So i needed an extra inch for a bore op and i was bold and decided to cut my SMW fixture plate in 2. I waited to do the op before posting this incase this was gonna be a warning instead of a tip. Took my plate and cut it down the center on the bandsaw, you could also mill it as it wouldnt make much of a difference because the holes you cut through are unusable.
Well it worked great and i find that having 2 smaller fixture plates is better than 1 or 2 long ones. I bought a blem plate so didnt pay full price just in case. This gives me full height from base plate to gantry, you should be able to get 3 inch bore depth on a 5 inch tall part (5 inches clears gantry) or more if you have the riser blocks. Also you can mount the vises sideways and use the width if the profile because they clearly planned ahead and made the holes even on the length as they did on the width.
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Great idea. I stopped using the SMW vises. I got sick of projects flying out of their jaws halfway through. They are pretty thorough.
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I still use my SMW vises but I did have that happen before. Parts flying out doesn’t happen anymore since I started torquing to proper spec as determined on the SMW website.
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Glad they are working for you. In my case, you could use a 3/4 Milwaukee impact. I tried the torque thing.
I changed to the standard vises and haven’t lost a part in years now. They are pretty though.
I had that problem as well. I emailed them and they said tighten it evenly but id have round stock fly out of the holder which ngl really pissed me off. This setup has more face area to clamp onto and has worked. Ive found they work really well for plate. But the built in parallels dont give you much grip area when youre trying to mill normal stock unlike the mr1 vise and pick your parallel.
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