Will this work for parallels?

I find the subject of parallels interesting, for the Rockwell mill with a 4” mill vise, I wanted a set of 1/8” x 4” parallels. Everyone seemed to sell 3”, 6” and larger, but almost no 4”, I did find a set of 4” ultra thin wavy ones, that I bought, I still wanted the 1/8” thick. One of the vendors had a set for about $250, BangGood had a set for $80 (plus the wait) and LMS offered a set for $45, but seemed to be out of stock, continuously (finally came in and have been ordered). I found it interesting, with all of the small mills out there that 4” parallels, were so hard to find.
 
I have a set of parallels that I use on my shaper that are 0-1, that are about 1-1/2 X 2-1/2 X 12 that I have been using for perhaps nearly 50 years now, they have gone through 3 different shapers over the years; they are not so hard of course as the real thing, but even after all those years, they are still in nice condition.
 
If you search eBay for "parallels", then reorder the results by lowest cost first, you may find an option(s) that will meet your requirements.
 
extropic said:
If you search eBay for "parallels", then reorder the results by lowest cost first, you may find an option(s) that will meet your requirements.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I followed your suggestion but didn't find anything that I hadn't already seen and rejected before.

However, I now have another wrinkle in what should have been a simple thing.

I went out in the garage to take some measurements and noticed the vise has this weird groove in the base right against the fixed jaw. No idea why it's like that but it's more than 1/16" wide so going ultra thin is completely out. And it's really close to 1/8" so even a parallel that size will probably have trouble staying up on the main vise surface. I measured my current parallels (which work) and discovered that they aren't even 1/8" like I thought, but 5/32". So I'd have to get 5/32" O1 bar and hope that it has good specs.

Maybe at this point I'll go back to the idea I had initially and which @mmcmdl suggested and find something to put under my current 7/8" parallels.

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We improvise and get by in the shop all the time . ;)
 
It seems I don't understand your particular requirements for parallels. Good luck.

The " weird groove in the base right against the fixed jaw " is called a corner relief. It's purpose is to allow grinding both perpendicular surfaces without the wheel edge (corner) being jammed into a corner. Very common feature.
 
extropic said:
It seems I don't understand your particular requirements for parallels. Good luck.

The " weird groove in the base right against the fixed jaw " is called a corner relief. It's purpose is to allow grinding both perpendicular surfaces without the wheel edge (corner) being jammed into a corner. Very common feature.
Click to expand...

Ahh, ok, thanks! In my vast experiences with vises (only had one before now) I'd never seen it.

As far as my requirements, I just need a pair about 1" tall x 5/32" thick. I don't want to spend $50-$60 to get a 6" set for a 3" vise and have half be duplicates of what I already have and the other half be too tall for the jaw depth, just so I can get 1 pair that fits my needs.
 
My milling machine vises do not have that groove, but my drill press vises do....
 
mmcmdl said:
We improvise and get by in the shop all the time
Click to expand...


As to needing 4 hands to get a setup going-

One drop of oil on each side of the flat of the parallel will make it 'stick' to the vise jaws.
Some fellas use springs (compression) to hold the parallels tight to the jaws as you change out your parts.
Either approach will reduce by at least one, the amount of hands required to get set up.
 
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