Shimming or modifying vice height

rendragyarrum · Apr 10, 2020

Hello all,

I have a Bridgeport J head. I'm new to machining and I've been slowly been learning functions and procedures. I most often have to hold longer pieces of steel with two vices. My particular 6" Homge vices are slightly different heights from the base to the bottom base of the jaws. The vices look very similar, but are probably different iterations of the same model. Taken with my height gauge, there's a difference of .036" between the two. Also, I trammed the table front to back and left to right. I know i can level pieces in the jaws to the end mill, but I'd like to be able to rest the material on parallels and be fairly accurate between the two.

My question is, what is the best way to match the height of the two vices?

-Shim plate at the base of the low one is a quick fix
-Machine the height of the tall vice
-Buy new matching vices (maybe down the road)

Thanks in advance for any insight!

- Stephen

Greg White · Apr 10, 2020

Another option would be to use soft jaws and machine accordingly

Brandenberger · Apr 10, 2020

rendragyarrum said:
Hello all,

I have a Bridgeport J head. I'm new to machining and I've been slowly been learning functions and procedures. I most often have to hold longer pieces of steel with two vices. My particular 6" Homge vices are slightly different heights from the base to the bottom base of the jaws. The vices look very similar, but are probably different iterations of the same model. Taken with my height gauge, there's a difference of .036" between the two. Also, I trammed the table front to back and left to right. I know i can level pieces in the jaws to the end mill, but I'd like to be able to rest the material on parallels and be fairly accurate between the two.

My question is, what is the best way to match the height of the two vices?

-Shim plate at the base of the low one is a quick fix
-Machine the height of the tall vice
-Buy new matching vices (maybe down the road)

Thanks in advance for any insight!

- Stephen

Rather than a height gage, mic the vise beds in several places and lookup the model numbers. See if those two models are supposed to have the same height.

For instance I have a Kurt dx6 and a d688 and they have matched heights within less than .001” despite the dx6 being much newer.

You don’t want to machine the vise, though you could have it surface ground (if it is one of the models where the fixed jaw can be fully removed). Kurt has a document on how to recondition their anglock vises, probably relevant to yours since it is probably a Kurt copy?

Phil

rendragyarrum · Apr 10, 2020

I added some photos. Perhaps the vice on the left with the illedgible tag is a knock-off of a HOMGE?

Brandenberger · Apr 10, 2020

Looking at the specs the HAV-6 bed height should be 72mm (Precision Angle Lock Machine Vise).

rendragyarrum · Apr 10, 2020

That's correct. I just checked mine. The other lookalike vice measure 0.90 mm taller in the same dimension.

Brandenberger · Apr 10, 2020

Ok, so shim it for now. Maybe pick one vise location you’ll always leave on the machine, use the “short” one for that position and shim it. The other one you can remove more easily and repeatably reinstall.

If you’re motivated in the future, regrind one or better yet both beds:

http://www.kurtworkholding.com/downloads/guides/D-Series_Rework.pdf

CJD · Apr 10, 2020

If you’re going to be using double vices a lot, I would just machine the difference off the base of the tall vice to bring them level with one another.

rendragyarrum · Apr 13, 2020

Okay, thanks for the input everyone. Machining it seems reasonable to have a matching set.

michiganbuck · Apr 13, 2020

qt:[My question is, what is the best way to match the height of the two vices?]
take stock from the bottom.

Very simple job on the surface grinder, likely a half hour job to skim the needed off the back (bottom)side
Having a set of magnetic parallels would be good

Yes an easy milling job also

moldcore · Apr 17, 2020

When I have a couple of mismatched vises, what I do is put 1-2-3 or 2-4-6 blocks on the table and rest the parts on them.

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