[extanker59]

We're making a cylindrical long thin part with a slot thru both sides. Held in a collet in the rotary is the main fixture and it's supported by a tailstock. The part slides onto the main fixture and it's secured with a bushing and nut.

It's being made on a Haas VM-2 with a Rotary. Right now I'm putting M00s in to let me add/move a clamping fixture in two spots of the program.

I've seen videos of a machine that has a clamp built into it. Has anyone done this on a Haas? Pretty sure we have spare M codes.

Thanks
Chris

[Ydna]

You can definitely add that hardware into the fixture, but it'd take some building and wiring on your end. Hooking up a solenoid is probably the easiest part, it's everything else that would take time!

[extanker59]

I've priced some pneumatic vises that would fit and they are expensive. Thanks for answering.

[Ydna]

Yeah they can be fairly expensive especially considering pneumatic vises have less clamping force compared to a traditional mill vise. They can only be used for certain applications due to the less force.
I have one that I use with a foot pedal, but we use dovetail-shaped jaws with it that prevent the part from being pulled upwards, which then obviously adds the preliminary dovetail cutting operation into the mix.
For your workpiece it might be fine, since using smaller tools generally don't produce enough force to cause problems like that.

If you need higher clamping force then hydraulic vises are the way to go, but they are much more expensive and harder to maintain...

[extanker59]

For our application the pneumatic ones would be fine. It won't be the main fixture as you've surmised but merely there to stop the part from flexing after the slotting operation. I suspect I'm going down a blind alley. The cost so far seems out of reach for the quantity we make.
Thanks Ydna