Let's Make Soft Jaws

This episode on Blondihacks.com, I'm making some snazzy new soft jaws for my vise! Exclusive videos, drawings, models & plans available on Patreon!
/ quinndunki
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[@DavesRocketShop]

Chinook, Timbits, Toque?!? That's the funniest line I've heard in a while! I'm also happy you show "when things go wrong" More people need to be willing to mess things up before they get good results.

[@Blondihacks]

Turns out that shirt is the Canadian Table Of Elements.

[@DavesRocketShop]

@@Blondihacks Turns out Timbits have a large number of known isotopes

[@nickandersonco]

@@DavesRocketShop I rushed down to the comments to say the same thing, but you beat me to it!

[@Blondihacks]

@@DavesRocketShop 🤣😂 That explains why they're so reactive with my mouth

[@stanervin6108]

@@Blondihacks Thinking outside the box: You could've carefully cold formed the cu, annealing during the process to avoid work hardened brittleness. The other option would be to print the jaws in plastic 1% undersized to use as a pattern for a greensand casting, minimizing the later machining loss. See Tubelcain (Lyle) and Roy of Christ Centered Iron for specifics about methods.

[@ThisOldTony]

Me and copper no longer talk. Enjoyed the video but sorry for your troubles. You probably get this alot but: nice jaws!

[@Blondihacks]

😬

[@poppabear3664]

Sorry to interject on Quinns channel but are you ok ToT, haven’t seen much content from you lately and you didn’t sound too well in your last few vid’s. Love the channel Quinn, shame about the hassle you had with the copper jaws but great result in the end.

[@gilb6982]

This Old Tony Liar ! you where looking at the periodic table ! Lol !

[@mpetersen6]

One old time coolant for copper is milk. Whether its buttermilk, whole, 2%, skim or chocolate is up in the air.

[@SodiumInteresting]

@@poppabear3664 tot will be back

[@stevemurray6400]

Thanks for another great vid. Sorry about your mill. I work in a commercial custom cabinet shop. We have a saying: It's not a mistake until you can't hide it. Cheers

[@StraightThread]

That's a great saying. I'll have to remember it. : D

[@DudleyToolwright]

Just remember, your mistakes are a chance for all of us to learn something, barring those that already know everything. Very nicely done.

[@ninthm00n]

I hereby decree that the antidote to a rainy crappy Saturday is a new episode of Blondihacks. All in favor say aye.

[@prodoverjeff2876]

Hey, Joey, I put in 8 hrs OT at my job and still enjoy Blondihacks after I got home.

[@moehoward01]

Aye!

[@moehoward01]

Except it's Sunday. And sunny.

[@somedude7633]

Eye

[@ddesilva61]

If you have a lathe in your garage...yes lol

[@anthonyb4321]

I don’t comment ever… I watch a lot of your videos bc I am new to home machining. Not machining but home machining. And that joke about you taking off your shirt made my day. Keep the jokes up, it makes your content so much better than many machining Channels, most of which are very dry

[@gregorycarroll8734]

I think showing your mistakes and explaining your thought processes provide the best instruction for us home gamers. Thank you.

[@bigdodgeaus]

I love someone who not only admits their mistakes but shows you how they were made. Thanks Quinn

[@hmw-ms3tx]

Hello Quinn. I've had days in my shop that went so bad I gave up machining for the day and came back the next day. I've learned over the years (especially when doing a large part and you're maybe 30 or 40 hours in) it is not worth scrapping the part when the day goes south. Those awful days make the perfect (and very rare) days that much sweeter. Keep up the good work. Ken

[@Mirandorl]

Thank you so much for putting your mistakes in. Watching machining videos with all the warts removed plus carefree "I decided to do this genius thing because I'm a genius and I totally skyped with AvE once" voiceover creates the same kind of anxiety in machinists (ok I mean me) as teenagers get from seeing images on influencer instagram pages with their photoshopped abs, botoxed bits, massivo biceps and perfect everything-jobs.

[@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

Having recently struggled to turn a taper on a rod of copper, with the copper grabbing at every opportunity, I am definitely steering clear of any thoughts of milling it. Copper might look beautiful, but has evil in its heart! Thank you for such an informative video.

[@mikenixon4637]

Loved the transparency and stick-to-it-iveness on this one!

[@MrStrangegoo]

They are beautiful soft jaws. If I may make a suggestion. When I was working when we needed soft jaws we used a 0.25" thick X 1.5" wide bar and just folded two pieces to fit. It saved a lot of copper.

[@EngineersWorkshop]

Another good loctite product for your magnets would be 574 flange gasket sealant. It's Orange, and squeezes down next to nothing, but the residual sealant around the edges of the magnet hardens almost into a plastic like epoxy. Without heat, the only way to get your magnets out would be to destroy them

[@Blondihacks]

Cool- I haven’t tried 574. I’ll give it a go!

[@StraightThread]

I ogled the copper bars for jaws quite some time ago when Tom Lipton showed them on his vises, but never got around to ordering a bar. I thought, sooner or later on one of my daily walks through the neighborhood, I'll find a piece of copper bar in the street inadvertently dropped off the electrical utility repair truck. I have found several drywall screws, a couple of 10-24 nylock nuts, a quarter, a dime, three nickels and several copper pennies, but no copper bars. In the meantime, I took a piece of 3/4" copper water pipe, split it open and first hammered it flat, then into an "L" shaped around said vise jaws. Yeah, it falls off to the floor about half the time, but so far it suffices for a make-do no more often than I need it. Just a thought that occurred to me, one might use 1/4" x 3/8" copper bar to form the pocket for the jaw and then solder the 1/4" surface to the 1" (or thinner) copper bar forming the perfect pocket. Copper mills like a demon from hell, but it does solder nicely. Much less waste, too. Another observation: You had to take your shirt off to examine the Periodic Elements Table chart. I know it can be nippy up there in Canada, so wouldn't it be more practical to have the PE Table printed upside down on the shirt so you could just look down an read it without removing your shirt? Come to think of it, why not have a decimal equivalents chart or a Metric to Imperial chart printed upside down on a tee-shirt? :D

[@nbolin7803]

Awesome job in the end. Glad your mill is back up and working. Another great and informative video! I’m secretly hoping for an AvE style tear down and rebuild video for how you got it running again...

[@Blondihacks]

Next week! 😁

[@rogerpetrella5993]

Here's how I made copper soft jaws for my vise. I took a piece of 3/32" copper sheet a bit wider than the vise jaws and about 3" long and tightened the jaws on it. Then I took a hammer and pounded the extra back over the top of the vise. I repeated this for the opposite side. I've had these for over 20 years and they still work fine. Definitely not as pretty as yours but certainly less costly and without the excitement you had building yours. Keep up with the great videos!

[@markrainford1219]

Did similar last week, but used 22mm pipe offcuts. Slit them down one side, opened them up and did what you did. Didn't actually cost me a penny.

[@GunFunZS]

I made mine out of aluminum angle iron. Basically same method though they're conformed around the top.

[@Dancer148]

@@GunFunZS what's better, Alu or Cu?

[@GunFunZS]

@@Dancer148 copper feels more premium. I used aluminum because it was cheap quick and easy. It does the job. I had a piece of 1.5 in by 1.5 in aluminum angle and clipped it off the same length as the width of the jaws. Clamp the jaws closed and then use a hammer and a piece of steel to form the rest of it around the shape of the jaw. Now you have a form fitting soft jaw.

[@Dancer148]

@@GunFunZS thanks, sounds good, I will try your method.

[@ddistrbd1]

Subscribed, that was great advice near the end," think twice using Copper for soft jaws" , I work with copper often (mostly copper sheets) but when it's in shape of rods, I only drill or braze , totally hate machining copper, your video showed all the challenges one will face machining this material, thank you for showing all the good with the bad.

[@staxter6]

Sweet, TOT sent me to you. So glad he did...tappy tap tap? Subbed.

[@KarlBunker]

I never laughed so hard at the periodic table before.

[@bhoiiii]

I’ve made some truly inappropriate comments about TOT’s hands, but hate you have to put up folks making comments about you. Love the channel.

[@Blondihacks]

You should see the stuff I delete. The angry men of the internet are cruel.

[@dantanner785]

Blondihacks some channels are set up so the owner has to approve comments first. Maybe consider going that route?

[@MikeMcDonoughUS]

When it rains it pours! Glad to see you pushed through the challenges and finished the project.

[@leec2106]

Thank you Quinn, I really enjoy your videos. For my soft jaws on my bench vise I got aluminum angle 2 by 1 inch. I cut it off 2 inches longer than the top of the vise jaws, hack sawed off the 1 inch, 1 inch from each end. I then bent the 2 inch side back closing off the ends. I drilled several small holes so the epoxy would actually stick to the aluminum and stay attached. I used epoxy to glue my magnets to top 1inch rail. I filled it all from end to end at the height of the magnets. That was a lot cheaper than your copper was. $60 in chips is a lot to waste. I have just drew up my own low profile table clamps for my 3018 CNC router. The 3018 is about the size of your vise on your mill, 300 by 180 by 45 mm. I think I will get them made up this weekend. Time will tell on them. Keep up the great work and I will keep watching. Lee

[@BillySugger1965]

Oh my, I could really feel for you through all those mishaps. Thank goodness you’re resilient. And you have a lovely pair of copper soft-jaws to show for all the pain.

[@larshansen7862]

So brave. Could never stop loving you.

[@drmodestoesq]

There's a line in the James Caan film Thief. They're looking at the blueprints of an expensive safe they hope to open. I seem to remember a character saying, "And there's a layer of copper to bind the drills."

[@MrRShoaf]

The copper layer in a laminated safe is not there to "bind the drill", that is the job of the hard plate layer. The copper layer is to coduct the heat away to make a torch attack more difficult. It is also handy to conduct the heat to melt the lead to spray the safe cracker with molten lead.

[@thomashverring9484]

I bought some cheap aluminum soft jaws with rubber on the grabbing side and magnets to hold then in place. I use the magnets to store them on a metal drawer close by my vise. They are brilliant! I use them all the time.

[@601stROMAD]

Easy to get copper rivets with flat top and beveled should that fits the magnets hole very well. Then you use loctite 390 and it will take from 20k to 50k of lateral pressure to make it fail. Little hard to apply when it is not a lateral join, so it probably won't fail until worn down! And when you refinish the front face, you refinishing the end of the copper rivet too! Just look up "Solid Rivets with Washer for Soft Material " on McMaster-Carr. LOVE yer sho!

[@000gjb]

One great source of materials such as copper is the scrap merchants. You just have to be lucky. One of my visits, they had an electrical switchboard which they were scrapping. I managed to grad 75 mm x 8 mm lengths for scrap value.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

C111 Sulphur copper is a nice, free-machining, short-chipping alloy which is merely *ludicrously*, rather than ruinously, expensive. It cuts almost as well as Tellurium copper. I've machined 55kg of that in the last year or two and only broken one M3 threadforming tap and one 2.75mm drill in over 500 holes. I only messed up the milling one of the 70-odd parts, but I used the remains to make some copper softjaws for my 4 inch vice. Win!

[@AJR2208]

Nice job there Quinn! Thanks for sharing your lessons - we are not here long enough to make all of the mistakes on our own, so it helps to learn and share with others. I like that you explain the "Why's" along with the "How's", it makes for really good videos......

[@PorchPotatoMike]

That copper really is a very pretty metal.

[@JEFF-ft6qm]

Hello Quinn. I only became aware of your channel a couple of weeks ago and I've been binge watching - particularly the lathe series. What a pleasure. I am very much an amateur in the machine shop. I was very fortunate that when an "old feller" at the end of my road moved out just over 20 years ago he offered me his lathe, bench press and misc tooling for a price that I could not refuse. I guess that the retirement home he was moving to had a no lathes policy alongside the more usual pet restrictions. Anyway, read a couple of books and became quite good at taking chunks of scrap and making them into smaller pieces of scrap. Even managed a couple of steam engines / hot air engines over the years. Just a thought about holding the magnets in place when loctiting. Magnets or even a piece of steel on the face of the jaws so the magnets would pull themselves into the holes. Anyway, as I said, really enjoying your videos. Jeff (England-land)

[@scottwillis5434]

If a retirement home has a no lathes policy, I'm not going...

[@ChristopherTate]

The end of that very first portaband cut, with the bar still attached but hanging down from a gummy last little bit? 100% FORESHADOWING.

[@Blondihacks]

SO FORESHADOWING. 😁

[@leerogers6423]

Good to see the need for a light touch with the mini-mill demonstrated. Plenty of guys on Tube showing us how the Bridgeport can chew metal but that's not the real world for the majority of us. All your tips on the small lathe and mill apply equally to my ancient British machines , I learn something every time . I do hope that you didn't throw that swarf away ( the proper name for chips). got to be handy for something.

[@waterfallforge8320]

The trick with copper is, if it gives you trouble, just hammer on it till it succumbs. I do it daily. Great vid!

[@howesinc]

Wow, that was indeed a journey. Thanks for sharing!

[@tango-bravo]

Wonderful job, thanks for sharing. Glad you stuck with it! Planning to make a set of brass jaws for a small jewelers vice I have laying around. 👍

[@TheArsonsmith4242]

i recently learned the joys of machining copper. felt like trying to cut chewed bubble gum by stepping on it on the sidewalk. I ended up saving my chips, figured at some point I'm going to make a forge that I might be able to melt them down and cast them into something fun.

[@kensherwin4544]

Mix them with resin, cast them into some shape, and turn them on a wood lathe.

[@christophelabedan5696]

Excellent job and so refreshing having somebody describing mistakes... genuine stuff and still very professional 👍

[@makerspace533]

Next time you machine copper, try using buttermilk as a lubricant. When you glue the magnets in place, set the jaw on a steel surface. The magnet will pull itself into place.

[@AlanShortySwanson]

"Hello, Internet." HI QUINN!

[@clydedecker765]

Real KILLER video ... Do NOT allow this video to be shown in ANY machinists shop... No telling what liability will come of it. Sorry for your troubles but loved the video. Won't ask you to rinse and repeat.

[@leeackerson2579]

Copper, the devil metal, darn near sank my startup company. I was making 3/4" thick buss bars of copper and had to drill and tap them through the full thickness. I pulled my hair out for about a week ruining buss bars and breaking taps until an old timer told me to use thread forming rather than thread cutting the 8-32 hole. Holy cow, I could us a Tapping head on the mill and thread the holes with the thread former tool faster than I could drill the hole, and the thread forming tap never wore out either. Glad you were able to salvage the jaws, nice job.

[@scottwillis5434]

Given the expense of copper, some ideas: 1. Bend from thinner sheet 2. Epoxy or flathead-screw sheet to an underlying aluminum piece 3. Fabricate by (as others suggested) soldering or brazing 4. Possibly: electroplate copper onto an aluminum (or steel?) underlying piece. Not sure what to expect for adhesion, however some prep such as sanding or sandblasting first should give a mechanical bond. I see there are videos on doing this plating.

[@03redrubi]

Nice project! I would've rolled with brass. Less bling bling = No Drama. Great Job!!!

[@danmatson8685]

When I saw the problem you were having with the hard screw to hold in the magnets, I thought of a box of small factory made copper nuts & bolts that I have on a shelf, along with a slightly larger box of plastic/nylon ones. Both could work I thought, but if I didn't have any could I use a die on a piece of copper wire or brass welding rod, form a head? When she said Locktite 603 .... Brilliant

[@qcnck2776]

Tough challenge but beautiful result! Looking forward to the video on the mill saga.

[@bostedtap8399]

Great development in techniques and project, your baptism in Copper is of a high order 🙏. Copper is reactive with many materials, drilling or milling with uncoated tools is a pain, it also has a crazy coefficient of thermal expansion, gripping it in a vice and getting it warm creates very large loads. I know that using a toolmakers or grinding vice on a surface grinder with a copper block caused the vice to crack across the base 😰😰. Excellent vlog, many thanks for sharing.

[@JohnFleshman]

I made a set of soft jaws for my 6 inch vice out of old nylon cutting board. Magnets in the set to keep em in place. Ive had them three years now and never had an issue with them.

[@ragnarhairybreeks]

Hi, Appreciate and enjoy your vids, thanks. I’ve always wondered why the love for copper soft jaws. They look great , and are a bit harder than aluminum, but the cost... I make and use aluminum soft jaws in the tormach, custom cut to hold parts. They are disposable and inexpensive. I also use aluminum soft jaws in the shop vises, and I don’t have to be too worried about messing them up. The aluminum holds fine, both in the slip on form, and the complete jaw replacement type. But I know that’s a different set of needs than a home workshop. And I guess, to be honest, if a bit of suitable copper fell on my lap, I’d say ouch! Then make some soft jaws. :-) Cheers Alistair

[@billbrennan8405]

Hi Quinn I am the king of making mistakes on the best of planned projects but learning from them and avoid making them again is the learning process. Always love your videos with their fast action with explanation over the process. Thank You BB

[@brianwarburton4482]

Thanks for including your mistakes, I like your honesty. Also, it is a good way of teaching. Why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from someone else's?

[@clintchapman4319]

Eh well.. Some days in the shop are diamonds, and some of them are plain old rocks. You got it done and that's what matters.

[@GregorShapiro]

Thanks for taking off your shirt! I suspect the absence of Tellurium angered the Tellur Gods so they put a curse on your machine.

[@toms4123]

Thank you Quinn, you are a great instructor

[@marko99butter]

I’ve got permanent copper jaws (ala Tom Lipton) on mine. Love them.

[@richardgregory6653]

Hey Quinn, Gathering all these uhoh's is part of getting experience. As I tell my kids and grandkids when they think I know everything "how do you get 20 yrs of experience? Work 20 yrs and make a lot of uhohs"

[@EmmaRitson]

enjoyed. glad its not just me that does projects this way.

[@Just1GuyMetalworks]

Well, they still look pretty bad ass 😁! Thanks for the share, Quinn😊

[@flyingby3703]

So I don’t know if you will read this, or if it will ever be of any use to you, but if you ever need 3d-printed soft jaws again you should print them so that the printing layers will be compressed by the vise when tightened. That will be a lot stronger. And you might want to give PETG a try, it’s a bit tougher than pla.

[@hefy2jefy]

Amazing that you were able to include every single thing that could go wrong into one video, quite an achievement and very entertaining!

[@mikenixon4637]

Haven't had that much trouble with copper. Have made a few small things such as electric motor brush holders. But brass... it's well known it can pull the tool into itself, including the cross slide.

[@bradthayer6782]

I work with brass and copper a lot and feel your pain. Great job pressing on to the finish. And I’m glad you keep your shirt on, mostly.

[@craigtate5930]

Love the work you did here. I know the feeling of having your mill down for too long. I recently did some repairs to my ancient Cochrane bly and had to wait forever to get a missing part. I think I enjoy running the mill the most out of the machine tools, not sure why

[@can5projects563]

really another awesome video. love it

[@waydegutman7339]

Phooie ! Thought you were going to make soft jaws for your milling vise ! In one of the shops I worked in, we made specialized soft jaws out of tooling plate for our CNC set up. The soft jaws over hung the milling vise 1” each size, making the 6” milling vise into a 8” one.

[@TokenRing1024]

Love your sense of humor !

[@alexvonbosse5090]

Valuable information regarding machining copper! I knew copper is expensive, but didn't know how expensive it really is! I better start saving my pennies (dollars) so I have the funds for an upcoming project. Thanks for sharing!

[@drapakdave]

Brilliant video, Quinn! I feel I have learned a lot from your misadventures. I am looking forward to seeing your electronics recovery video: I sense that my motor controller board is on its way out on my mill.

[@madsoncampos]

I love your videos!!! please bring more projects!!

[@ALWResearchTeam]

Nice video and fantastic workmanship

[@Hunter_S-fr4ns]

Great work.. really enjoyed watching as usual 👍🇬🇧

[@robertperly3783]

Hi Quinn, just discovered your channel- your videos are great and I’m learning a lot. Your quite the awesome chic ! Thanks

[@britishreaction54]

Well persevered.

[@ElizabethGreene]

As an amateur chemist, I saw your periodic table, checked to see if I was dreaming, and then checked to see if I had a stroke. Both tests came back negative and now I have questions.

[@joshwelch8288]

I was just thinking "what if you recess the magnet with loctite" when you said the SAME THING!! AMAZING! :) and despite your troubles the jaws came out lovely!

[@silentflyer5498]

Had it been me I would never had dared use them jaws, but hiding in the corner holding them muttering "My Precious" :D Great work and I love they way you don't hide any mistakes but let us all learn from them!

[@Blondihacks]

I do feel sorta bad using them now, like I don't wanna even get them dirty. 😂

[@chuckscustomammunition2393]

Most informational when mistakes are made and others get to see, thanks

[@richardmeyer418]

Thank you. That was very um... enlightening (as well as being pretty entertaining).

[@WorksbySolo]

Wow, I've never machined copper so, thanks for the heads up. I'll consider myself warned, if I ever venture in that territory.

[@-Mr.Fusion-]

Second I saw those magnets at the beginning I thought, I bet they break. I had the exact same issue when doing a wood work project with the very same magnets 😂

[@Dwg67]

Even with all the issues they still came out pretty nice . I like them.

[@bigrockets]

very nice! think I'll use aluminum. good idea on the magnets too btw!

[@bobfinning8587]

The two flute mill you refer to, in my time in the workshop in the uk we refer to them as “slot drills”.

[@johnludlam334]

just found your channel and love it keep up the great work

[@dragade101]

MADNESSSS! But damn that was an adventure.

[@Cancun771]

19:44 I can see the future! I'm seeing... a Patreon drive... for a surface grinder!

[@hjvisagie]

Really love your videos.

[@Rancourt762]

Awesome project as I am doing something similar, I know I learned a lot just from watching this. We will see how it goes for me.

[@billbaggins]

I've already seen TOT's vid so I know you only took your shirt of to make it easier for him to dive into your parts😏 I've got a heap of copper busbars from an industrial switchboard... If I ever need some soft jaws I think I'll just solder them together rather than emulate all the fun you had.

[@firstmkb]

A long, strange trip, ending in beautiful copper! I am taking the easy way out, and replacing the stock jaw surfaces with half inch copper bars. It won't look sweet, but should work until I can get my skills and shop up to par.

[@woodscreekworkshop9939]

We all have those projects, I’ve thrown stuff on the floor before, not gonna lie.

[@demandred1957]

I work for a switchgear rebuilding shop. I machine copper from 1/16 (.0625) to 3" (3.000) thick all day every day. Use carbide mills, and decent HSS drills AND COOLANT!! and you wont have a bit of trouble with it.

[@CH-py8zv]

Good video, enjoyed very much. 😀

[@Steve_1401]

I read somewhere that old machinists used to use butter milk as a cutting lubricant on copper - I always wondered what the shop smelt like after a couple of long, hot summer weeks. :)

[@JohnBare747]

I can sympathize as my mill ate a control board too a couple of weeks ago, not fun, not cheap.

[@sbirdranch]

Hay Blondie. I am continuing to expand my knowledge to, mostly with CNC. I had a couple of thought as I followed along with your challenges. Good on you for looking to glue for the magnet. I am learning the value of clearing chips as I mill. I'd encourage you to put a small ait nozzle with a regulator on your machine. It realy helps with things like aluminum. Based on your experience, instead of copper....im gonna try it with a hard Nylon. Thanks for sharing. ~P

[@paulp96275]

When you walk in the cow fields without shoes it sometimes comes up between your toes ,thanks for a great 👍 learning curve even if it cost you loads of pain as well as pocket drain ,remelt the chips into whatever stay safe 👨🏻‍🏭🇬🇧

[@smacknives754]

Years ago, (before I discovered ebay) I purchased a couple of horrendously expensive top quality small end mills, and then proceeded to break them milling a copper guard for a knife, I still wake up screaming from time to time;). A little tip for peening, if I have to peen something in an odd spot, I use a pin punch, that I rounded over the end, and tappy tap tap it , but yeah, those neobodiddlyum magnets don't like it rough.