to mess with it. I did get my manual mill up over the weekend. I just need to order a new power feed for it but I could probably make a few sets as well.

If I can start with good cut stock pieces, I could knock them out in 3 ops in a single setup - mill the ledge, drill, tap. I may swing by alro and see if they have any drops that would work. They'll cut them to length on the big bandsaw for a couple bucks.
Lol you have more tenacity than me. If I got 20 to make its mill them all, then drill them all, then tap them all. I hate tool changes in the bp. No z repeatability and the lack of z means your cranking on the knee to swap from end Mill to drill chuck.
 
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I gonna buy a cnc mill just need to find the right one. There are some nice tm2-p nearby that are temping me. But I need to stay away from them. For another 10k I can get a real vf3 that is 10x the machine those tm’s are.


Lol you have more tenacity than me. If I got 20 to make its mill them all, then drill them all, then tap them all. I hate tool changes in the bp. No z repeatability and the lack of z means your cranking on the knee to swap from end Mill to drill chuck.
I bought a QC adapter that lets me use the same 30 taper tool holders as my CNC so it's fairly repeatable. Especially if I use shorty drills to match the endmill length. Could easily do all 3 with only cranking the knee up and down to hit the milling depth.

Kind of a tossup though....could just as easily set a stop and do one op at a time and it'd probably be faster.


I'd still rather do it on the CNC though.
 
I bought a set of those Irwin jaws last year but haven’t done anything with them yet. The knurling on them is kind of shallow and it seems like they would just become slick in no time.
 
Well, pretty sure ThePanzerFuhrer has now managed to piss off both my mail carrier and UPS guy. :laughing:

Got the tubes today and did a little mock up. I'm pretty much swamped this week so I won't really have any time to do anything else with these until at least next weekend.

I did confirm the spacing for the jaws on the blanks is right around 2.125 to 2.25" so that should be just about perfect - two jaw plates @ 1" each, minus .25" each for the ledge +.5" each for the jaws =1.25" each side or 2.5" total.

It does look like the plasma cut got a little skewed on those faces more than others so they'll need a bit of cleanup but there's just enough meat there to get them square and still have fully closing jaws.

One thing to note - for me it's going to be critical to get the jaws perfectly square to each other. I have a shitty vise where the jaws don't clamp evenly and it's fucking annoying when you try to clamp a large piece and it only grabs on one side. It'll probably be best to weld everything else up and get the screw working first and then weld the jaw supports in last so you can actually clamp them together with the vise itself. I may go an extra step and throw the whole thing in the mill and machine blanks after assembly....just because I can. :flipoff2:


TUuFJNKlb9paQAUInahSXHLBG=w1250-h937-no?authuser=0.jpg
 
Awesome everything made it. Those boxes where heavy as fuck. I used the procedure you mentioned to get it true. Put the screw stuff together first tacked the moving jaw together square then used it to tack the fix jaw on. That way everything was square to everything else and it clamped even.

The pockets the jaw holders are going to get welded too I figured they would get a good bevel before welding. That way you get all the way to the root of the plate.

If you guys do offset the jaws I would cut a few squares to weld in between the 2 side pieces to help stiffen and not get tweaked when you really clamp on the offset side.
 
The screws that came with the Irwin jaws are 5/16-18.

You’ll have to figure out the length of the internal tube. I just cut it to what the drawing shows but depending on you nut configuration you may need to shorten.
 
overhang looks weak, and those jaws are prolly pretty brittle
Yeah they will have to make a gusset or two to strengthen them up. Even a 1x2 bar isn’t the strongest 3” away from the plates.
 
The screws that came with the Irwin jaws are 5/16-18.

You’ll have to figure out the length of the internal tube. I just cut it to what the drawing shows but depending on you nut configuration you may need to shorten.
So my lathe purchase hasn't quite happened yet. Other than a lathe what's a good way to turn the 2 nuts I need to weld into the tube down to size to fit into the round tube?
 
Yeah they will have to make a gusset or two to strengthen them up. Even a 1x2 bar isn’t the strongest 3” away from the plates.
That's why I'm really just looking for the 6" jaw setup. I might make the vise mountable on its side for grabbing vertical things (stolen from a fireball video too)
 
That's why I'm really just looking for the 6" jaw setup. I might make the vise mountable on its side for grabbing vertical things (stolen from a fireball video too)
My next ones will have the 6” jaws also.
 
So my lathe purchase hasn't quite happened yet. Other than a lathe what's a good way to turn the 2 nuts I need to weld into the tube down to size to fit into the round tube?
I should just turn some nuts down too. I don’t mind lathe work, actually prefer it :). Especially with the cheater dro. It’s a few minute job.
 
I may go an extra step and throw the whole thing in the mill and machine blanks after assembly....just because I c
That's what I was thinking- cut the jaw step very last, after all welding.

I hope those UNC nuts are worth it, because they're significantly smaller amd significantly rougher than Acme.

20211129_121904.jpg
20211129_122156.jpg


Just for scale, here's a 2x4 clamped in my chinese junker. 8" jaws will be huge.

20211129_184730.jpg


Bgaidan, I like your offset drawing! That's what I'm thinking, with braces. Weaker out at the end, yes, but don't be :homer:.
 
So my lathe purchase hasn't quite happened yet. Other than a lathe what's a good way to turn the 2 nuts I need to weld into the tube down to size to fit into the round tube?
Wrap tape around a rod that will fit in your drill press until the nuts will thread on to the rod and go at it with a flap wheel while spinning the nut.
 
Wrap tape around a rod that will fit in your drill press until the nuts will thread on to the rod and go at it with a flap wheel while spinning the nut.
For bonus points, trim the tape to the length of the two nuts, then sandwich them with a pair of washers and 2 more nuts (sized for your smaller threaded rod)
In the fancy ASCII art below:
= is the threaded rod
n is a nut sized to fit the threaded rod
w is a washer to fit the threaded rod (that is also smaller than the intended finished OD of the nuts)
N is your two 1"-8 nuts (with tape inside so they fit snugly)

====nwNNwn==

Aaron Z
 
Fucking boxes are deceiving. So used to tossing boxes that size around that has household stuff in it. These are like wtf.


ANGELO im glad you liked the calendar!! :flipoff2:
 
When I bought Arbor plates from SWAG he shipped them in a flat rate box that was at least 90% filled with steel. My mailman just left the mail tote on my porch with the box in it:lmao:
 
Mine made it too. Although the entire tube box was soaked in some kind of sticky syrup! :laughing: A side effect of going through Canada?

Great job on the boxes! That was some tight packing!

20211127_131806.jpg
 
Panzer, that's a calendar of all your mine guys right? :grinpimp:

Ordered a flat-pack welding project that turns into a tabletop dinosaur shaped rocket stove type thing. it came in a plastic bubble mailer, surprisigly in tact, but THAT one must have confused everyone that picked it up:laughing: It's to to be 5-10lbs in a plastic mailer
 
Panzer, that's a calendar of all your mine guys right? :grinpimp:

Ordered a flat-pack welding project that turns into a tabletop dinosaur shaped rocket stove type thing. it came in a plastic bubble mailer, surprisigly in tact, but THAT one must have confused everyone that picked it up:laughing: It's to to be 5-10lbs in a plastic mailer
Lol my wife makes me order them when I order the other ones. You never know what kind of people we have here. I’m a equal opportunity offender.
 
Anyone else not have anything not get to them. A few boxes must have gotten destroyed in shipping. I’m cutting some more flats this weekend. Just want to make sure I make enough to get those replaced.

I had a half day on Sunday all planned to get them done and the computer that ran my table died wtf. It had a awesome run but it died at a in opportune time. So I spent the last three days finding and trying to get a windows vista machine with printer ports to work. It’s been a while since they put printer ports in the motherboard.

So it’s the first time in 12 years I don’t have a working cnc plasma in my garage. Kinda makes me anxious. I tossed in the towel today and packed up the control to get upgraded to a new usb model.

My tubes showed up so anyone who wants them let me know. I’ll get the weld blasted out this weekend.
 
:beer:

I’m down for the first round (again :lmao:) and for the second round.
 
:beer:

I’m down for the first round (again :lmao:) and for the second round.

That was my fault thinking only one box layer would hold together. Next round will be a wooden crate inside the box to keep it together.

I think I’m 100% on the tubes.
 
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