Thickness of Parallels

[Nyala]

I'm a newbie at this having only had my small PM-25MV mill for about 11 months. My father was a professional machinist all of his life and I inherited his tools, including about 20-30 sets of parallels of various sizes, from about 1/2x1/2x1 to 1/8x1x3 to 3/4x3/4x12. I never thought that I would ever use 12" parallels in my small machine but I have found great use for them a couple of times since. My go to set is 3/8x1x4 for use in my 4" vise.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

most of the time I just squirt some way oil on the back of the parallels

ditto, but vaseline instead. more of a glueing action than suction. I sometimes use the 1/2" ones as a single, central parallel with packing material on either side. particularly for through-holes/slots. obviously the part has to be small enough that it is stable on a 1/2" or 1" central block.

 

[KMoffett]

I use 1/2" spring steel packaging strapping. Bent into a "V" and placed between the parallels. ]V[ They can be bent for wider or narrower spacing.

 

[k7cej]

When using the 1/8" and thinner parallels, you can alsohold them in place with a set of little plastic or aluminum angles that have built-in magnets to grab the sides of the vise. I bought a set on Amazon for about $8. (Only works when parallels are same length as the width of the vise.)

 

[matthewsx]

I have thin (1/32"), 1/8" thick and a Starrett 384 set. I use the really thin ones mainly when I need to drill close to the edge of a part. The 1/8" thick ones see the most work and are held in place with a piece of closed cell foam; keeps them in place and keeps chips out of my vise. The Starrett parallels are extremely useful because they are pairs in different sizes; you might want to check them out.

Still contributing....

RIP Mikey