aluminum soft jaws

[royce]

I have some drops of 6061 T-6, so I cut some jaws for a Reed 214-S today.
I intentionally cut them oversize a touch to help from nicking the vise body with a grinder or striking an arc on the body.
I've not used aluminum for jaws before and found that they grip better with far less pressure than the steel smooth jaws that came off of it.
I think I might like them.
Royce

 

[tarbellb]

I like the oversized jaws.

This guy got copper jaws after some suggestions here on GJ.

(paid way less money for these vs new crappy steel ones)

 

[royce]

I like the oversized jaws.

This guy got copper jaws after some suggestions here on GJ.

(paid way less money for these vs new crappy steel ones)

Thanks Tarbellb,
I started out this morning thinking I would cut them out of this 3/8" or 3/4"brass,
but found the aluminum looking for the brass.
Being lazy by nature, I knew I could cut the aluminum easier, so it got the nod.
I'm thinking the aluminum will be stickier,better for the application.

Those copper ones look good.
I keep my eye out for thick copper buss bars, but never seem to find any.
Royce

 

[tarbellb]

Ha! Thats exactly what these are, buss bars of the Ebay.

Holy ****, those brass plates look A) right at home in your shop B) crazy heavy

ps - path of least resistance is a fine path to travel from time to time.

 

[matt_i]

Definitely a good way to go if you care at all about what goes into the vise! I have aluminum on one vise and copper on the other. They get mildly beaten up over time but the parts are always scar-free.

Aside, I ordered material and built copper jaws for the big Reed vise at work for same reason. About a week later it looks like an angry beaver got ahold of them. Turns out some cat bent a 4-bend U-shaped pull handle for about 20 of the overhead doors out of...wait for it....threaded rod.

...using the vise as a bending die Overlooking the Diacro bender about 12 feet away at the same time I may add.

 

[Strouty]

I have some aluminum jaws on a kurt vise, had not thought of it for a regular vise and honestly never thought about copper jaws. The reason I did aluminum to start with was so I wouldn't efff up the jaws or tooling in my bridgeport. Of course I have yet to use my bridgeport, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

 

[royce]

Definitely a good way to go if you care at all about what goes into the vise! I have aluminum on one vise and copper on the other. They get mildly beaten up over time but the parts are always scar-free.

Aside, I ordered material and built copper jaws for the big Reed vise at work for same reason. About a week later it looks like an angry beaver got ahold of them. Turns out some cat bent a 4-bend U-shaped pull handle for about 20 of the overhead doors out of...wait for it....threaded rod.

...using the vise as a bending die Overlooking the Diacro bender about 12 feet away at the same time I may add.

Matt,
They say you can't fix stupid and I have no reason to doubt it!
Royce

 

[royce]

I have some aluminum jaws on a kurt vise, had not thought of it for a regular vise and honestly never thought about copper jaws. The reason I did aluminum to start with was so I wouldn't efff up the jaws or tooling in my bridgeport. Of course I have yet to use my bridgeport, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Strouty,
A coat for every season.
I think I'll go for leather on a carriage makers vise, next

 

[Strouty]

I have aluminum jaws on my jawhorse and I use that for welding. It works really well, but you have to pay attention to where your fingers are, pretty unforgiving when they get pinched.

 

[EdT]

I have two vises that I use most of the time. One has smooth steel jaws and one has serrated jaws and each kind is useful depending on what you are doing. For both vises I made some jaws out of 3/16x1 aluminum angle with a couple of small rare earth magnets set into a bore on the inside of the angle with a little super glue to hold them in place. This allows me to quickly change from hard jaws, which are good for some things, to soft jaws which are good for other things. In addition, aluminum is a lot cheaper than copper.