Screwless Vise Clamps

[Paul Jones]

I built these screwless vise clamps from 1/2" sq. x 2.5" cold rolled steel. On each clamp there are two side pins that hold the vise. The pins are are made from 0.25" O-1 drill rod with one end turned down to fit the vise holes and the other end press fit into the clamps. Note the cap screw heads of the M6 screws are turned down to allow these to fit into the counterbores whose diameters are restricted by the 1/2" CRS cross sections. The center clamping screws are not necessary but I added these to allow more options for clamping within the limited space of the Unimat SL1000 milling table. I decided to use the 3/16" sq. CRS side risers instead of millings these as an extension of the clamps. The clamp assembly allows me to quickly align the screwless vise with the milling head.

[kbalch]

Thanks Paul! I've added your Screwless Vise Clamps to our Machining and Vises categories, as well as to your builder page: Paul Jones' Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Screwless Vise Clamps by Paul Jones

tags: vise, clamp

[Catfish]

Nice idea, I like it.

[scorch]

Nice! I could definitely use a set of screwless vise clamps like these.

[Paul Jones]

Thank you sorch.
This is an import toolmakers vise I bought years ago from Victor Machinery Exchange. I checked the accuracy with a surface plate and found it was better than their +/- 0.0002" spec. It is precision-ground on all the surface hardened parts. I see Stefan Gotteswinter uses a similar but larger vise for milling work on his YouTube videos. If I had to buy again, I would have bought the same style vise but one with a lateral slot milled along the longer sides like this vise has on its ends. This would make clamp the vise at any angle a lot easier.
Thank you for looking,
Paul