Making 'Soft Jaws' for a bench vice.

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Tony Bird

Tony Bird

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Hi,

The copper soft jaws I made many years ago for my bench vice have now reached their 'sell-by' date.



So new ones were made from some thick wall copper pipe.











While in maintenance mode the opportunity was taken to replace the sacrificial front edge of the bench as both sides had had a lot of use.



Regards Tony.
 
Great project. Thanks for sharing. I might follow suit but with the price of copper in Australia the way it is I might use a sheet of gold :hDe:
 
Hi Paul,

I always had soft jaws made from aluminium angle, but after years of knocking them onto the ground, I finally bought some of these http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/V0531. I was so happy with them that I went back and bought another pair.

What a very good idea, I have never seen them before. I don't really have a problem with the soft jaws falling off as the top part of the jaw folds over the end of the vice jaw to keep it in place and if it gets a bit slack it can be bent in a bit. I'm not sure that it would work as well if made from aluminium.

Regards Tony.
 
Hi Herbie,

Great project. Thanks for sharing. I might follow suit but with the price of copper in Australia the way it is I might use a sheet of gold.

Oddly I nearly scrapped the pipe used, a coil of copper pipe about 3m long has been hanging in our garage for years. I thought is was ordinary 22mm water pipe which I have plenty of straight sections of. So when I was going to sell it with other scrap I found it was 19mm and thick wall possibly for use in refrigeration. So it is now used to make tube plates (another thread) for smaller boilers I hope to live long enough to use the whole 3M!

Regards Tony.
 
Tony, your copper jaws certainly fit snugly, the return on the ends is a great idea, will stop them from being knocked off.

Paul.
 
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Once I realised that I almost never used the vice without soft jaws, I just replaced the jaws on my vice with aluminium ones. Never looked back.

Jim
 
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Hi I just changed my jaws with a hard plastic leave no marks and grips well, never missed the normal jaws
 
On one of my vises I installed Spectra Ply slabs for soft jaws. Spectra Ply is a plywood that has been "hardened" though a lamination process. Works good but not exactly cheap, it is easy to get multiple uses out of one block though.
 
I've just unearthed one of these flat vices which fit on the bed of a miller or shaper. Mine was made for another miller and I am having to weld lugs and then new holes to fit my foreign mill/drill( aargh, spit flames, curses). But in the muck and debris, I've unearthed a little turret vice. This little thing has the normal jaws but with a brass jaw. Just one, but it has a set of scalloped and vee jaws which rotate but lock with a detent. It's English and -well at least 40 years old. The original firm GONE.

Wonder if I can learn to digital photograph? Unfortunately, I am nursing a very disabled wife and my time is very limited.

I've also one with hard rubber jaws. I'm trying to make a clamp one for taps/faucets which will not damage chromium plating. More moans, flames and assorted mayhem!

Norman- the man with many vices
 
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