A guy at the Rockford shop showed me how to indicate a vise and I still do it his way 9 years later

Beth Hart · 2026-10-03T17:40:05.297859+00:00

Back in 2015 I was running a worn out Bridgeport at a job shop in Rockford, Illinois, and my parts kept coming out tapered about .003 over 6 inches. An old timer named Ray watched me fight it for two days and finally wandered over with a mag base and a test indicator. He showed me how to sweep the fixed jaw and tap the vise in with a dead blow until the needle barely moved, then told me "your vise is the part you never think about, so think about it first." Before that I was just bolting vises down wherever and chasing my sizes all shift, and now that sweep is the first thing I do every setup. Has anyone else picked up a habit like that from an old timer, or got one you still skip and regret?

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A guy at the Rockford shop showed me how to indicate a vise and I still do it his way 9 years later | CNC Operators - Discusd