The making of a serrated tool steel vise swivel jaw

[royce]

This is new ground for me, having not worked with A2 tool steel nor having ever serrated a vise jaw before.
It is an interesting swivel jaw for a Bonney rapid transit vise.
Not having a example to work from made for some guesstimating from etchings from the late 1800's and leaning on my pal Kevin to guide me through the serrating process.
First orders of business; buy steel, slitting saw and arbor, then sending the saw to Kevin for grinding.
Next up, building a fixture for holding at 30 degrees for cutting serrations

 

[royce]

Kevin gave me the pitch of .125 and rough depth of cut of .035, so I set up to test cuts to verify depth.
Then drilled and tapped the jaw blanks to screw to fixture plate.
Then fastened blanks at 30 degrees on the fixture and commenced cutting.
Then just a matter of turning the hand wheel and hope I did not screw up the spacing.
Then flop it over and cut the opposing serrations

 

[royce]

Next up sawing to rough shape
Then milling to final dimension
Then bored for rotary table center pin
Then cutting apex radius on rotary table
I don't know how, but I missed the mark a bit, but it will still function

 

[royce]

Next up drilled, counterbored and tapped for 1/2" shoulder bolt.
Then started on bronze pivot mount, rough shaping and silver brazing a boss for the shoulder bolt pivot.
Then bored, counterbored and reamed bronze pivot.
At this point I left everything a bit long and did not drill for the vise mounts and will finish when I have the vise to get hard numbers from.

 

[royce]

Next up heat treating.
Kevin gave me the parameters he uses for A2 and a hardness of 54-56
Went to a buddy's shop who has an oven and a hardness tester
Got it hardened, tempered and checked, 4 tests 53, 54, 56 and 56+
Spot on hardness.
Next up fitting mounting pins.
That might be a bit as we are in summer mode not shop mode!

 

[john.k]

I use a Landis type thread chaser in a shaper...... although any chaser in a coarse thread will do , like common 14 tpi pipe threads .