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Spent 6 months loading vises wrong on my Bridgeport
I was always rushing to get parts in and out, jamming the stock against the back jaw by eye. Then a senior operator walked by and showed me the '1-2-3 block trick' to push everything flush in under 3 seconds. Makes me wonder what other old-school shortcuts are out there that nobody tells you.
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butler.brian25d ago
Man that 1-2-3 block trick is a lifesaver but here's another one that took me way too long to learn. Get yourself some soft jaws for the vice and cut a step into them that matches your part height. You can drop the stock in and it seats itself every time without having to tap it down. Also if you're loading round stock keep a V-block nearby and just clamp it against the movable jaw instead of fighting with parallels that keep falling out. Biggest thing though is slow down for those first few seconds of setup. I used to rush through loading and then spend ten minutes chasing tolerances because the part shifted. Take the extra second to blow out chips from under the parallels with some air and you'll save hours of headache later.
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brian_jackson25d ago
Damn, that 1-2-3 block trick would have saved me a lot of cuss words. Solidarity brother.
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