How to Maintain Machine Vice

Maintaining a machine vice is important to keep your work area clean and safe. One must keep this fact in mind that a machine vice is a vital part of any workshop, and it's important to keep it clean and well-maintained. In this blog, we will discuss some effective tips for maintaining machine vice.

So, let’s find out what is machine vice and how one can maintain machine vice.

What is Machine Vice?

A machine vice is a clamp that holds a workpiece securely during machine tool operation, such as a drill press or mill.       
It varies from vices used for metalworking and woodworking because it is attached to a machine tool's table rather than a workbench. To prevent the user's hands from gripping the workpiece while drilling, milling, or performing related operations, a machine vice is fastened to the drill press or milling machine's table.

A machine vice is necessary since machining procedures can be risky; by supporting the workpiece for the user, the vice lowers the risk.  
Additionally, because the vise may be precisely connected with the machine's drill bit or cutter before being fixed into place, it enables the user to finish machining jobs with a superior level of precision and perfection. Metal, wood, and plastic are just a few of the materials that can be held in machine vices.

Tips to Maintain Machine Vice

The following are a few effective tips to maintain machine vice:

• • Regularly remove all machined chips from the vise bed and the surrounding area.
• • Regularly check the cleanliness of all screw brush seals visually.
• • Put rust-inhibiting oil on the vise bed's top surface every day and let it air dry.
• • Visually check for chip entrapments once a month, if necessary.
• • You can repaint your vice by using a new powder coating if the paint on it begins to chip off. The owner can also manually repaint the vice with rust-resistant insulating paint for a quick and simple fix.
• • Due to ongoing wear, some metalworking vices have jaws that need to be replaced over the vice's lifetime. It is simple to install replacement jaws, which are readily available for purchase.
• • Each month, visually check each screw brush seal for purity. Every vise has a brush seal inside the nut on the handle end.
• • In some vises, the nut's two ends are sealed by brushes. Chips are "swept" from the screw threads by these brushes.
• • Every six to twelve months, let the vise bed's upper surface air dry before coating it with rust-inhibiting oil. The oil supplied to the movable jaw will assist prevent rust from accumulating in and beneath closed sections and smooths the nut's threads both when the jaw is fully open and closed.
• • The set screw should be loosened but not removed. Turn out the setscrew face until it extends between 1/4" and 3/8" past the movable jaw's back.
• • Raise upward while holding the hex wrench so that the moveable jaw can swivel away from the nut. Be careful not to lose the half-ball-shaped segment that is in the moveable jaw cavity while cleaning. Take away all chip guards.
• • Remove any chips that may have accumulated in the middle channels of the vise bed beneath the movable jaw.
• • Using the hex screw, detach the spiral-retaining ring from the vise's end (earlier style vises used a threaded collar). The thrust bearing assembly is revealed by sliding the nut and screw assembly forward. Start applying bearing grease after removing the bearing assembly.
• • Attach the retaining ring before reassembling the screw and nut assembly. To place the retaining ring into the slot, you might need to lift it upward at the angled part of the nut assembly.
• • Add a thin film of oil to the upper surface of the vise bed and oil all uncovered screw surfaces.
• • Put the removed moveable jaw's cavity generously greased before reattaching the half-moon segment. To roughly the same angle as the nut, align the flat. Once the piece is put back together, the flat surface will line up with the nut's angle.
• • Restore the mobile jaw, making sure the segment is securely fastened.
• • Retighten the set screw by sliding the segment against the moveable jaw while doing so.
• • Pull out the setscrew by about 1/8th of a turn after it has been tightened. It is forbidden to tighten down this setscrew. To make the jaws more flexible, crank the set screw loosening it another 1/8th turn.
• • Firmly close the moveable jaws. By doing so, the section will be "set" to the correct orientation alignment. Recheck the tightness of the set screw by opening the moveable jaws. Once more, avoid overtightening.
• • When not in use, gently close the jaws of the vice and arrange the handle vertically.
• • To protect your machine vice dry and stopping it from rusting if it's outside, wrap it with a cloth.

Epilogue

There is a general association between employee job performance and satisfaction and an organization's dedication to machine equipment maintenance. It should come as no surprise that morale suffers while working every day in a cluttered, chaotic, or generally unmaintained environment. Employees who work in a setting that is tidy, secure, and well-maintained are more likely to succeed in their careers.

Employees find it demoralizing to work with often broken equipment, and it shows negatively on the organization's performance standards. To create long-term performance and value, good equipment maintenance practices are concentrated on continuously and diligently carrying out the little tasks.

In this blog we have presented you with some effective tips to maintain machine vise, if you stick to these tips, you may see longevity in the overall functioning of the machine vice.

Contact HERBERT if you want to have top-notch machine vice and to know more about the maintenance of machine vice.