[ajl6549]

Anyone use Mitee Bite clamps? What are your thoughts suggestions?

[psychomill]

Use them all the time,.... accurate, repeatable and good strong work holding. Easy to use, a good variety of clamp types to chose from, low clearance issues are generally not a problem. Check out their website for a variety of stuff here.

:cheers:

[Ken_Shea]

psychomill,
Which version do you find most useful?

Ken

[l u k e]

Use them all the time,.... accurate, repeatable and good strong work holding. Easy to use, a good variety of clamp types to chose from, low clearance issues are generally not a problem. Check out their website for a variety of stuff here.

:cheers:

I would love to have a T-Slot Kit but there isn't a link to any distributors. Any idea where they can be purchased?

[Ken_Shea]

Enco sells them Luke;
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?P...&PARTPG=INLMK3


MSC has a full line of these.
http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/N2DRVSH

They are available lot of places.

Ken

[little bubba]

I've used the Uniforce clamps on a few jobs. pretty sweet little clamps, two parts clamped with one screw. Not good for onesie twosies, but when you have a bunch of parts or it will be a repeat job, worth every penny to design up a fixture.

[big_mak]

I've use the knife edge clamps on forgings of Modified 4340, and they worked like a hot damn.

[tobyaxis]

Have the knife set and T-Slot set. Use them all the time for anything and everything. They are great for holding irregular rectangular blocks of Aluminum that won't fit in a Vise. Also used a set in a shop I worked in a few years ago. The Feeds and Speeds were pretty High and they didn't budge .01 If you can afford them, Get Them! I got mine from a local distributer "BPT" for a good deal because they were slightly used.

[dertsap]

mitee bites are great clamps , what works well with them is to counterbore the fixture plate and install a spring under the clamp ,o ring works also, the point to them clamps is to apply side pressure and to pull the part down as well , ive found if i didnt pull the hex up before tightening it down , the part would lift , anyone with a lathe can easily offset the head on some button head screws and drill and counterbore some hex stock , what ive done is run a treadmill around the hex to give them that extra bite , they are too easy to make ,its hard to justify the price mitee bite wants for simple hardwear especially considering the wear and tear a normal production atmosphere will impose on the hex ,

with that said "I love em"

[fpworks]

Note on Mitee Bites:

Just make sure you size them right and don't try to skimp out and buy the cheaper ones if you're doing any amount roughing. The following example was a complete failure on my part. I should have spent the extra money and got the largest Mitee Bites AND the serrated edges.

I was running two different parts of 1.25" aluminum rounds.

Problems:

1. I had to run painfully slow and conservative roughing toolpaths, or parts would be ripped out, ruining the part and $70 endmill.
2. Parts would sometimes shift while machining.
3. Cammed hex screws had to be replaced after 200 clamping cycles.
4. Parts would lift off the fixture base during clamping, so parts had to be hammed down, then re-tightened. (took 10 minutes to change parts out of fixture)

Nonetheless, I am now running this job on a Chick BL6, clamping only four at a time. But, I am roughing 8 times faster, part changeover is a matter of seconds, and the workpiece sure as hell doesn't shift, so no more scrapped parts.

Hopefully, someone else can learn from my buffoonery. Garbage in, garbage out. This fixture now sits on a shelf...maybe I can cut it up and use it for something one day.

Justin

(there is a larger picture in my gallery)

[ajl6549]

Fp,
I'm going to use 1.5 * 1.5 "pit bull" clamps with the knife edge to hold an 8" sq. cast iron casting. The casting has a 3 deg. draft angle on the edges that I'll be clamping on. I'll have 2 clamps on one side and 2 gripper pads opposite them. I do intend to mill very aggesively hopfully? View the attachment if you can. All comments are welcome.


A.J.L.

[l u k e]

Nonetheless, I am now running this job on a Chick BL6, clamping only four at a time. But, I am roughing 8 times faster, part changeover is a matter of seconds, and the workpiece sure as hell doesn't shift, so no more scrapped parts.

Chick BL6? Any links?

[fpworks]

AJL,
I think you'll be fine with that setup. Like I said, just don't skimp on the size/type of the Mitee Bites because of the price...use clamps that are as large as possible. The first time I ripped a part out of that fixture cost more than the difference in price of the next larger Mitee Bites (or knife edge type)

The problem I had was profiling with high helix 2 or 3 flute endmills, which really yank on the workpiece. I had to use a general purpose 4 flute endmill with reduced depth and feed...hence the very slow roughing process.

Luke,
My mistake, I'm using a QL6, not a BL6. I just got a reorder for this job, so I'll take a picture of the new setup tonight.

www.chickworkholding.com

Justin

[psychomill]

Fpwork's set up would run into some problems. On round parts, the hex clamps only make contact at one point. A round pocket to sit has the same problem when it comes to round stock.... on top of that, the stock diameters might change some. In this case, I would have chosen the knife edge clamps or the machinable fixture clamps and cut in the diameter to it. Live and learn, not everything is perfect.

Chick BL6? Any links?

BL6 is the original version of the Chick vise. I don't think its made anymore (this includes the BL4). Parts for it are still available but I'm not sure about the body. I believe the Series M is the same case. Chick is now marketing the Series 5 vise with many improvements. This is a real nice vise and extremely repeatable. Check out the new Chick vises . The price tag might scare some of you, but for quick change set ups, R&D work, high volume production, etc.... tough to beat these. They pay for themselves in a hurry...

:cheers:

[fpworks]

psychomill,
The pocket on the fixture is shaped for three point contact (not round...two points on the pocket and one point on the Mitee Bite). Nonetheless, a single Mitee Bite putting only 2000lbs at one point, pushing against two angled surfaces was inadequate for the amount of surface area that I had to clamp. Additionally, I was machining fairly high up on the workpiece, which placed a twisting moment on the clamping area.

It also didn't help that this was for a production run, so I wanted to run these as fast as possible. I learned a lot about cutting forces on aluminum during this job.

[psychomill]

I learned a lot about cutting forces on aluminum during this job.

Not just Aluminum, mainly the issue of "Set up Rigidity" and how the cutting forces affect them. You learned something,... next time you're a little wiser.... that's what it's all about....

:cheers:

[fpworks]

What was funny about the whole thing was that the 4" face mill that took up to 0.15" off the top of the parts was never a problem.

When I designed the fixture, that tool had me worried the most, but what proved to be the most difficult was the high helix aluminum specific endmills.

It all goes back to you get what you pay for. There is always the tradeoff between repeatability, rigidity, flexibility, and price with fixturing, and I tried to minimize the price...so I got what I paid for!

[ajl6549]

I'll be face milling the top as well as mill boring on the right view, but no hi-helix milling. I'm hopeing for about 100 ipm(min.) at about .120" depth of cut. We'll see!

[tobyaxis]

mitee bites are great clamps , what works well with them is to counterbore the fixture plate and install a spring under the clamp ,o ring works also, the point to them clamps is to apply side pressure and to pull the part down as well , ive found if i didnt pull the hex up before tightening it down , the part would lift , anyone with a lathe can easily offset the head on some button head screws and drill and counterbore some hex stock , what ive done is run a treadmill around the hex to give them that extra bite , they are too easy to make ,its hard to justify the price mitee bite wants for simple hardwear especially considering the wear and tear a normal production atmosphere will impose on the hex ,

with that said "I love em"

This is a nice project that I was thinking about doing and forgot about. :frown: Thanks for the reminder Dertsap.

[dertsap]

fpworks

that fixture would probably work well for you if you make a clamp that is cut with a radius cut into it as well , and use the same screw it may be worth running a threadmill around the pockets to get the extra bite,
, ive made many and used many of those clamps , the problem is the leverage on tall parts , i faced the same problem at a company i used to work at , we were hogging on 2" square brass blocks with the small mitee bites , i said from day one it wouldnt work but the bosses insisted that it would , so i had parts flying around the machine , and i mean flying , being the type of company that blamed the workers for their mistakes , i kept loading parts and usually each run one part would go , break a tool oh well load another
they are great clamps under the right conditions , i beleave the direct clamping force is 1200 psi , which is plenty for small parts