Author Topic: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?  (Read 4094 times)

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Offline daqqTopic starter

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Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« on: July 15, 2021, 07:21:23 pm »
Found this, never knew such a thing existed and now I need one:
Believe it or not, pointy haired people do exist!
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Offline T3sl4co1l

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2021, 07:36:17 pm »
The original really took off it seems... :)



I guess they've been around a long time, but maybe haven't been very visible, which clearly was a shame as, well, look at 'em!

And within but a week or two, there's a 3D printed version of course:



Tim
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Online coppercone2

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2021, 02:40:07 pm »
almost posted this last night, it looks very nice
 

Offline Gromitt

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Offline Kjelt

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2021, 03:46:19 pm »
3D printing is one thing, if you look at the original one you see that the parts are not even exchangeable which indicates that is difficult thus expensive to manufacture.
Today with cnc machines it coukd be done easier but due to the cost of such an 5 axis machine still pretty expensive.
I believe some startup company is reproducing it.
Oh wel, if it was such a great thing why did it not survive time such as the Stanley tools etc. Probably not that much improvement over standard clamps.
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2021, 03:52:08 pm »
I checked the website for the vise jaws:  the manufacturer specializes in tools for engraving, including heavy bench vises.
They are taking down payments, but are not shipping the vise jaws yet (nor have they posted final pricing).
 

Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2021, 04:50:51 pm »
It seems that this would have been a winner from the start.  Since it hasn't been there are a couple of things that may explain it.

1.  As several have pointed out it had to be expensive to build.  Like many multiples of the cost of regular vises, which are already not cheap.    The current group starting this out is making a much smaller version and it is still expensive. 

2.  While it can grip about anything, it isn't a precision grip.  By that I mean that you don't know the gripped items orientation relative to the vise.  So for any work requiring precision there is a lot of difficult setup required after you lock something in the vise.  I'm sure most folks just ended up putting shapes conducive to conventional tools on there parts as fabrication aids, and then if required machined them off as a last step.

Still would love to have one, but they seem to be quite rare, and I haven't decided if the 3D print version is good enough for the effort required.
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2021, 04:51:41 pm »
Those things look pretty cool. But yes they probably are pretty expensive to manufacture.
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2021, 04:58:48 pm »
With respect to the undetermined orientation:  most of the vises sold by that company are axially symmetric (like a traditional chess pawn) to allow the engraver to rotate the heavy vise at will, not like a milling vise.
 

Offline T3sl4co1l

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2021, 06:40:42 pm »
That said, with flat-ground ways, parts could sit flat, or on top of parallels or some other positioning jig.  The angle wouldn't be well defined, but a plane could; this might be adequate for some operations.

Mostly, I doubt the clamping force is all that great, and you wouldn't want to put an end mill near the thing.  Or you're taking very light cuts, which will take forever for bulk removal -- but would be fine for engraving purposes, again.

With a CNC indicator to measure part position and orientation, I suppose one could set up without too much bother, and engrave/shape completely arbitrary parts.  (Is that something CNCs can usually do?  Position offset obviously, but multiple rotations?)

Tim
Seven Transistor Labs, LLC
Electronic design, from concept to prototype.
Bringing a project to life?  Send me a message!
 

Offline ebastler

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2021, 08:27:29 pm »
Neat idea! But would I dare to file or engrave anything clamped in these jaws? The mechanism looks like it might take offence when contaminated with metal dust and filings?
 

Offline Kjelt

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #11 on: July 20, 2021, 09:09:27 pm »
For one offs engraving weird shape object it would be great.
Engraving doesn't exert a large force. Also I think the clamping force could be large since the contact points are smaller than a regular vise.
For multiples on an cnc machine it will IMO not be suitable since there is no fixed reference side as is with a machine vise.
So the next object could be shifted in a random position after each clamp.
 

Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #12 on: July 21, 2021, 03:06:25 am »
My uses would be for general purpose bodging.  Nothing precision, but just holding a part or tool while doing rough filing, sawing, drilling, grinding or welding to customize or repair it.   Farmer machining, not precision or production work.   Obviously the vise in the restoration video had received a lot of this kind of use.  And unfortunately it is hard to justify investing a lot of money in that type of work.
 

Online coppercone2

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Re: Fractal vises are apparently a thing?
« Reply #13 on: July 21, 2021, 05:40:08 am »
someone should do a test with a heavy hammer to see how well it holds up to determine what operations are safe, you can be as imprecise as you want and drift does not matter but you need to know it will not fling things, especially with angle grinders

I am seeing a smooth cylinder contact surface
« Last Edit: July 21, 2021, 05:41:50 am by coppercone2 »
 


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