Accurately placing the wasteboard or vice?

CNC Machines Nomad
1

Hey, I was just wondering if there was a way you guys are accurately placing the wasteboard or vice.

When I removed the wasteboard and later tried to replace it, it seemed like there was a little wiggle room (so it’s not exactly rotated the same as it was when I took it off). I have an L-shaped brace that I made that attaches to the wasteboard which ensured that stock that I pushed up against it was aligned fairly square to the machine axes. But now that I’m not sure the wasteboard is aligned the same way, the brace presumably isn’t, either.

Similarly, the bolts that hold the vice to the table have a little wiggle room, and it’s also not clear how to get it square to the machine axes.

Is there a way to get it “very aligned”? Apply hard pressure to the vice or wasteboard towards the front or back of the machine while tightening bolts? Tighten bolts in particular order?

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Pulling the Vise or Wasteboard towards you while tightening the bolts is usually good enough.

With the Vise, you can use 6mm pins to locate the vise body to the Table.

I’ll see if I can get some 6mm pins put in the Store.

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will these be like the early vise pins?

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you can use locating pins in the x centerline 6mm holes to locate the wasteboard. IMO just pushing or pulling the board in a direction is not consistent enough to do 2-sided jobs consistently…
my vises came with pins so i cut holes and reliefs into the wasteboard to accommodate those pins and knobs.

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@ApolloCrowe - hey, so the holes in the table for the pins go all the way through the table - if I have a 6mm pin in there, what’s to keep it from sliding all the way through and contacting the base of the Nomad (which would then drag on Y-axis movements)?

Or if it’s such a tight fit that pins won’t slide through, how does one easily remove the pin if only a small portion is visible above the table? I ask because I may drill small reference holes in the base of the wasteboards so that I can register them as well, in which case I will want the pin to not go very far into the wasteboard.

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The pins dont have to stay in, they can be used to locate while you tighten the bolts, then removed.

We will have some easy removal pin sets in our store eventually.

In the meantime, heres a mcmaster part number if your not the waiting type:
98432A206
6mm pin with M4 internal thread, for ease of removal, put a M4 metric bolt in it as a handle.

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Oh man I didn’t realize how tight a fit this was. I had to hammer it… hard(!) to get the pin into the holes in the vise! To get it out I have to put the screw in it and then hammer the screw and push the pin all the way through out the other side.

Is it kosher to do this or am I likely to break the screw/pin?

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Gently remove the pins, maybe remove the vise and using a punch tap them out from the bottom side.
It should be a a tight fit but they should not need to be pressed in.
The Annodizing should not have added that much material but a 6mm reamer may be needed to bring the holes into spec.

Otherwise, Maybe just remove the threaded bolt from the top of the pins if you can still slide the jaws over the tops.