OK, so yesterday I got down to business & fabricated a set of aluminum jaw pads for one of my vises. I started out with 1.25x.75 bar stock & will insert a couple of neodymium super-strong magnets to hold the pads to the jaws.
I cut & milled a single piece of stock then cut it in half to form the two pads.
I didn't take any photos early in the process but here they are milled, cut, marked & bored for the magnets, which I'm going to epoxy in place. I made the hole depth .020 deeper than the magnet thickness to allow for the epoxy.
Test fit.
Done with last hole, after I cleaned up the chips.
Cleaned up & ready for epoxy.
This is obviously a very simple project but is the first metalworking I've ever done from raw material through finished product. I'm pretty excited about it, as you can probably tell.
I cut & milled a single piece of stock then cut it in half to form the two pads.
I didn't take any photos early in the process but here they are milled, cut, marked & bored for the magnets, which I'm going to epoxy in place. I made the hole depth .020 deeper than the magnet thickness to allow for the epoxy.
Test fit.
Done with last hole, after I cleaned up the chips.
Cleaned up & ready for epoxy.
This is obviously a very simple project but is the first metalworking I've ever done from raw material through finished product. I'm pretty excited about it, as you can probably tell.
