Magnetic V-block auxiliary vise jaw

[bruce.desertrat]

I needed to thread the end of a 5/32" rod, and my vise just wouldn't hold it securely, so I made some V-blocks that attach to my vise with magnets.

I started with a 6" piece of 5/8" key stock, and cut a groove with a hacksaw along the long axis on two sides. I used a short piece of angle iron, and clamped the key stock onto the angle. Then I filed out the grooves with a square file, about 1/16h " deep on one side, and about 1/8" on the other.

Then I drilled some 5/16" holes on the other two sides to fit some rare earth magnets I had on hand, and bedded them with some epoxy.

Finally cut the stock in half to create two jaws. (I forgot to take pictures before doing this)

[Papa Smurf]

Well done, Bruce. Too easily we put off a project "because we don't have the right tool" - usually implying the lack of some sophisticated machine tool. Your simple solution using only hand tools will put many to shame.

[bruce.desertrat]

Well done, Bruce. Too easily we put off a project "because we don't have the right tool" - usually implying the lack of some sophisticated machine tool. Your simple solution using only hand tools will put many to shame.

Thanks! This was more of a 'necessity is the mother of invention' kind of deal. If I were to do these again, though I'd make them with 1/4" magnets, as the 5/16" really didn't work so well, the holes on the adjacent sides broke through, but JB Weld covers a multitude of sins I have to make all sorts of jigs like that first picture because I couldn't hacksaw a straight line if my life depended on it...

[mklotz]

Do the magnets grow whiskers when you saw or grind ferrous materials held in the jaws?

[bruce.desertrat]

Yeah, but they're easy enough to wipe off, so far, and they stay away from the groove and migrate to the magnets not stuck to the vise.

I store 'em in a little ziplock sandwich bag and they live on an electrical conduit that runs above my workbench along with my soft jaw set and my general purpose pickup magnet, which is an old hard drive magnet I have in a thicker ziplock. I leave that in and use it to run over the bench, then hold the bag over the wastebasket, open the ziplock and take the magnet out. All the little filings then fall down into the wastebasket.

That one only took me three or four decades of my life to figure out

The next time I need to use them for something ferrous I might try leaving them in the ziplock and see how that works.

[mklotz]

Rather than the ziploc bags which I previously used on my magnetic pickup tools, I now use kitchen aluminum foil. The plastic bags wore through or tore too often. Aluminum foil is more durable and thin enough to not interfere with the magnetic field strength.