Vise Soft jaws needed

[KC2IXE]

Hi Gang,
OK, I need some soft jaws for my 4" Kurt. I can find lots of people making "standard" height 1.235 Al soft jaws, BUT I need to get some say 2.5 or 3" tall soft jaws. Anyone have a source?

 

[Mirage_Man]

Hi Gang,
OK, I need some soft jaws for my 4" Kurt. I can find lots of people making "standard" height 1.235 Al soft jaws, BUT I need to get some say 2.5 or 3" tall soft jaws. Anyone have a source?

You have a mill right? Sorry couldn't resist. That's what my machinist buddy would have said to me if I had asked about soft jaws. I understand sometimes it's easier to buy the tool you want than to make it.

 

[cmacclel]

You have a mill right?

Ouch

 

[KC2IXE]

A mill, yes - 3" wide, 1" thick stock - NO - pricing 7075, it's $40/ft, and 6061 is $18/ft...

If I gotta spend that kinda green for stock...

BTW, I can find LOTS of sources if I had a 6" kurt (grumble)

 

[rmteo]

2in. tall by 1in. thick soft jaws here:
http://www.usshoptools.com/current_year/all_products/2007_08_pdf/PGS_137.pdf

They may also do custom sizes.

 

[precisionworks]

3" wide, 1" thick stock - 6061 is $18/ft...

If you want, I have some 3" wide, 1" thick aluminum, 12" long, that was picked up at my metals scrap yard. Unmarked, so it could be (and probably is) 6061-T6. $8.00 plus actual shipping, which should be $5.00.

 

[luvsdaheat]

Last month I was deep into a project when I realized that I needed soft jaws for my cross-slide vise - but knew that the project might get side-tracked, or derailed altogether, if I stopped for too long. So I fashioned a "field expedient" set out of angle aluminum. They weren't pretty, but they did the job - and more importantly, let me finish mine.
The cross-slide is mounted on the drill press and was a (Harbor Freight) cheapo that I don't want to put $$ into; I'm saving up to buy a mill.
There is some dusty 1/8" flat stock, however, that matches the jaw height and is just begging me to snip off 5-6 lengths, rough `em up, epoxy them together and cut to length/drill bolt holes after they've cured.

This should work, right? Or am I ?

As a long-time nerd and new member, I can't say "thanks" enough to CPF!

Brad Wolff

 

[KC2IXE]

I ordered 4 sets of jaws from US Shop tools

The Al shims/angle trick works great when all you are using "soft jaws" for is to prevent marking.

In this case, I'm using the term "soft" jaws to mean "not hardened steel" - you can even have STEEL 'soft jaws".

A common workshop practice is to actually machine out a set of soft jaws to precisely hold an "odd" sized piece of work - they actually become a dedicated fixture for a particular job.

In this case, I need 2 sets of soft jaws

The first is to do this
Bencher BY-1 paddle mod

I did the first with a set of parallels, but I had to kludge up holding the paddles more than I'd like, particularly as I'm planning on offering the service for $$

The second is to do the same with a set of Kent Paddles. Almost the same setup, except that it can be 1/4 inch shorter, and needs 2 notches to wrap arount the contact posts and their adjusters

 

[precisionworks]

machine out a set of soft jaws to precisely hold an "odd" sized piece of work

I have a few sets on the shelf ... some shops have 50 to 100 sets ready for a repeat job runs. They are the easiest way to get nearly 100% jaw contact on round parts held in the mill vise.

For one off or infrequent jobs, especially large diameter (around 4"), hard maple blocks do surprisingly well. Bore them to exact diameter, split the block on the band saw, and they are ready to use. I do some work on aluminum racing pistons, and the maple soft jaws have held up well.

 

[KC2IXE]

Well, I'm really really hoping it becomes more than an occasional job

 

[KC2IXE]

So, my US Shoptools softjaws came in - I can't really complain, but I will - talk about crude! The ends were bandsaw cut, and never cleaned up

The softjaws from Raytoolworks.com jaws I saw at eastec were a lot nicer, but 6" only

I have an old Atlas Milling machine vise, with base, and handle - if you've seen what they are selling for (saw one go for $275 with no base/handle, and saw a handle go for $90 the other day), I'll probably buy a new Kurt for the future