UHMW Vise Jaws

[Brian.Evans]

Does anyone here use UHMW on their vise? I am considering using it on my 5" Wilton 645 for more detailed work. What do you guys use your UHMW equipped vises for? Where are you getting your material and in what thicknesses?

 

[Outlawmws]

UHMW; Nothing.

I have lead, copper, and wood jaw covers, and use them in this order:

Bare jaws
lead
wood
and rarely ever, copper.

Even before copper I will sometime drill out a block of wood, cut a slot to the hole, and use that to clamp something, and recently I've started taking a nut and cutting a slot in that to clamp threaded parts (Growing collection of Thread clamps going...).

 

[rlitman]

UHMW is pretty slippery stuff. And under pressure it can crack. I really don't see it as a good vise jaw material.

When I bought my Wilton 4", I moved the Littco 3 1/2" to a different bench, and made aluminum jaws for it. That's come in pretty handy actually.
I've got a copper thingie that I often use for grabbing threaded parts, and some pieces of lead sheet for the more sensitive metal things.

Whenever that's no good, I've got the wood vise. 3/4" maple jaws. That's no more damaging than UHMW, but should last at least as long, and isn't slippery.
I've put a linseed oil finish on them, which is reasonably resistant to glue, etc.

I also have a panavise with rubber jaw covers.

I guess you could glue a rubber mat to wood jaws for things that wood isn't ideal for, but I can't really see other plastics being good for vise jaws.

 

[Brian.Evans]

See, this is why I come here. . I know where to find oak for jaws. Lol. I have a few feet of that lying around.

 

[plinker]

I picked up a set of Columbian plastic-rubber like material jaw's somewhere, Used them a few time's. Leather works really good IMO.

I'd like to get a set of brass jaw's made, but I dont know for which vise yet. Acetel/Delrin would work really good too I would think.

 

[rlitman]

Oooh, leather, right. I have jewelers clamps with leather jaws, for holding things while buffing. I forgot all about that.
I haven't seen jaws made from the same stuff they cast deadblow hammers with, but it seems that something like that would work too.

Oak is a bit coarse grained for vise jaws. You're more likely to have large splinters pop off in use. Beech is ideal. Maple is excellent, poplar is ok too. Everything other wood I can think of that would be good, is just too expensive for this purpose.
I've had good luck using beech ply scraps too.

 

[mooman]

UHMW = fail.
We use a bunch of it at work, so I figured I would try it in my vise. It cracks too easily.
I took small aluminum angle, put a piece of magnetic tape on the inside of the angle to attach it to the jaws and glued cork on the outside of the angle. I think it works well as a soft jaw.