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New base for a Hilma Vise

rimcanyon

Diamond
Joined
Sep 28, 2002
Location
Salinas, CA USA
Thought I would post some photos of the vise base I made for a recently acquired Hilma 100 vise. I recycled a 9" backing plate that was received damaged in shipping (one of the D1-3 pins had been broken off; I hate to think what it did to the USPS equipment).

There is a new center in the plate to replace the D1-3 mount. The project was interesting because it involved some work I had not done before. All of it was done with the horizontal spindle, mounted on a large angle plate, mainly so that the chip removal from the t-slot was helped by gravity. It worked great. I also had not previously done much engraving work. The 5 and 10 degree lines were done with a 1/16" ball mill .005" deep, and the degree numbers and the 1 degree lines were done with a carbide D-bit I ground with a sharp point, .005" deep. Engraving the numbers was also interesting because they were hand g-coded (like the rest of the program). The zero's use the 4-arc method for ovals, and if you look closely they aren't perfect, I have an error in the math but it was close enough.:rolleyes5: One question for the engravers in the audience: both the 1/16" ball mill and the D-bit raised a substantial burr. I ended up stoning it off, but is there a way to avoid the problem?

The oil troughs are helices, which was interesting on the D2 machine. They took forever to cut, because the program iterated G02 and G03 in 0.1 degree increments, each time dropping a half a thousandth. You could see all the context switching going on as the machine reloaded the registers for every function call.

I intend to paint the Hilma vise, but painting is not my favorite job.

IMG_1084.jpgIMG_1096.jpgIMG_1126.jpgIMG_1129.jpgIMG_1131.jpg
 
Nice work Dave! On the originals the hold-down holes are slots not holes, which I prefer because it is faster to mount and remove. How come you did holes?


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Nice work Dave! On the originals the hold-down holes are slots not holes, which I prefer because it is faster to mount and remove. How come you did holes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Clearance. There is no room for a nut + washer, the base is only 1” thick, and I did not like the idea of a cap screw without a washer in a slot. I have seen too many damaged slots.
 
Holy shit, hand coded engraving on a Dialog2 :eek:
Looks great!
Dialog 2 already has coordinate rotation, I suppose?
So basically you coded horizontal font in G-code and then used G55/G56 coordinate rotation?
Would be pure hell, otherwise....

Can you post Gcode for simple numbers, might be helpful for me/others, if some handcoded engraving is needed?
 
One question for the engravers in the audience: both the 1/16" ball mill and the D-bit raised a substantial burr. I ended up stoning it off, but is there a way to avoid the problem?

Not an engraver but have done a fair amount of it on the FP4NC but mostly on a pantograph.

Lots of variables contributing to the burrs, it's common to get them and common practice to stone like you did. Generally, more spindle speed helps and some kind of lubrication appropriate to the material.

Fine tuning the angles on your single lip cutter can make a huge difference, honing the edge (1000-3000 grit diamond) can enhance that. The recommended "book" values are a good starting point but not absolute in my experience.

Nice work and nice re-tasking of material.
 
Holy shit, hand coded engraving on a Dialog2 :eek:
Looks great!
Dialog 2 already has coordinate rotation, I suppose?
So basically you coded horizontal font in G-code and then used G55/G56 coordinate rotation?
Would be pure hell, otherwise....

Can you post Gcode for simple numbers, might be helpful for me/others, if some handcoded engraving is needed?

Yes, G55 for the degree markings and the numbers, and G09G02 or 03 for the troughs. D2 is very capable, the main things it is missing is the helix command (G02 with a Z) and the resulting support for thread milling, and of course support for the better pendant, on-screen simulation and drip-feeding.

Yes I will be glad to post the gcode for the numbers. It is in X and Z, but that is easy to fix. The size of the font is 3/16". I originally wrote it for ¼" but it was too big. There are also some things that need improving, some of the numbers are too big or not aligned perfectly, so if you fix those please repost. I posted a thread a couple months ago requesting a shared number g-code library, but got no responses except from those who thought it weird not to use CAD.
 
Not an engraver but have done a fair amount of it on the FP4NC but mostly on a pantograph.

Lots of variables contributing to the burrs, it's common to get them and common practice to stone like you did. Generally, more spindle speed helps and some kind of lubrication appropriate to the material.

Fine tuning the angles on your single lip cutter can make a huge difference, honing the edge (1000-3000 grit diamond) can enhance that. The recommended "book" values are a good starting point but not absolute in my experience.

Nice work and nice re-tasking of material.

Top speed on the FP2NC is 3150, so that is what I was using. I will look for info on D-bit grinding. Thanks for the comments.
 
3150RPM is severely limiting (I have an FP4NC and feel your pain), most engraving spindles run 16,000-30,000rpm.
 
ballen - I was wrong, it has 2 slots. I took photos today, it's been a long time since I bought this. I think I was remembering the 4 clamp bolts and the squareish base

20210413_192200-1600.jpg

20210413_192214-1600.jpg
 
Thanks for the photos. They are so heavy that no one wants to use them -- I was once offered one of those for very little money because the guy just wanted to be rid of it. For once, my better judgement prevailed :)

Hilma made 'early models' and 'late models' of this vise. You have one of the early ones, because the later ones have a squarish-looking rotary base, rather than your more rounded-looking one.
 
That's why I have it, it was cheap. I thought I might need a big vise for my FP7NC but it hasn't moved off that pallet rack,
 








 
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