Helping hands good or bad?

[BravoV]

Sometimes the panavise on the plate is just too big and clumsy for what I am trying to do. So I have this delicate ultra precision workholder that I use in those instances.  The only problem is that it is a little shaky being mounted on that 21" x 39" x 2" thick solid cast iron bench top that is bolted to the wall studs and the bench. If it was a little more rigid I would consider it perfect. Notice how perfectly it holds the 8 pin dip.  Shipping costs might be a small issue since the bench top alone weighs over 300 pounds.

This thread is becoming hilarious, let me join you Robrenz, our difference is I got a shrink ray here.   ..j/k

[sonicj]

Sometimes the panavise on the plate is just too big and clumsy for what I am trying to do. So I have this delicate ultra precision workholder that I use in those instances.

I dig the soft jaws! Did you make those yourself? Copper?

[robrenz]

Sometimes the panavise on the plate is just too big and clumsy for what I am trying to do. So I have this delicate ultra precision workholder that I use in those instances.

I dig the soft jaws! Did you make those yourself? Copper?

They are purchased. Fortunately about 30 years ago, $90.00 for my 5" size, are you kidding?  Yes copper.

http://www1.mscdirect.com/eCommerce/NavigationServlet/Clamping-Workholding-Positioning/Vises/Jaws-Jaw-Caps/Jaws-Jaw-Caps/_/N-77dlk?refinement=4290203768&searchandizedOk=Y

[sonicj]

They are purchased. Fortunately about 30 years ago, $90.00 for my 5" size, are you kidding?  Yes copper.

Dang! 

Feeling inspired after seeing your copper soft jaws, i headed down to garage and made these... Might be too soft/slippery to be practical for that size vise, but at least i'll have learned something.
-sj

[sonicj]

I made this from locline and a outdoor electrical box filled with lead weights. It sucks.
-sj

[robrenz]

Nice soft jaws! 
Now that I see that a plate of copper 12" x 12" x 1/8" is $92.45 I guess that price isn't so bad.

I would have thought the locline would have worked well for light things.  Maybe you need a much heavier & wider base so it stays still when you manipulate the loclines.

[sonicj]

Thanx!

The base is plenty heavy.... I wanted to save real estate, so i went with a 4" base and filled it up with lead. The problem is the fine adjustability of the locline. Helping hands are a PITA to manipulate, but hold their positions once set. The Locline is a little less of a PITA to manipulate, but you have to overshoot your desired position of the clip as the arms tend to spring back once you let go. 
-sj

[pickle9000]

Wow, seeing the photos of your work on other topics, robrenz, not only are they functional but beautiful!


No mounting, just add where you need weight, lead shot, soft weights.

So these things are from a scuba shop? I have some bean bags I use when I'm in a rush (almost daily) and these look really good for extra weight on the top of the board. Are they expensive?

...mike

[pickle9000]

robrenz

I bet your mill vise cost more than my entire mill conversion (cost of the mill included).

When I was working I did a fair number of repairs on some haas mills. The displays had some problems, of course that is always emergency work. I find it quite relaxing to work in the middle of the night on equipment. I actually got a hug from the owner on one occasion when the machine was up (kinda weird, but he was having a really bad day).

...mike 

[robrenz]

They are 3 Parlec 6" wide x 9" opening vises. Got them on sale for $359.00 each about 6 years ago IIRC. Machined them square on the outside and glued rails on the perimeter to enable attaching the custom stainless chip pan with flat head screws.

[MikeK]

Krikey...that vise is so big it has its own lamp attached.  I love it!

[saturation]

Scuba weights ~ $5/lb. 

You can make your own using nylon bags and lead shot weight.  I use the soft ones too as they will conform to the shape of what you are using. 

You can buy lead shot in bulk, for example:

http://www.amazon.com/Magnum-Lead-Shot-08-Lbs/dp/B001QV1A2O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1337193793&sr=8-3

Then bag it yourself.  For lead weight, other options are industrial suppliers you can buy from, or have a sports or gunshop nearby [ used for making shotgun ammo].  The killer in buying lead online is shipping weight, so its often cheaper to buy retail as retailers get a break on bulk shipping.

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&N=0&fsch=true&Ntk=AllProducts&Ntt=lead+shot&x=0&y=0

So these things are from a scuba shop? I have some bean bags I use when I'm in a rush (almost daily) and these look really good for extra weight on the top of the board. Are they expensive?

...mike

[saturation]

On passing, another option I've seen somewhere is using a pickup industrial magnet, as added weight.  The benefit is if you mount it well you can also stick the hand it to metal surfaces, even enclosures when working inside them, for whatever reason.  I don't use it because of risk of erasing  magnetic media I use in my lab.

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Magnetics-07503-Heavy-Duty-Retrieving/dp/B000I1TFCK/ref=sr_1_3?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1337195830&sr=1-3

[pickle9000]

robenz, how long does it take to remove and put on another fixture? Looks heavy too. I guess my mill was more expensive.

saturation, I think magnets are bad news as well. I try to keep them far away from the bench (other than a small pickup tool). I should be able to get the shot easy enough, this is Canada we have more than enough gunshops around. I have a scuba shop close by as well so I think I'll pop in and give that a quick check there as well. On the other hand I could sew some up and put some no-slip on them to improve the usefulness.

...mike

[robrenz]

robenz, how long does it take to remove and put on another fixture? Looks heavy too. I guess my mill was more expensive.

...mike

I never remove the vise/chip pan assembly, it has been on since I installed it. 99% of my work is doable in the vises. If not I grab a fixture plate in the vises and work on top of that.

robrenz

[pickle9000]

Did you cut the chip pan from solid material or was it made up from a sheet? I have heard stainless is a pain to mill.

One place I was in used a vacuum system to hold the fixtures in. They let me try and push it around and man that was an amazing system. Just a minimal amount of vac was all it needed.

I can do the electronics but have only basic knowledge about the machining side. The reason I got one here (a toy really) is just to learn more about the actual machining and programming.

One quick bit on clamping. The biggest clamp I ever got to play with was on a Plasser Butt Welder, it's used to weld rail (railway rail). In normal operation it could pull 80 ton in one go but was also capable of what was called a super pull 120 ton. This is an arc welder that worked by grabbing to rails and tapping them together in a specific sequence. The arc would spin around the edge of the cut track at about 10hz once nice and hot both end would be compressed (80 ton) together (when I say pull this is what I am referring to). Pretty cool, the clamp was about 6 foot long on each track and the machine was the size of 3 1/2 locomotives. The pull ram was massive. The machine needed a new opamp on a sequencer board. I always find that funny, pennies for parts but shipping is a killer, CNR brought the unit and operator out from Ontario to BC for me to repair.   

...mike

[nukie]

I use these two items combined with a heavy plate as a base for all prototyping work. For mass production I make custom jigs much faster.

[pickle9000]

Is the clamp attached to the camera mount? How is it configured. Got a picture of it in action.

As for production-testing-repair, jigs or simulators, I agree 100% you really do need a custom setup, even in a small production situation it will save pain.

...mike

[Fishplate42]

Hello I am new here, My introduction is HERE.

I had a problem with my helping hands and cured it easily by screwing it to an off-cut of MDF



More info on MY BLOG

BTW, for non UK readers the title of the post on my blog is from a very popular advertising campaign here in the UK - Just Google "meerkat, simples" and you will see what I mean

Ralph 

[robrenz]

Did you cut the chip pan from solid material or was it made up from a sheet? I have heard stainless is a pain to mill.

...mike

16GA sheet.  most stainless is tougher to mill (tends to work harden) but 416 stainless is like butter.

Ok your clamp trumps my vises

robrenz

[SeanB]

Pretty sure I have a set of helping hands somewhere.......

My method is to use a scrap piece of board or the old pallet i use as a sacrificial worktop, along with whatever is handy to hold down stuff ( currently a rail slipper is a good hold down for almost anything that it does not crush) for working on. Most of my soldering is with silphos rods on copper piping at the moment, electronics does not work well with an acetylene torch, though it will do a real quick desolder job.

[Cybeonix]

Some of the helping hands are bigger and don't tip over as easily.  With the small ones, I find the magnifier just gets in the way, so I ripped mine off.