Project Noxom- A n0legs production

[n0legs]

Excellent.

If this is a "I'm skint build" I could help with some beech if you don't mind laminating it.

Hey NS, thanks for the offer mate. Much appreciated =D>
We're not at skint, (yet :lol: ).
What's that saying?? "Money rich, time poor" :lol: I tell you, I can't wait to retire. I have soooooooooo many plans :lol:
Seriously thanks for the offer.
If I get chance next week I'll take a wander out to the timber yard and see what we can find, it's gone so well so far I'm really keen to get this done.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder the wisdom of having hard vice faces - I just replaced the outer one of mine (a piece of rock hard African mahogany) with a piece of soft spruce, the theory being that it will deform before it deforms something put in it, and will grip something uneven a little better. It's sacrificial so if it doesn't work I'll change it. It gets used for day to day general maintenance rather than anything high class.
bench-ideas-t98842.html

 

[ColeyS1]

I wonder the wisdom of having hard vice faces - I just replaced the outer one of mine (a piece of rock hard African mahogany) with a piece of soft spruce, the theory being that it will deform before it deforms something put in it, and will grip something uneven a little better. It's sacrificial so if it doesn't work I'll change it. It gets used for day to day general maintenance rather than anything high class.
bench-ideas-t98842.html

I think you're onto something there Phil. I used oak jaws on my everyday vice. On the rare chance I'm working on something softer than oak I have to be careful how much I torque the vice up. I suppose the easiest solution might be to not have the jaws completely flat and perhaps round the edges slightly so there's no noticeable sharp edges.

Coley

 

[DTR]

I wonder the wisdom of having hard vice faces - I just replaced the outer one of mine (a piece of rock hard African mahogany) with a piece of soft spruce, the theory being that it will deform before it deforms something put in it, and will grip something uneven a little better. It's sacrificial so if it doesn't work I'll change it. It gets used for day to day general maintenance rather than anything high class.
bench-ideas-t98842.html

I think that's sound reasoning. Some of the people using vices made from hardwood also advocate lining them with cork or leather

 

[DTR]

Great stuff, n0legs =D> I'm going to do something very similar, when I get a round tuit.....

Cheers Dave
You, you lucky begger have a metalworking lathe and seem to have become quite the master of it :wink:
We'll be expecting great things from you :lol:

No pressure then :shock: :lol:

 

[n0legs]

No pressure then :shock: :lol:

Just a little bit :lol:

 

[n0legs]

I wonder the wisdom of having hard vice faces - I just replaced the outer one of mine (a piece of rock hard African mahogany) with a piece of soft spruce, the theory being that it will deform before it deforms something put in it, and will grip something uneven a little better.

=D>
Now that's something I had not considered Phil. I see in the Moxon Kits available that some come with a piece of leather/suede for lining the jaws.
Looks like I've got a little more thinking time to put in on this.

Just a quick idea.
I was thinking of a jaw thickness of 1.5"-2". What if I made them thinner and had a shallow sliding dovetail machined into each one, to allow sliding in and out of some "softer" faces?
I could even have a set of each, hard and soft :-s


Thanks everyone for the comments so far and your interest, much appreciated =D>
I'll update asap

 

[MattRoberts]

It's threads like these that make me wish I could work metal!

I think the replaceable dovetail faces is a great idea, although I'd recommend that the dovetail is super wide with the jaw as the pin and the removable face as the tail. That way the faces are easy to machine with minimal stock removal

Look forward to seeing the progress

 

[DiscoStu]

I just have some MDF faces in my vice. I did that thinking that they wouldn't damage anything and they were cheap and easy to replace.

I never sought advice on whether this was sensible it just seemed logical but should I use something else and if so what and what is the advantage? Great thread by the way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gasman]

Massively impressed. I love threads like this. They make my fertile imagination go all excited about the potential. Well done my friend thats brilliant
Cheers Mark

 

[AES]

Excellent post n0legs, full of inspiration, good pix, sensible reasoning, nice humorous touches, and sure to end up with an excellent tool at, what, 10% of the cost of a "real one"?

IMO a prime example of what makes this forum a great place to hang out.

Thanks for posting

AES

 

[n0legs]

I just have some MDF faces in my vice. I did that thinking that they wouldn't damage anything and they were cheap and easy to replace.

I never sought advice on whether this was sensible it just seemed logical but should I use something else and if so what and what is the advantage? Great thread by the way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have some "throw away" faces on my bench vice made from ply. It gets used for all sorts , so I've never used anything really nice.
This one will be kept for best :lol:
Cheers Stu

 

[n0legs]

Massively impressed. I love threads like this. They make my fertile imagination go all excited about the potential. Well done my friend thats brilliant
Cheers Mark

Thanks very much Mark

 

[n0legs]

Excellent post n0legs, full of inspiration, good pix, sensible reasoning, nice humorous touches, and sure to end up with an excellent tool at, what, 10% of the cost of a "real one"?

IMO a prime example of what makes this forum a great place to hang out.

Thanks for posting

AES

Thanks AES
I reckon by the time I'm done I'll have approx £50 in it, depends a lot on the wood I choose, but I'm aiming for around that price.
One site that sells the Moxon kit charges £162 IIRC, that's just for the metalwork. With my "engineers" head on I thought it was too much :lol:

 

[Jake]

Impressive work. Isn't that studding thread, without a QR and all, going to call for some patience every time you move the vice though (of a sort you may have but I would lack)?

 

[n0legs]

No real update I'm sorry, life and such got in the way for any playtime today

But!!! I have been thinking.
This idea of mine about not having the usual locking nuts on the rear of the screws, hence the brass work, has brought up the issue of extending the screws for greater capacity.

I could remove the front jaw and wind them out by hand? I'm not so sure, I've got a good grip, but I fear the downside of the metric course thread could be them getting clogged by dust etc.
You could get a pair of grips or a small stilson and wind them out, but you risk marring the threads. Could make winding down the handwheels difficult :|

Don't fear my friends, I'm going to broach a hex socket into the ends of the screws :shock: That way I can use an Allan key ( see what I did there?) and wind away to my hearts content.

Ummm!!
Okay I'll be honest, I'm not set up for broaching in any way :roll:
Do you think I'm gonna' let that stop me?? No, of course not.
Stay tuned, it might get daft :lol:

 

[n0legs]

Impressive work. Isn't that studding thread, without a QR and all, going to call for some patience every time you move the vice though (of a sort you may have but I would lack)?

Thanks Jake

Yes it's studding. I've not seen a Moxon style vice with a QR, they all seem to require the spinning of the handwheels for operation.
The one kit I've seen used a 4mm pitch ACME thread, hence 4mm of travel for each revolution of the handwheel (sorry if I'm teaching Granny & eggs etc)
Mine is a 2.5mm pitch, yea I've got more spinning to do but I'm not too bothered to be honest.
You never know, there may be a MKII in the future :lol:

 

[AES]

QUOTE: Mine is a 2.5mm pitch, yea I've got more spinning to do but I'm not too bothered to be honest.
You never know, there may be a MKII in the future :lol: UNQUOTE:

You could always motorise it :lol:

AES

Edit for P.S. Of course when motorising it you'd need a slipping clutch of some type to disengage the motor drive as the jaws reach the job, allowing you to do the final tightening by hand with those fancy hand wheels. :lol:

(hat, coat ............)

AES

 

[n0legs]

Who wants an update?

Well like an over zealous dinner lady at a comprehensive you're having one (?????? What, sorry I don't know either)

Have any of you got caught in a whirlpool or a tornado?
No, me neither. Well it's how I feel after this most recent little engineering adventure, I'm committed (maybe should be committed more like. I'll have to look into that) if nothing else, if I say I'm going to do something by golly I do it :lol:

*Disclaimer*
I did realise about half way through I could have just cut a slot in the end of the threaded bars with a hacksaw and use a big screwdriver. F***!! Where's the fun in that though?

Back to the story.

Broaching a hex into a piece of metal 101
Course tutor -- n0legs
Session length -- approx 3 hours
Repeated -- Never, well maybe we'll see. Well actually at least twice more to complete this


I put the grey matter to work, did a little research and this is what I came up with.

Gathered below are the neccessary supplies for such a jaunt into the unknown.

I have a hydraulic pump and some rams, normal equipment for the electrical engineer :-s
So I thought I could use this to provide the "push" needed to make a hex shaped hole in a piece of metal. What to use for the actual broach? Umm, allen key stupid :roll:
Okay with that settled we move on.

I "turned" a brass bolt into a tool holder. I needed something to hold securely the allen key on top of the ram.
A few quick holes, one tapped for M5 to attach the "tool holder" to the ram and another for the actual allen bit.

Next up came the issue of holding all of this inline with the threaded bar. So a scrap of 100mm box was volunteered for this task.

I realised with up to 10T of pressure pushing up on this box, some deformation was expected. A quick play with the mig and some reinforcement was added and an 18mm nut welded into place.

So let's get this thing assembled.
This is how it all goes together. Are you at the back with us on this? Yea? Good, glad someone is.

I drilled a 6mm hole, I'm going for a 6mm hex, in the end of a scrap piece of stock. It's not the most central hole (I think Mr Wong must have marked the centre on it :lol: ) I've ever drilled, but for a test it'll do fine.


Well it worked, sort of. The bit drove into the steel like it wasn't there, great thinks I.
Well we all know what thinking the best does don't we? Sweet lady balls up is usually right round the corner.
And she was!!
It pressed the bit so far in and so well I couldn't get the beggar out!! Even using my best Anglo Saxon made no effect.
In fact I snapped the bloody bit off.

Coffee, lots of. Smoke, one or two of.
Got it! No relief around the "broach/bit". I don't need to shove a whole allen key piece into the steel, all I need is a few mm's of untouched profile to create the shape required 8)
So with plan in hand, (actually in the head, why waste time with drawing all this out) I attacked a piece of allen key to make a new "broach" with the mini grinder.

So with a new hole drilled in the end of my test piece we try once more.
Success, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

The good woman comes home (yes she makes an apperance here as well) to find me dancing round like a drunken numpty.

GW "What are you doing"

n0legs "Not now woman I'm creating!"

GW "I swear one of these days I'll find you in that shed trying to bring a body back to life"

n0legs "Overreact much?"

In all fairness to her she did say once "Living with you is like being in an episode of Shameless crossed with the Krypton Factor!" :shock:

Well dear friends I completed what we set out to do. Chuffed is the word me thinks for this occassion.
Where was I? Yea, I was gonna' go get some wood for this. Side tracked might be my middle name.

More to come. Don't know when, we'll just roll with it

 

[AES]

Eeeek!

(But it worked didn't it? What more do you want - "neat but not gaudy, like a bull's bum sewn up with a bicycle chain").

AES