Shaper vise

Just a warning for others. I bought this vice for my Atlas 7B. Nice vise well built. But way to big for Atlas 7B.

Hmm, it is a bit taller than the stock vise. I guess is all about what you are trying do. It's certainly better than no vise and a pretty good price at that! Especially compared to what they want for a possibly beat up old stock vise. You can also gain clearance by taking off the swivel. Sorry, I don't mean to second guess. I've gone through a lot of problems with my stock vise.

I got a great selection of Te-Co toe clamps (thanks Ulma Doctor) and was able to clamp the work right to the table. And for the first time was able to get truly square contiguous cuts. As I rotated the work,the cuts were square to each other. He shoots he scores, happy dance..... This led me to further investigate my stock vise and found one of the culprit was the old soft jaws. So the swivel base was warped( was able to fly cut and fix) and the soft jaws were somehow sprung in the middle throwing my indexing off. Almost done making new soft jaws that are a little bit taller. Because for the stuff I do, the stock jaws seem to be too short. I had stuff cock in them and jam. Could be from the warp, could be too short. The new soft jaws are mystery steel and I can trim and true them. The old ones are too hard, I'd have to grind them and don't have a surface grinder.....yet.
 
I might if I knew how to flame straighten. Care to elaborate?

Metal can warp in heat treatment. One way to prevent this
warping is to cool the part slowly and uniformly (bury it in ashes and wait a day).

Conversely, if you heat the steel and cool it NONuniformly, it can work the
metal according to a plan. The key
is to aim the cooling so that the warp goes the way you want.

A warmed piece of hard metal, if cooled by an ice cube, water spray, or CO2 extinguisher,
will shrink on the cold side and the internal strain will cause the other side to take
on a slight bend, concave toward the cold spot. After complete cooling, and maybe
a few light hammer taps, the strains are relieved and the new shape is stable.

It isn't necessary to soften the steel, just get it to circa tempering heat. Many
a frypan has had water applied, made creaking noises, and taken on a warp,
all at canola-oil-not-yet-burning temperatures.

Here's a video showing the procedure
***correction, here's the heat-straightening video*** I goofed the first time...
 
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here is a pdf for building your own vise, if you like the challenge!
I made one just like that when in my high school machine shop, using one on their shaper for a model; I had a 3 period class, it was the only time I ever made the honor roll ! I let the vise, made of solid steel go somewhere along the line, many years ago.
 
Metal can warp in heat treatment. One way to prevent this
warping is to cool the part slowly and uniformly (bury it in ashes and wait a day).

Conversely, if you heat the steel and cool it NONuniformly, it can work the
metal according to a plan. The key
is to aim the cooling so that the warp goes the way you want.

A warmed piece of hard metal, if cooled by an ice cube, water spray, or CO2 extinguisher,
will shrink on the cold side and the internal strain will cause the other side to take
on a slight bend, concave toward the cold spot. After complete cooling, and maybe
a few light hammer taps, the strains are relieved and the new shape is stable.

It isn't necessary to soften the steel, just get it to circa tempering heat. Many
a frypan has had water applied, made creaking noises, and taken on a warp,
all at canola-oil-not-yet-burning temperatures.

Here's a video showing the procedure
***correction, here's the heat-straightening video*** I goofed the first time...

That was very interesting, thanks. I know next to nothing about heat treating etc. Personally I want machinable jaws as the old original jaws are worn besides warped. So the new jaws not being hardened is by design. They are also thicker.

In talking to my brother who actually worked most of his life as a machinist, said he trued up his machining vises when they got worn from clamping pieces over and over in the same spot. I have no idea how these jaws are bowed just between the attaching screws. I can only guess, but I'd never seen jaws do that so I over looked that problem at first. I've found so many odd problems with this shaper it has proven to be a daily lesson in deductive reasoning and metrology.
 
This simple vise plan cane out of popular mechanics, and was presumably a planer vise.
Might work?

Daryl
MN
View attachment 240377
On my daily patrol of CL Imagine my surprise when I found this exact vise made by Skinner!

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