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Author Topic: Vise for wood carving  (Read 5744 times)

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Vise for wood carving
« on: May 14, 2014, 01:24:08 AM »
I just thought I would sound off, on what I have been working on for the past week.
I use my home built CNC Router table mostly for doing wood carvings. I work with recycled tractor-trailer flooring. Most of the time, the finished carvings are slightly thicker (or thinner, depending on the point of view) on one end (or the other). And depending on the piece carved, may actually be purposely carved thicker on one side or the other. I like to "Sign" each piece carved, with a special engraving on the backside of each piece. The inconsistent thicknesses of the carvings makes this task nearly impossible. Or at least, a very large pain in the neck- using shims, etc. in an effort to "level" the back side of the carved pieces.
     So, as they say: "necessity is the mother of invention" I designed, (and have now built) a vise, which will accommodate pieces up to 24 inches wide (in the Y direction) and 48 inches long (in the X direction). This vise can be tilted in the Y direction, as well as the X direction. And the adjustment mechanism is a single knob for each axis of movement, which is locked with a thumb screw. This provides very precise control in "leveling" the piece in relation to the router bit. And it is accomplished tool-free. (No wrenches are involved in making these adjustments, just loosen the thumb screw, and turn the knob for each axis, then relock the thumbscrew).
      After completion (and the first trial run to test this device), it occurred to me, that a similar design could be utlized in the actual table surface mounting. Of course, it would involve the use of much heavier-duty materials than those I used in constructing this prototype. But I think that this design could be the answer to the constant problem folks experience with home made CNC mills of the task of leveling the table. I have never seen a device which does what this thing does, and just thought that I would talk about it here, and perhaps on the Zone, to see if there is any interest. Ya'll let me know your thoughts.

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2014, 02:21:03 AM »
Sounds really good - any chance of some pictures ?

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2014, 07:03:28 AM »
Yes, I'm with Tweakie, this does sound like a neat vise devise.  :)
Would really like to see it too.

After all, this is the "Show & Tell" section.  ;D
You've got the "Tell" part covered very well.

Thanks for posting,
Russ
 8)
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2014, 05:15:39 PM »
Sounds really good - any chance of some pictures ?

Tweakie.
Sorry, my camera batteries are dead! I am currently working on an improvement of the vise jaw.
As is true with almost any vise, as it closes onto the work piece it tends to want to tilt the surface of the jaw away from the work piece.
This causes the work piece to "ride up" the surface of the jaw, sometimes to the point of actually squirting it out!
So, again necessity rules. Ball bearing rail guides which ride along the back side of the jaw, loaded against the top surface of the rails will (hopefully) prevent the jaw from tilting away from the work piece. I tried designing a mount for ball bearing guides which would ride along the bottom surface of the rails, (positioned inside of the jaw's inner surface) but there just isn't enough clearance between the bottom surface of the guide rails, and the top surface of the vise lead screw to accommodate. At least not without doing a complete re-design and rebuild of the vise assembly. Which may actually be in the future, as I feel confident that positioning of the bearings in front of the inner surface of the jaw would be a much sturdier orientation in terms of preserving the perpendicularity of the jaw. Ultimately, the use of BOTH would be even stronger.
The vise jaw in this case, is threaded for the lead screw. The lead screw is mounted with thrust bearings at each end of the rail assembly.
Unlike a normal direct-screw driven jaw, with a thrust bearing mounted on the jaw of the vise at the screw end.  The reason for this design, was to eliminate a 24" long lead screw from sticking out. Which is what would be the case in a normal direct-screw driven vise.
I have never seen a device offered anywhere, which does all that this thing can do. I just wanted to post, and see what interest it invoked. As I am seriously considering perhaps a patent on the design. And start making a few of these things to sell. What sort of price do ya'll think something like this would be worth?
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2014, 07:20:10 PM »
You realize if you post a picture in a public forum like this you will no longer be able to pursue a patent as it is already in the public domain.  However you can still make and sell them but so can anyone else. I have 4 patents and have gotten royalties from two of them through licenses. However I never met anyone else personally that has made money on their patents.  The deck is really stacked against small patent holders. I think someone will only only copy your idea to sell if the market for it is very large. However if you idea is useful people may buy it from you, and you could potentially make some money.  I am currently making parts for a product I patented, then couldn't afford to make them or renew the patent.  However I now have a home built CNC and can easily make the parts so I am going to try selling some.  If it doesn't sell no harm no foul.
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2014, 01:24:23 AM »
Sounds really good - any chance of some pictures ?

Tweakie.
I tried designing a mount for ball bearing guides which would ride along the bottom surface of the rails, (positioned inside of the jaw's inner surface) but there just isn't enough clearance between the bottom surface of the guide rails, and the top surface of the vise lead screw to accommodate.
Well, persistence pays off.... I refused to let the limited clearance issue beat me, and instead changed my point of view. The movable jaw of the vise is now a sled, with ball bearing wheels, held firmly to the top surface of the rails by a pair of ball bearings beneath the rails. The jaw now REMAINS perpendicular with the surface of the rails, regardless of the amount of pressure applied against the work piece. The next challenge, is reducing the overall height, to get it down to less than four inches tall.
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2014, 08:13:27 AM »
4 inches?
I'm looking for more like 30mm from table to vise base face.
Can do a lot in 4inches
still would be cool to see what you have in mind.
adjustable leveling wedges with several pinch clamping jaws all mounted on a subplate.
With the the leveling wedges screwed down to tabletop.
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2014, 10:18:14 AM »
Why not just do your "Signature" engraving on the back before you start on the front ? while the blank is parallel.
(something tells me you've considered this already, just wanted to mention it) ;)
I can see other uses for the vise though, maybe a log slab, barn board or any irregular stock.

Russ
 :)
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2014, 10:53:22 PM »
Update:
Well, I cut the overall height down to less than 4 inches tall. However, try as I might, it's just not gonna be tool-free. I mean it is, as far as adjusting the vise to be level. But once the adjustments have been made, wrenches are neccessary to Lock everything in place. The knobs still make it very easy to "Dial everything in" with fine-tune adjustments. However, for the vise assembly to be absolutely rigid, nuts and bolts at key pivot points MUST be locked to hold everything in place. Which is a bit of a pain, but still not nearly as big a pain as trying to shim, twist, and warp pieces into a state of being level which was the alternative previous to construction of this vise.
Re: Vise for wood carving
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2014, 11:04:43 PM »
Why not just do your "Signature" engraving on the back before you start on the front ? while the blank is parallel.
(something tells me you've considered this already, just wanted to mention it) ;)
I can see other uses for the vise though, maybe a log slab, barn board or any irregular stock.

Russ
Yes, I have "considered" engraving the back, before the front. And actually have done it that way a few times. However, the time investment of drilling the guide holes, and then the jogging of the machine to align it in relation to the guide holes, (for properly aligning the back side to the front side of the carving for the engraving placement) is completely eliminated by use of the vise. Simply carve the piece, cut it out from the stock, pop it into the vise, jog the bit down to maybe 5 thou from the surface, turn the knobs of the vise to level it, lock the bolts. Jog the machine to the lower left corner of the piece, and re-zero. Click Cycle Start. Have a cup of coffee.
 :)