Patent Grant
10343261
This invention relates generally to work holders, particularly of the work-stop abutment type, and, more specifically, to a vise stop arrangement.
When milling a workpiece using a milling machine, it is necessary to hold the workpiece in position within the machine prior to applying a milling tool to the workpiece. Typically, a milling machine has a bed on which the workpiece sits and a fixed jaw towards the back of the milling machine against which the workpiece rests. A movable jaw is disposed towards the front of the milling machine, and the movable jaw may be moved from front to back typically through actuation of a worm gear arrangement. Spinning a handle at the front of the milling machine engages the worm gear, moving the movable jaw from front to back, enabling an operator to pin the workpiece in between the movable jaw and the fixed jaw, atop the bed of the milling machine.
A prior art vise stop may be clamped to the fixed jaw, the vise stop providing a surface extending into the milling machine work area against which the workpiece can come to rest laterally. A vise stop ensures that a workpiece does not slide laterally in between the movable jaw and fixed jaw while being milled. A typical prior art vise stop is an “Interstate 1 Piece Vise Work Stop” which may be viewed via the internet at the website of MSC Direct at www.mscdirect.com/product/details/56450521. However, neither a typical milling machine nor a typical prior art vise stop have any arrangement for enabling a prior art vise stop to be coupled with the fixed jaw of the milling machine at the same lateral station from the side of the milling machine in successive couplings of the prior art vise stop to the fixed jaw. Further, a prior art vise stop typically clamps into place with no other means for locking it into place such that sufficient force applied laterally will eventually cause the prior art vise stop to slide out of position. The disclosed invention provides a vise stop arrangement which enables a vise stop to be coupled with the fixed jaw at more precise lateral station from the side of the milling machine along the fixed jaw, the lateral station having been selected by the operator in accordance with the needs of a particular milling project. Further, unlike a prior art vise stop, the disclosed vise stop arrangement interfaces with the milling machine at multiple points and in multiple directions, resisting any tendency of the vise stop arrangement to slide out of position under pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,986 issued to Harold E. Ewing on Dec. 7, 1999 discloses a vise stop that enables an operator to precisely position parts in a vise. Ewing does not appear to disclose an arrangement for setting the vise stop at a particular position and then precisely resetting the vise stop at that same particular position at a later time after intermediate use of the milling machine has required a change in the lateral position of the vise stop.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,125 to Donald R. Bentley on Nov. 4, 1963 discloses a vise stop arrangement in which lateral travel of a workpiece is stopped using threaded stop tips which are adjusted through rotation of lock nuts that rotate the threaded stop tips. As the threaded stop tips can be rotated to any position, like Ewing, there is no provision for movement of a threaded stop tip to a precisely defined lateral position in subsequent milling operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,152,855 to Michael R. Martens on Dec. 26, 2006 discloses a vise stop arrangement in which the fixed jaw which is a part of the milling machine is replaced with a new fixed jaw having a series of laterally-spaced grooves in the top of the fixed jaw. A key or other stop attaches to the groove and has a portion which extends into the work area of the milling machine, acting as a stop. A threaded channel is in the bed of each groove for receiving a threaded fastener which is passed through the key. Martens's solution provides a way of reproducibly electing a particular lateral position for providing a stop (the key) against which a workpiece to be milled rests. However, the key is very small and potentially lacks durability. The integrity of the key is further compromised by the channel disposed through its center which is used for the attachment of the key to the top of the vise jaw, the channel representing a potential point of failure of the key when the workpiece is rested against it and subjected to force during milling operations.
The disclosed invention provides a vise stop which rests over the top of the fixed jaw and is supported at multiple points. The vise stop is coupled with a carrier plate, the carrier plate having been attached at the rear of the milling machine to the back face of the fixed jaw. A plurality of locator chambers is disposed through the carrier plate longitudinally (i.e. from front to back, parallel to the worm screw that engages the movable jaw), and each locator chamber is spaced the same distance from adjacent locator chambers. The vise stop has at least two dowels which are inserted into particular locator chambers in the carrier plate. While the vise stop may have two dowels, the carrier plate may have 10, 20 or more locator chambers disposed laterally at a constant spacing, which means that the vise stop may be engaged with the carrier plate at a selected offset from the side of the milling machine as needed for a particular project. The carrier plate may have a series of longitudinal markings, which may include numeric representations of distance offsets from the sides of the milling machine, at locations corresponding to the series of locator chambers.
The vise stop has a channel portion proximate to a nose of the vise stop, the channel portion shaped to fit over the top of a lip portion of the fixed jaw. The nose of the vise stop extends into the work area of the milling machine and provides a stop against which the workpiece rests. Further, the carrier plate has a recess shaped for receiving the rear of the fixed jaw, the edges of the recess resting alongside either side of the fixed jaw.
The vise stop may be two pieces, including a stop puller and a nose, the two pieces being coupled with one another using a threaded fastener. The pieces may interlock using a protrusion and channel arrangement. In some embodiments the vise stop may be a single piece. The vise stop itself may be millable, enabling a user to prepare a vise stop with a portion cut away to facilitate access to portions of a workpiece for milling that would otherwise be inaccessible due to being blocked by the vise stop.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, embodiments, features and advantages of the device and/or processes and/or other subject matter described herein will become apparent in the teachings set forth herein.
Certain embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings:
Specific details of certain embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following description and in the figures to provide a thorough understanding of such embodiments. The present invention may have additional embodiments, may be practiced without one or more of the details described for any particular described embodiment, or may have any detail described for one particular embodiment practiced with any other detail described for another embodiment.
Importantly, a grouping of inventive aspects in any particular “embodiment” within this detailed description, and/or a grouping of limitations in the claims presented herein, is not intended to be a limiting disclosure of those particular aspects and/or limitations to that particular embodiment and/or claim. The inventive entity presenting this disclosure fully intends that any disclosed aspect of any embodiment in the detailed description and/or any claim limitation ever presented relative to the instant disclosure and/or any continuing application claiming priority from the instant application (e.g. continuation, continuation-in-part, and/or divisional applications) may be practiced with any other disclosed aspect of any embodiment in the detailed description and/or any claim limitation. Claimed combinations which draw from different embodiments and/or originally-presented claims are fully within the possession of the inventive entity at the time the instant disclosure is being filed. Any future claim comprising any combination of limitations, each such limitation being herein disclosed and therefore having support in the original claims or in the specification as originally filed (or that of any continuing application claiming priority from the instant application), is possessed by the inventive entity at present irrespective of whether such combination is described in the instant specification because all such combinations are viewed by the inventive entity as currently operable without undue experimentation given the disclosure herein and therefore that any such future claim would not represent new matter.
The carrier plate is affixed to the fixed jaw by passing fasteners 50 and 50′ through two mounting chambers 16 and 16′, which are two counterbore holes disposed from the rear of the carrier plate to the front of the carrier plate (the wide portion of the counterbore being disposed through the rear of the carrier plate and the narrow portion of the counterbore disposed through the front portion of the carrier plate). The two mounting chambers disposed through the carrier plate are aligned with screw holes tapped through the rear portion of the fixed jaw. Upon the fasteners being passed through the mounting chambers of the carrier plate that are aligned with the screw holes and tightened, the carrier plate is securably mounted to the fixed jaw of the vise.
A plurality of locator chambers are disposed from side to side of the carrier plate. Certain of the locator chambers are denoted 14 and 14′ in
The nose includes two protrusions 94 and 94′ protruding from the rear face of the nose and which, when the nose and stop puller are joined, mate with stop puller side chambers 95 and 95′ which are drilled into the front face of the stop puller. The nose also includes a nose central chamber 96 which is drilled and tapped through the rear face of the nose between the protrusions. When the nose and stop puller are joined, the nose central chamber aligns with a central chamber 90 of the stop puller, which is a counterbore hole disposed from the rear face of the stop puller to the front face of the stop puller (the wide portion of the counterbore being disposed through the rear face of the stop puller and the narrow portion of the counterbore disposed through the front face of the stop puller). Once the nose and stop puller are pressed together, including insertion of the protrusions of the nose into the stop puller side chambers, a threaded fastener 80 may be inserted into the stop puller central chamber through the aperture of the rear face of the stop puller. The threaded fastener may then be threaded into the nose central chamber and tightened to form the vise stop. It may be seen that the threaded fastener may be used to alter an overall depth of the vise stop. That is, the vise stop may be used with fixed jaws having a different depth through adjustment of the threaded fastener which threads into the nose. Loosening the threaded fastener would lengthen the length C-C depicted in
The stop puller 22 may have two dowels protruding from a front face of the stop puller that rests adjacent to the rear face of the carrier plate. The dowels may be disposed through stop puller pin chambers 98 which are disposed through the stop puller. The lateral offset between two dowels of the stop puller is the same as the offsets between adjacent locator chambers as depicted in
While the stop puller is depicted with two dowels herein, it is possible that three or more dowels could be provided. Likewise, while the nose is depicted with two protrusions, the interlock capability of the nose and stop puller could be provided with three or more protrusions. Further, while the protrusions are depicted as cylindrical, other shapes may be used such as hexagonal, torx-shaped, or other appropriately-shaped protrusions.
Coupling of the vise stop arrangement to a milling machine encompasses the following operations: (1) affixing the carrier plate to the fixed jaw as described above; (2) resting the nose of the vise stop on top of the fixed jaw with the rectangular channel vise stop arm fitted over the lip portion of the fixed jaw; (3) resting the stop puller on top of the fixed jaw while aligning an edge of the stop puller with a particular longitudinal marking of the carrier plate as needed for a particular project; (4) sliding the nose laterally along the lip portion of the fixed jaw to align longitudinally with the stop puller; (5) pulling the stop puller forward, including inserting dowels of the stop puller into the locator chambers of the carrier plate and inserting the protrusions of the nose into the stop puller side chambers while maintaining the desired alignment of the edge of the stop puller with the particular longitudinal marking of the carrier plate; and (6) tightening a threaded fastener inserted into the rear face of the stop puller through the stop puller central chamber and threaded into the nose central chamber, the tightening action affixing the stop puller to the coupled carrier plate and fixed jaw as depicted in
Once the vise stop arrangement is coupled with the fixed jaw, a workpiece may be rested against the vise stop and the movable jaw may be moved towards the workpiece using the worm screw until the workpiece is wedged between the fixed and movable jaws and the vise stop. The workpiece may then be milled without concern for the workpiece sliding from side to side during a milling operation.
In some embodiments, the vise stop is itself machinable. Through milling away a portion of the vise stop, a machinist may be able to leave the stop in place during particular machining operations that would otherwise require moving the workpiece itself to reach a particular portion of the workpiece.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this subject matter described herein. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.).
While preferred and alternative embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of these preferred and alternate embodiments. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.
The present application is related to and/or claims the benefits of the earliest effective priority date and/or the earliest effective filing date of the below-referenced applications, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, to the extent such subject matter is not inconsistent herewith, as if fully set forth herein: (1) this application constitutes a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/523,088, entitled WORK PIECE POSITIONING ASSEMBLY AND HEMBACK VISE, naming Edward Mack as the inventor, filed Jun. 21, 2017, which is currently is an application of which a currently co-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5996986 | Ewing | Dec 1999 | A |
| 6361034 | Wolfe | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6641125 | Bentley | Nov 2003 | B2 |
| 6672578 | Martens | Jan 2004 | B1 |
| 7152855 | Martens | Dec 2006 | B1 |
| 8002254 | Bayer | Aug 2011 | B2 |
| 8066270 | Siegel | Nov 2011 | B2 |
| 20150091232 | Meagher, Jr. | Apr 2015 | A1 |
| 20180311793 | Mack | Nov 2018 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180311793 A1 | Nov 2018 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62523088 | Jun 2017 | US |
