Hey folks,
A good friend of mine who is a machinist was kind enough to make some beautiful jaw inserts for my Craftsman drill press vise with 2.5" jaws. I realize that this is a fairly ubiquitous vise amongst the vintage tool community so I wanted to check if others on the board would be interested in a set if we ran a campaign of them.
We'd plan on using tool steel that is hardened afterward. The jaws would have one flat and one with vee-notches like the original. Tapped with 10-32 holes. Price would be approx $40 for a set but this is TBD.
Please chime in if you're interested. I'll take a response to indicate interest only, not a commitment. Open to ideas and questions too of course.
Here is a prototype set installed on my own vise. We wanted to check the fit before adding vee notches or hardening. The fit and finish is beautiful. One small note is that Sears apparently finished these jaws *after* screwing them to the vise so these replacements are not 100% flush on all surfaces but extend over a couple thousandths.
Some pictures of the inserts:
A good friend of mine who is a machinist was kind enough to make some beautiful jaw inserts for my Craftsman drill press vise with 2.5" jaws. I realize that this is a fairly ubiquitous vise amongst the vintage tool community so I wanted to check if others on the board would be interested in a set if we ran a campaign of them.
We'd plan on using tool steel that is hardened afterward. The jaws would have one flat and one with vee-notches like the original. Tapped with 10-32 holes. Price would be approx $40 for a set but this is TBD.
Please chime in if you're interested. I'll take a response to indicate interest only, not a commitment. Open to ideas and questions too of course.
Here is a prototype set installed on my own vise. We wanted to check the fit before adding vee notches or hardening. The fit and finish is beautiful. One small note is that Sears apparently finished these jaws *after* screwing them to the vise so these replacements are not 100% flush on all surfaces but extend over a couple thousandths.
Some pictures of the inserts: