New Jaws for Bench Vise Made From an Old File

[hilerioal@outlook.com]

This is a record No. 6 vice, an heirloom from my grandfather. The jaws had become cracked over years of use. I have a collection of lots of old files and reckoned they would be ideal for making replacement jaws. Files are made from hardened and tempered steel, and have slanted, ridged teeth which I reckoned would be excellent for gripping stuff in a vice. I cut out rectangular sections of the correct dimensions using an angle grinder. The steel was too hard to drill, so I had to anneal it by heating to a red heat with a blow torch in the vicinity of the mounting holes and allowed it to cool slowly. Once the holes were drilled, they were countersinked.

Attachment 4131

[Toolmaker51]

Some forums are elitist; you'll get flack occasionally responding to something 4-5 even 10 years past.
Those clowns think they know everything (including other solutions) worthwhile? We've all seen examples, guys who can't figure out a bandsaw fence or height gauge scriber clamp.......
Meanwhile, here at HMT.net and this instant 26 folks are viewing this 'old' thread and picking up at least 4 bits of useful info. There is very little that isn't evolving around DIY, but choosing old versus new doesn't have to be a guess.

[Moldyjim]

Some forums are elitist; you'll get flack occasionally responding to something 4-5 even 10 years past.
Those clowns think they know everything (including other solutions) worthwhile? We've all seen examples, guys who can't figure out a bandsaw fence or height gauge scriber clamp.......
Meanwhile, here at HMT.net and this instant 26 folks are viewing this 'old' thread and picking up at least 4 bits of useful info. There is very little that isn't evolving around DIY, but choosing old versus new doesn't have to be a guess.

I started collecting old machine shop and mechanical engineering books when I first started in the trade.
I couldn't count how many times a paragraph or two from a fifty year old book came in handy.
Just because the info is old, doesn't mean it's not useful.
I have a few vises that could use some nice file jaws.
Thanks for bring this idea to the top.

[renllawkram]

It's a VISE, guys, a VISE! VICE is what you go to Las Vegas for!
Now that I have that off my chest, here's something I believe I saw in Home Shop Machinist magazine; take a standard masonry drill, with those carbide chips in the front, and sharpen the tips up a bit (you DO have a diamond wheel, of course...?), then have at it!
The guy who wrote that little "How-To" had a photo of a file with a few nice round 1/8" or 3/16" holes through it!
I haven't tried it on a file, but I have done it with some steel of unknown composition which wreaked havoc on my standard bits.
I have even picked up some masonry bits I ran across, which appear to have good sharp edges to start with, but I haven't tried them out yet.

[mklotz]

It's a VISE, guys, a VISE! VICE is what you go to Las Vegas for! ...

"Vice" is the British English spelling of the tool Americans spell as "vise". Check any British English dictionary, e.g...

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...y/english/vice

Now, if you want to get upset about persistent spelling errors, turn your attention to the near ubiquitous "loose" for "lose" problem.

The opposite of 'win' is 'lose', not 'loose'.
The opposite of 'find' is 'lose', not 'loose'.
The opposite of 'tight' is 'loose'.
'Loose' rhymes with 'moose', 'noose', and 'goose'

[renllawkram]

Well, I'll be doggone! I get so used to seeing atrocious spelling and grammar that I guess I just jump to conclusions. (Are you familiar with the oars used in rowing shells, known as sculls? You should try finding a pair on ebay. There's tons of "scull" jewelry, T-shirts, posters, etc, etc, etc., all referring to the head-bone rather than oars. Or is that another English-cisim?) Anyway, my humble apologies for having dissed you! Mark

[IntheGroove]

Some things are hard to understand...

[Toolmaker51]

Brian Regan, a decent young comedian, lol.
One hand of Thread hack poker.
I'll see your "Some things hard to understand", and raise you....(trump card)

A comment really caps this.
Pretzelbomb
3 years ago
English: One of the shortest alphabets on the planet and so we decided to make half of our words mean several things. What could go wrong?

[mklotz]

Well, I'll be doggone! I get so used to seeing atrocious spelling and grammar that I guess I just jump to conclusions. (Are you familiar with the oars used in rowing shells, known as sculls? You should try finding a pair on ebay. There's tons of "scull" jewelry, T-shirts, posters, etc, etc, etc., all referring to the head-bone rather than oars. Or is that another English-cisim?) Anyway, my humble apologies for having dissed you! Mark

Relax, Mark; you didn't "diss" me. In reality, I'm fairly difficult to offend; at my age I lack the time to devote to being offended. :-)

It's funny that you chose to use "scull" as an example. It's a word with which I have a real connection. I worked on developing the strapdown abort guidance system for the lunar lander. I discovered a previously undocumented error source that involved a combination of linear and rotary vibrations affecting the accelerometers. It reminded me of the process in a boat where an oar off the stern is "rowed" side to side to move the boat forward - a procedure termed "sculling". Since I had discovered the error I got to name it. So "sculling error" is now a thing in the world of strapdown IMUs.

[WmRMeyers]

This is a record No. 6 vice, an heirloom from my grandfather. The jaws had become cracked over years of use. I have a collection of lots of old files and reckoned they would be ideal for making replacement jaws. Files are made from hardened and tempered steel, and have slanted, ridged teeth which I reckoned would be excellent for gripping stuff in a vice. I cut out rectangular sections of the correct dimensions using an angle grinder. The steel was too hard to drill, so I had to anneal it by heating to a red heat with a blow torch in the vicinity of the mounting holes and allowed it to cool slowly. Once the holes were drilled, they were countersinked.

Attachment 4131

I don't know if that is sacrilege, or genius. I'll go for genius! I don't have any files large enough to do that to either of my large vises. I may have to give it a try with the Panavise and Wilton that's similar to a Panavise, and now I need to start looking for some larger files, too.

Bill