Faced down the clamps vs soft jaws decision on a weird part yesterday

I had to hold these thin aluminum parts for a production run, and soft jaws took forever to cut but the clamps left marks. What do you do when you need speed but can't mess up the finish?

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2 Comments

charliehill3mo ago

Oh man, that's the worst kind of trade-off right there. One thing that might save you is using a thin sacrificial skin, like a layer of sticky-backed plastic or even plain old masking tape, between the clamps and the part. It's quick to apply, doesn't need any machining time, and if you pick the right thickness it'll stop those marks without throwing your tolerances off too much. We did that once for some 6061 parts and it worked way better than I expected, just test a scrap piece first to make sure the tape doesn't shift.

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patriciacarr3mo ago

Wait, you actually ran a full production run with just masking tape holding those thin aluminum parts? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if the tape shifts even a fraction during a cut. I'm surprised you didn't get chatter or wreck the finish anyway.

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