Soft Jaws.

Hi Guys,

I cut up a piece of aluminium plate the other day and was left with a 72 mm long by 40 mm wide off cut of 10 mm thick plate. I don't like just throwing material in the scrap bin, so I looked around for a use for it. Then it occurred to me that I'm always putting soft jaw covers on the 3" Parmo vise ! Why not make a set of replacement jaws out of this piece of aluminium. Ok they would be about three or four mm short, but that wont make a lot of difference.

So I cut the piece in half length ways on the bandsaw, clamped them in the mill vise and cleaned the two pieces up. I used one of the existing vise jaws as a template, by gluing all three pieces together with superglue and drilling both pieces of aluminium together with a 5.5 mm drill. After cracking them apart, actually I just banged them down hard on the top of the vise, I countersunk all the holes on one side to suit the screws. After fitting them to the vise this is the result. They are a bit taller than the original hard jaws but no matter.

Attachment 384241 Attachment 384240 Attachment 384239
Before and after. My new vise soft jaws. :U You can see one of the old bits of aluminium angle that I was using before at the very top of the last picture.

Good stuff. And plenty of thickness to be able to dress them up when they get a bit tired.

Steve

Nice Job BJ.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BaronJ

Hi Guys,
I cut up a piece of aluminium plate the other day and was left with a 72 mm long by 40 mm wide off cut of 10 mm thick plate. I don't like just throwing material in the scrap bin. . . .

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Something like that would never get thrown out by me, . . . . well not immediately anyway.

I have a number of boxes for scrap pieces, 1 for longish pieces of regular steel and 2 for short (round and non-round), one for SS, one for Al and one for other non ferrous (Cu, brass, lead etc) Every now and then when they get too full I do a cull and dispose of pieces I reckon I am most unlikely to use in the foreseeable future. Of course occasionally I have disposed of a piece that I could have used not long after they have been thrown out. :oo:

Good hustle- I built a pair of soft jaws for the record#3 i refurbished last year.
Unfortunately I had to use a file and a flap disc to get the final finish, not having a mill...

Have not used them in anger just yet, as I am modifying the bench it sits on to allow independently adjustable legs. The joys of a dodgy 1960's vintage home built tin shed.