Dialing in a Vise

When making precision parts dialing in your vise is a must, let me show you how you can dial in a vise in less than 10 minutes! You will need a mill bed, rags, cleaner, a dial indicator, rubber mallet, 1 1/16" wrench and bolts, T nuts, and finally a vise to dial in.

Step 1: Prepping Your Vise

Now this step is very important and could mess up your whole operation if you skip it. Grab some cleaner and your shop rags and wipe down the bed of your mill so there are no chips or debris on it at all. Next you will do the same with the bottom of your vise ensuring a tight seal between the vise and the table.

Step 2: Attaching the Vise to the Mill

Once you have your table and vise all clean and clear of impurities you want to set it down on the table in your selected location. Pick your selected dial indicator and mount it to your spindle or any solid moveable base. next you will put your T nuts and bolts in to match up with the holes in the sides of the vise. Tighten the bolts down until they are snug and then give them both about a quarter turn.

Step 3: Checking Straightness

Move your dial indicator to the left side of the back jaw on the vise and touch it so you have about ten thousandths of pressure. Proceed to move the indicator across the back jaw until you reach the right side. Take the number of thousandths that you moved and divide it in half. Once you have don't that you will need to grab your mallet and tap the end of the vise that needs to move.

Step 4: Tightening the Vise in Place

After you tapped it in the correct direction take your dial indicator and restart step number three. It should only take you 1-3 times to get the vise dialed in within 0. If it takes longer than that you may have bolts that are concave r convex as well as chips or material underneath your vise. Once you have gotten zeros all the way across you will need to grab your wrench and tighten down the bolts little by little. If you do not go back n forth tightening your bolts the vise could move and you would have to restart the process. Check the back jaw one more time to ensure a straight vise and then you are done!