# Mitee Bites Soft Jaws and Talon Grips



## shooter123456 (Jul 18, 2018)

I made some new jaws and Talon grips for my mill vise.  I really liked how they securely hold aluminum with only .06", as well as use built in parallels.  I did not want to pay the $200 or so to get a set of jaws, plus $30 for each pair of talon grips, and they are simple enough, so I decided to make them.

The jaws started out as cut offs from a 1.125" thick plate I got from the scrap yard that had dovetails machined in it along the perimeter.  I cut the stock off, squared it up, then machined away the extra end where the dovetail was.  I didn't take many pictures making the jaws because they are simple and straight forward.  Precision isn't critical with the jaws since the tops are machined once mounted in the vise, then the slots that hold the clamps are machined making sure it is square.  I drilled and countersunk the holes for the screws to go through.

Stock cut off. 






Squared it up.





Then here they are mounted up before machining the slots.





The talon clamps are a bit more complicated.  They started life as a piece of mystery scrap steel from the recycling center.  The cost for this little chunk was about 37 cents.  I squared it up and started cutting it down to size.  This part I cut to .25"x.75"x5". 

Here is the chunk of mystery steel before I started.





Squared and cut to size.  It machines well, but not nearly as easy as 12L14, so I know it isn't that.  It didn't warp when I cut it, so I assume hot roll.





Then I used the band saw to cut it into pieces.  I got 7 parts from the 5" bar I started with.





I squared off one of the sides of each one.  At this point they are all different lengths, but are .75"x.25"x at least .6".





I planned to stick them in the vise like so to cut them all to the same length, but that didn't quite work out.  Even though they were the same thickness within .002", I could only clamp 3 at a time securely.  2 of them would always come lose.  Unfortunately, I figured this out when one of them was pulled out while I was cutting, and I lost that one.  Down to 6.  





With 6 of them the correct size, it was time to drill the holes for the screws.  Notice some of those nasty burrs.  I should have removed them before continuing.  That bit me in the butt and I lost another one.





I don't have any pictures of them being drilled, but it was a quick program where each one was drilled through with a .201 drill, then counter sunk with a 90 degree spot drill.  You will notice the bottom right one was drilled off center.  I was using the edge of the vise jaw to reference the X, and a burr caught the edge of jaw making me think it was in place when it was not.  That one was scrapped since it was too far off center for the screw to hold it down.  And then there were 5





To cut the tooth for the talon grip, I made a simple fixture.  I used a leveling app on my phone to hold a piece of aluminum at 45 degrees, then cut a slot that was .5" wide.  Then I drilled a 5/32 hole in the middle, tapped 10x32, and put a part in.  Then I layed the fixture flat and the part was held up at 45 degrees.  This made it really easy to cut the tooth since all I needed to do was reference the machine, have it run the cut, unscrew, rotate, run the cut, unscrew next part, run the cut, etc.  It only took about 10 minutes to do this operation.















I used an end mill with a corner radius to cut the radius in the grip.  I was pleasantly surprised after the first cut that it looked exactly how I thought it would.  I expected to lose at least 1 more trying to reference it correctly. 





Last, the holes in the jaws were drilled, the slots machined, and the holes tapped.  Here is the finished part.  You stick a piece of aluminum on the jaws and when you tighten them, the talon grips grab into the aluminum and the radius forces it downward.  The screws just hold the grips in place, the tight fit between the jaws and the grips is what provides the gripping force. They only stick up about .06 (grips are .25" tall, slot is .19" deep) which gives me access to almost the entire part.  Since they work by digging into the aluminum, they are meant for first operations, then for the part to be flipped and held with something else to remove the hat.





Here is a somewhat blury side view of the jaws.  You can see how talon grips will grab into the aluminum that will be sitting on the parallel.  





I haven't had the chance to test them yet, but I am hopeful that they will work.  With the use my machine sees (and by that I mean light use), I anticipate the aluminum jaws lasting a long time, so steel wasn't necessary.  Of course if they do end up wearing out or breaking somehow, all I am out is about $3 of aluminum.


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## T Bredehoft (Jul 18, 2018)

Hobbies give us time to develop products, (tooling) that production has to charge for, and often doesn't come up with really great ideas. Your Talon Clamps are of that sort. I could have used them when gainfully employed but didn't have time to develop/make them. 
Having seen yours, now I'm going to have to make some. Soft jaws and all. Yes, Aluminum will be fine, My 4" vise will lhold lalnything I'm working on. 

Thanks for the heads up.


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## shooter123456 (Jul 18, 2018)

T Bredehoft said:


> Hobbies give us time to develop products, (tooling) that production has to charge for, and often doesn't come up with really great ideas. Your Talon Clamps are of that sort. I could have used them when gainfully employed but didn't have time to develop/make them.
> Having seen yours, now I'm going to have to make some. Soft jaws and all. Yes, Aluminum will be fine, My 4" vise will lhold lalnything I'm working on.
> 
> Thanks for the heads up.


If I understand correctly, I agree that with a hobby, we can try things and make things that work for us, that if we needed to factor in our time, would not be worthwhile.  

I however did not mean to imply that this is an original idea or that I came up with it.  They are a commercially made and distributed product, developed by professionals.  I couldn't justify the cost for hobby work, though for industrial work, the cost is probably easier to swallow.  

Though thinking about it, I think I spent 6 hours making the jaws and grips from start to finish, and with the roughly $260 saved over purchasing them, I "earned" (a penny saved is a penny earned right?) almost $45 an hour.  That's pretty good in my book.


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## Brento (Jul 18, 2018)

Ill haven to make a set of these as well. What was the radius you used on the tool?


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## shooter123456 (Jul 18, 2018)

Brento said:


> Ill haven to make a set of these as well. What was the radius you used on the tool?


The real ones have a .03" radius, but I had a .02" tool, so thats what I used.  Mitee Bites has downloadable CAD files on their website if you want to see the right dimensions.


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## Brento (Jul 18, 2018)

Ok thanks!


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