Soft Metal Vise Jaws

My heavy-duty, six-inch, swivel base bench vise helps me perform so many tasks I couldn’t get along without it. Among the many uses are cutting, drilling, and holding parts for assembly and disassembly. The vise is also used for the removal and installation of rifle barrels in conjunction with special tooling for the purpose.

A great amount of holding pressure can be applied with most machinist bench vises with one-inch torque screws and 3/4-inch handles. 6 Hi-Duty Vice with sixinch jaws and swivel was made in England and has served well as a gunsmith machinist vise for more than a half century. When the jaws are harder than the part being held in the vise, damage can occur. The new jaws are 1/8" wider and slightly thicker.

Steel vise jaws with cross hatched notches have tremendous non-slip holding power as parts are held but parts being held in steel jaws often incur nasty crush marks or damage imparted by the roughened jaws designed for the very purpose of holding. Parts are often ruined or damaged when this doesn’t need to happen. A set of quick-change copper or brass jaws will prevent this and are an easy solution.

While I have used varying types of vise jaw padding such as plastic, aluminum angle metal, and fiberlike material, they all lack the ability to precisely hold small parts being worked on. I got the idea to make up a set of quick-change copper jaws which can be exchanged in a minute as the need arises.

Above center: Each 5/16" diameter hole is beveled for an 82degree slotted screw head. Screws are set just below a flush fit. An Allen head screw may an even better choice, further speeding up the jaw changing process. No cross hatched roughening is applied to the copper jaws. Making The Jaws When I made a set of jaws, I looked around my metals supply (I never throw anything away) and discovered a length of 1/2" x 1 1/8" copper stock that seemed made for the purpose.

Sometimes we really luck out in finding just the right part for the job at hand, saving usa trip for additional supplies. In this case it was just a matter of final fitting to make these quick-change copper jaws. Below center: A belt sander is used to dress and true up the original steel vise jaws. After cutting to length, I found the jaws fit more squarely with a bit of precise milling. This was accomplished by placing one of the jaws in the milling machine with one end raised 0.025" and marked accordingly.

Holes were then drilled using the original jaws as templates. An 82-degree bevel was used to countersink the 5/16" self-centering screws just below flush fit of the slotted screw heads. The new copper vise jaws were about 1/8" above the original jaws, just as I wanted. I then used a belt sander to true up the top surfaces of the new copper jaws and checked them with a steel square. Everything looked good.

Gunsmiths can make up a pair of copper or brass vise jaws at very low cost which will hold and protect many types of different parts. Common padding material often used for this purpose doesn’t allow precise holding of parts. Though the copper jaws can be damaged by holding items that should be clamped with steel jaws, the quick-change feature is a real plus. No gunsmith should be without them.

Top: A steel square is used to check for a square, flat surface following dressing with a belt sander. Fitting the new jaws was quick and easy. These can be exchanged in a minute. AG American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.