Welcome to the alex yates engineering website!

alex yates engineering specialises in the design, prototyping, and manufacture of small parts, using a range of cnc machining and fabrication processes. We are located just north of Exeter, Devon, in the United Kingdom.

Our main website is currently under development, but if you wish to contact us, please get in touch by emailing us at: contact@aye.company

If you are looking to purchase the our Pocket NC workholding solutions, please see below.

Below is a 'Quotation Request Form' for our Pocket NC workholding systems.

'Bundle 1' on the order form contains the "Base plate" for the 5th Axis DM12 Dovetail fixture.

'Bundle 2' and 'Bundle 3' on the order form contain our newly re-designed Pocket NC vice (or "vise" for those outside the UK). A video of this vice can be seen below, and a video playlist explaining how to set the vise up in Autodesk's Fusion 360 CAD/CAM software can be viewed here: Watch Video Here

'Bundle 1' combined with either 'Bundle 2' or 'Bundle 3' will give you everything you need to get started, including screws etc.

If you wish to order extra soft jaws for your vise, you can also select those in the form, and we can quote you for those as well.

For those looking for our larger "fixture plates", which we have produced in the past, and which can be viewed here on our YouTube channel, we are currently out of stock of these. We do however have spare parts on hand for existing customers. We will start manufacturing these once we are underway with the production of the new vise. At the moment, it is hard to give an exact date for when that will be though, hence why we are not currently displaying them on our website.
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‍Your quotation will include a delivery charge, which will be roughly £15 - £30 depending on where you are in the world. You may also be required to pay any applicable taxes and customs duty. For those outside the United Kingdom (UK), we will quote you on Delivery At Place (DAP) terms. This means that we will charge you for delivery, but the courier will contact you separately requesting payment for any tax and customs duty that may be due.

Please note: The video above features our prototype version of the AYE workholding system. The photos in the Image gallery below show the latest version of the design, which has several improvement.

We will also soon be offering an alternative version of both the "Base plate" and the "Fixture plate". We will start manufacturing these in the second week of April. The design drawings for these can be viewed in the Image gallery below.

These simpler (and cheaper) new designs are listed as "Base plate No.1" and "Fixture plate No.1" in the Quotation request form. The originals, which feature in the Image gallery below, are listed as "Base plate No.2" and "Fixture plate No.2" in the Quotation form.

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for more information

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1. The illustration above shows our NEW vice design, which is 'Bundle 2' (or 'Bundle 3' for the Steel jaw version) on the order form. As you can see, the vice comes with Knurled jaws, and one set of Soft jaws. The Knurled jaws can easily be swapped in for Soft jaws. If you plan to do a lot of machining using Soft jaws (soft jaws are typically used for Secondary Operations, or "2nd Op's"), then you may want to consider ordering additional set of Soft jaws.

2. The "Vice: Knurled Jaw" and the "Locator: Knurled Jaw" are made from Stainless Steel 304, to allow their teeth to bite into stock and hold it securely. The soft jaws will be made from Aluminium 6082, which is a very common, and easy to machine Aluminium. All other components are manufactured from Aluminium 7075, otherwise known as aerospace grade aluminium, to make the vice very light and strong.
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3. We have included both the '5th axis DM12 dovetail fixture' at the price that it costs us to acquire them from the UK distributors. It may be cheaper for anyone outside the UK to have these supplied by their local distributor in their own country. For a list of 5th axis distributors by country, click here.
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4. Stainless Steel Torx screws and locating (dowel) pins will be included with the components where applicable. You will need your own T20 Torx screwdrivers to tighten and loosen the fasteners. The maximum Torque that should be applied is 5Nm, although you will find that you need much less than this.
   
   If possible, it is best to have a small Torque wrench (such as this one manufactured by Sandvik, with a range of 3-15Nm: link), or a Torque screwdriver (such as this one manufactured by Gedore, with a range of 1-6Nm: link) to ensure that you tighten the vice to the correct settings, without over-tightening, and potentially damaging it.
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for more information

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.stp file download
and
.f3d (Autodesk Fusion 360) file download:

Please use the link above to download either the Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD file, or the .stp file, which will allow you to prepare your parts for machining on the Pocket NC.
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For an explanation of how the vice works, and of how to use the CAD file to prepare your parts for machining on the Pocket NC, please see our video playlist on gabTV: Watch video here
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.f3d (Autodesk Fusion 360) file download:

.stp/.step file download:

For those using our Original Fixture plate, which is not currently for sale through our website, the CAD files are available by clicking the buttons above.
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Bundles

1

. 

Baseplate No.1 + DM12

Item Number/Name:

Quantity:

1. Base Plate No.1: 

1

2. Fixture Plate No.1: 

3. Base Plate No.2: 

4. Fixture Plate No.2: 

5. 5th axis DM12 dovetail fixture: 

1

6. T-Nut: 

7. Rack: 

8. OK Vise Plate: 

9. OK Vise (WDS 220-301) clamp: 

10. OK Vise jaw: 

11. OK Vise - Soft jaw attachment: 

12 OK Vise - Knurled jaw attachment: 

13. Locator: 

14. Locator - Soft jaw attachment:

15. Locator - Knurled jaw attachment: 

16. End stop/ Threaded Riser: 

If you just want the 5-axis capability of the fifth axis DM12 dovetail fixture, then this is the package for you.

Note: We have included the DM12 dovetail fixture in this package. It may however be cheaper for you to buy this from the 5th axis distributor in your own country, depending on where you are in the world (see distributor list here).

2

. 

Pocket NC single clamp vice - Aluminium jaws

Item Number/Name:

Quantity:

1. Base Plate No.1: 

2. Fixture Plate No.1: 

1

3. Base Plate No.2: 

4. Fixture Plate No.2: 

5. 5th axis DM12 dovetail fixture: 

6. T-Nut: 

2

7. Rack: 

4

8. OK Vise Plate: 

1

9. OK Vise (WDS 220-301) clamp: 

1

10. OK Vise jaw: 

1

11. OK Vise - Soft jaw attachment: 

1

12 OK Vise - Knurled jaw attachment: 

1

13. Locator: 

1

14. Locator - Soft jaw attachment:

1

15. Locator - Knurled jaw attachment: 

1

16. End stop/ Threaded Riser: 

This package gives you everything you need to machine a single piece of stock on the Pocket NC.

It includes both 'Knurled jaws' and 'soft jaws' . The 'knurled' jaws will allow you to firmly grip larger items, because the small teeth very slightly dig into the surface of the stock. The 'soft jaw attachments' can be machined to hold parts for 2nd Op work, or to hold round bar stock.

Please note that the 'Knurled jaws' in this Bundle 2 are made from Aluminium 7075. If you are looking to grip into harder metals, then you may wish to consider Bundle 3, which has 'Knurled jaws' made from Stainless 304.

3

. 

Pocket NC single clamp vice - Steel jaws

Item Number/Name:

Quantity:

1. Base Plate No.1: 

2. Fixture Plate No.1: 

1

3. Base Plate No.2: 

4. Fixture Plate No.2: 

5. 5th axis DM12 dovetail fixture: 

6. T-Nut: 

2

7. Rack: 

4

8. OK Vise Plate: 

1

9. OK Vise (WDS 220-301) clamp: 

1

10. OK Vise jaw: 

1

11. OK Vise - Soft jaw attachment: 

1

12 OK Vise - Knurled jaw attachment: 

1

13. Locator: 

1

14. Locator - Soft jaw attachment:

1

15. Locator - Knurled jaw attachment: 

1

16. End stop/ Threaded Riser: 

As with Bundle 2, this package gives you everything you need to machine a single piece of stock on the Pocket NC.

It includes both 'Knurled jaws' and 'soft jaws'. The 'knurled' jaws in this Bundle 3 are made from Stainless Steel 304, and will allow you to firmly grip larger items made out of softer metal materials, such as Aluminium , Brass or Plastic. The small teeth of these knurled jaws very slightly dig into the surface of the stock in order to hold it firmly. The 'soft jaw attachments' can be machined to hold parts for 2nd Op work, or to hold round bar stock.