Soft jaws for the Tormach vise?

[zephyr9900]

I'm to the point where I want to make some soft jaws for my Tormach/MiniMag vise. (How fast things change, by the way. In the couple of days since I posted a link to Conquest's page on the vise, the URL changed to http://www.conquestind.com/mini_mag.php )

I have some cast aluminum tooling plate that I could use, but is that overkill? Should I save the tooling plate for "good" stuff and just use 6061?

I do have a request in to Conquest to see how much their soft jaws cost too.

Thanks for any advise.

Randy

[MichaelHenry]

Randy,

FWIW, I made some soft jaws for a Kurt 3" vise on my Clausing 8520 manual mill and used 6061 for that. The application was not too demanding and it worked fine. I used the Tormach to surface the jaws and bring them to size with a Rotary Technologies 2" flycutter with single insert.

I'll do the same on the Tormach when the need arises.

BTW, good luck on getting an answer back in email from Conquest. They never replied to my request for info on step jaws for the 5" vise. Guess I should just break down and call them.

Mike

[zephyr9900]

Mike, thank you for the reply. 6061 it is then. I'm passing a metal surplus store this noon and will see what they have. The closest I have now is 2x2" and I don't want to cut that down unnecessarily...

BTW, Conquest now has a fully dimensioned drawing of the 5" vise including the various jaws on their website at http://www.conquestind.com/pdf/Mini%...Dimensions.pdf

Best regards,

Randy

[MichaelHenry]

Having the dimensions provided takes all the design challenge out of teh project <g>.

Mike

[zephyr9900]

Nah, the project is what I'm making for which I need the soft jaws. It's something that I did on my Sherline by supergluing to a sacrificial aluminum tooling plate, so I'm looking forward to machining some using soft jaws.

Best regards,

Randy

[magnumvises]

I appologize for any problems you may encountered with our new website. It was launched right about the time that you emailed us and there was a problem with that function that has now be corrected.

Originally Posted by ProtoTrains I'm to the point where I want to make some soft jaws for my Tormach/MiniMag vise. (How fast things change, by the way. In the couple of days since I posted a link to Conquest's page on the vise, the URL changed to http://www.conquestind.com/mini_mag.php ) I have some cast aluminum tooling plate that I could use, but is that overkill? Should I save the tooling plate for "good" stuff and just use 6061? I do have a request in to Conquest to see how much their soft jaws cost too. Thanks for any advise. Randy

[magnumvises]

There was a problem with the email request for on the new Conquest Website, it has now been corrected.

[redrider9112002]

So, has anyone ben able to buy soft jaws for there vise yet?

[MichaelHenry]

I think that Magnum sells them, but I made a pair from 6061 scrap and have just bought a 6' length of 6061 bar stock to make another 5 sets.

Mike

[zephyr9900]

I also made my own set from 6061 bar, and have material rough-cut for another set. The dimensions are on the PDF I linked above.

Best regards,

Randy