Hawk’s Babble-Log

Yes, I am kinda addicted to milling and metalworking. No, that’s not what this article is about.

This article is about my new kick-ass Sherline milling vice and rotating base! Check it out!

These little guys are awsome. The rotating base is easy to set down onto the milling table, easy to lock into place, and it’s easy to rotate to virtually any angle. Both items are highly accurate and very well made.

In this view, the vice is mounted directly to the mill table. I do not recommend this setup because the milling vice is not firmly fixed to the table. When used with the rotating base, however, it is much more firmly fixed and has virtually zero chance of movement. It doesn’t wiggle at all.

I tried cutting an aluminum bar with just the vice fixed to the mill table. This worked okay, but the angle was a little bit off. See how messy my mill is? This is because my kick-ass 4-inch carbide-tipped saw blade really rips through aluminum like it were wood. Even though I’ve got the vacuum positioned right behind the saw blade, it still manages to throw little bits of aluminum all over the table.

Here, the milling vice is mounted to the rotating base, and the base is fixed firmly to the mill table. This setup works very well for cutting aluminum bars down to size. I’ve also got the vacuum positioned about as close as I can to help catch the aluminum flecks.

This is just a slightly different angle on the same setup.

This is a close-up of the saw blade doing it’s magic on that small aluminum bar.

The mill vise with rotating base:
http://www.sherlinedirect.com/…Product_ID=74

Just the mill vise:
http://www.sherlinedirect.com/…Product_ID=71

Just the rotating base:
http://www.sherlinedirect.com/…Product_ID=73

By the way, it costs less to get ‘em both together than it would to buy ‘em separately.

In summary: I’m very impressed with these two items. I have confidence that I can cut and drill virtually anything small enough to fit within the vice jaws.