Anyone have experience with the Orange vise Twin Delta Pallet System?

Is anyone using the twin delta pallet system offered by Orange Vise? I don't know too much about it and haven't really seen anything on youtube about it. I like the idea that there are no pins to locate the pallets so it should be effortless to swap. It looks like the total cost is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 for the 6x17.5 vise and a set of master jaws which seems reasonable.

There are a few things I don't understand about it if anyone can shed some light:

Is there a standard point you would choose for your work offset on this system? I assume on the master jaws, the fixed jaw is pinned, so my guess is a good place would be the front point of the V for X0Y0 and the first level in front of the dovetail for Z0. Is that correct?

Is it fair to say that the big advantage of this system is that you can switch from using it as a pallet system to a vise without indicating anything?

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

You'll generally want to pick your work offsets off the vise body. The dowel pin bores (for XY) and the vise bed (for Z) are the most accurate features.

The master jaws are located to the vise body using dowel pins.

The main advantage of the system is the ergonomics of changing pallets. Compared to our original pallet system that direct mounts to the vise bed, the Delta pallets require a lot less effort, especially if your parts are heavy. Pallet-to-pallet repeatability is also better with the Delta pallets.

Some folks use pallets as fixture plates that will stay in the machine for a few weeks at a time. In these instances, our original pallets work fine and have the advantage of being lower profile. For others who need to swap pallets many times a day, the Twin Delta pallets are the better choice.

I just used it for the first time. I needed a fixture that would be flat and repeat under .0003 and it worked great.

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Thanks for the replies. I'm a milling novice so I was kind of hoping there would be an idiot-proof feature on the master jaws that mates with the pallet to use as a work offset in cam setup. I guess it isn't that much harder to work from a point on the vise bed.

I've been using a single station vise and Delta Pallet jaws since they came out last year and really like it. It's a good compromise between a dedicated pallet fixture (like the Pierson system) and clamping a fixture in hard jaws.

Some of our quick-to-load/slow-to-run items have one pallet made that will stay in the machine, others parts that can be machined as quick as they can be loaded have two identical pallets and we swap back and forth to keep the spindle running.

I used the corner of the fixed jaw to indicate off of, which is apperently not best practice, but it's worked fine. Model the blank pallet once, with your origin out in space, and then keep reusing it.

I like that the pallets don't need extra hardware. We bought a stick of 2"x6" AL and make our own pallets for about $50 a piece. Then all your cost is in Mitee Bite clamps..

When changing pallets, I suspect chip to chip time is going to be faster on something like the Pierson, just because of loosening and torquing the Orange compared to pressing a vacuum knob. But a pallet system doesn't have a Talon Jaws, CarveSmart, and hard jaws vise built in.

Bottom line, I think they are a great ROI. If all you do is swap pallets all day the Delta may not be the best option, but if you do a mix of fixture, Talon 1st ops, soft jaw 2nd ops, and hard jaws work like we do it's perfect.