Low profile milling clamps

stefang posted on the HSM forum about his low profile milling clamps:

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Arthur.Marks later posted in response to a question about the source of the design that it seemed to be from:
"AMF - a German workholding company. They have a number of other unique, low-profile designs. Peruse here for convenience."

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stefang's work seems to be based on No. 6492. No. 6490 also seems like a nice design, although perhaps harder to make.

Speed Vise

gdavis2265 posted to the HSM forum about his speed vise for the drill press. It looks like a very nice design:
"Here is a speed vise that I made - it can be used vertical / horizontal or flipped to the opposite side - it works really well, and was cheap to make. It pivots at the end and slides fast to locate the part under the drill - the all-thread clamps tightly locking the part in place, and you only need to hold the handle with the left hand while drilling to keep it in place. I milled some steps in the jaws to act as quick parallels. I used it on the DP for a while until I bought a 8" Heinrich vise (love that thing) and now this has been re-pourpused to bandsaw duty, as it works really well for holding / pushing / and guiding parts on the vertical bandsaw.




Speed vise being used with circle cutting jig on vertical bandsaw.


Just some layout I did to show the capacity of the vise."

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Something he didn't specifically point out were the notches milled into the edges of the jaws, great for holding thin plates. And the drilled and tapped holes are another thoughtful addition. Great work!

Belt Grinder

gdavis2265 posted to the HSM forum about his belt grinder. It looks like a very nice design. Very configurable, but sturdy, and without a lot of extra 'fluff':
"My 2 x 72 Belt Grinder - 3HP


I designed it to be somewhat universal - Using a flat platten, having the big wheel out, little wheel out, etc...
The table is a dog-bone design built with ball bearings joined with a rod. The table can move any angle at any location, as well as moved to be used in the vertical position.
This unit has to live on my grinder bench and room is getting real tight, so I designed the unit to have a motor overhead (keeps grinding dust out of the motor) and uses a cross shaft to drive the pulley on the opposite side.

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In response to a question about the tool rest:
No keys, just two ball bearing joined (welded) to a round rod - ie... dogbone. I believe I used 3/8" flatbar with holes drilled for the balls to engage. These need to be thick so as not to deflect; I reef-down on that capscrew fairly tight, as the hardened chrome balls can slip. I also put a fairly large chamber on each hole to help provide more surface area for grip.

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I'll try and snap a couple detailed pics of the table. No keys, just two ball bearing joined (welded) to a round rod - ie... dogbone. I believe I used 3/8" flatbar with holes drilled for the balls to engage. These need to be thick so as not to deflect; I reef-down on that capscrew fairly tight, as the hardened chrome balls can slip. I also put a fairly large chamber on each hole to help provide more surface area for grip. But once tightened down, it really holds very well What's not evident from the design photos below is that the magenta colored piece that welds to the under side of the table actually has a ball welded into the hole and centered. Like I mentioned, I'll try to snap some detailed photos for ya a bit later. I snapped a couple screen shots of my table design - hope this helps some."

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In response to a question about whether the driver and idler wheels are crowned, and asking about the speed:
"Both are crowned - As for speed, I think I designed it to run at the recommended speed for alum oxide belts (4200 sfpm???????) - can't remember.
I've been using it for about a year or so now and seems to work great.
I mainly use it for general purpose fab and works great - I build maybe one to two knifes a year, so having it at the proper speed is not much an issue for me."

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"I see that I designed it for about 4800 sfpm, isn't that about the correct speed for AO? "