Today I was given the opportunity to make a 5-axis vice for the truck project!
A little backstory:
My boss started a marketing campaign to reach out to potential clients by sending eye-catching Unimog truck model toys to promote the company and show off our capability.
The process of making these was to put a block of metal on a dovetail vice on the 5-axis, finish the part minus the windows and engraving, send it off to get plated in blue, then when it returns, put it back on the machine and mill out the highlights. One of the problems we encountered was putting the trucks back on the machine.
The issue is that the remaining stock that was cut away from the truck works well as a fixture. However, you have to keep it on the machine as long as you wanted repeatability. But the second you moved it, you could never have the same part run the same way and would be slightly offset.
The solution to this problem was what I worked on today, building a new vice that bolts directly onto the b-axis table designed specifically for this truck. So if a job came in and we needed the machine, I could take the vice off, put the dovetail one on, run the job, and then bring the truck vice back into place without having to cut another truck.