Not much painting, but I made a machinist vice

Not much painting this week I'm afraid.  I undercoated the house from last week and glued and puttied up one of the Stormcast Eternals (and may have added nipples to his armour ala ancient greek style armour).

However most of my time was spent thinking about or making a small machinist vice.  So as a little break from painting...

I've had a (baby) milling machine for approx 7 years (a house warming gift from my father) but not really used it at all.  A number of weeks ago I got the really strong urge to actually start to use it.  Maybe all those machinist youtube videos I watched hit a critical point.  First up I made some parallels and a couple of clamps.  Nothing complex but just to get an idea of using the machine and knowing that I would be making a number of mistakes.  Once that was done I needed a real project.

'Mr Pete 222' on youtube had a great 9 part series on making a machinist vice.  I don't have a lathe so I couldn't make the screw but that is easily sourced.  Starting with 20mm square BMS I squared up the stock and got to work.  To cut out the major recess rather than spend a week on the mill (it can only do 0.2mm cuts) I used the angle grinder to cut out the bulk of the material.  Then it was pretty much following the steps from the videos and making my own smaller version.  I used 20mm square stock and the main screw was 5mm.  The screw for holding the slide in place was 2mm and the grub screw holding the slide to the screw was 3mm.

Unlike painting you don't get to make mistakes.  Cut the wrong bit and it's throw away time.  Adds a bit to the pressure as once you are more than 25% into the project you really don't want to start again.  It became a project that I was thinking about most of the time.

The most stressful part was tapping a 2mm blind hole, 7mm deep.  2mm taps are really thin and watching the tap twist and spring pretty much added a new patch of grey hair.  Tapping the main 5mm hole and 3mm hole for the grub screw was easy in comparison.

Without a lathe I couldn't cut the screw from one piece of metal.  Rather, I cut down a 5mm bolt and used locktite to secure a dial.  For the end going into the slide I had to hand file the recess in the bolt that the grub screw rests in.  That was easier than I thought.  Having a set of needle files is essential however.

Once everything was done I filed (2nd cut and hand smooth files) and sanded (400 grit) the surfaces to make it look pretty.  As an aside I also made my first machinist clamp as I needed to hold the slide while drilling it.  Not having a clamp small enough I just make one.  This is part of the joy of machining.  You make the tools you need to suit the job.

I am so proud of the end result of my first project.  It looks the part and works well.  I spent some time playing around with it to be honest.  Now it's going to be shipped off to my father as a thank you for buying me the mill.

Next week - maybe painting again now that I have gotten that out of my system :)