Vise Accessories

Here is a good idea to help with filing items like knives. Normally, your vice jaws are oriented vertically. But if you get a drill press vise and clamp that in your vise, you now have a set of jaws oriented horizontally. See Fig. 1.

* Fig. 1:

I was at a flea market and found an old drill press vice and since one of the replaceable jaws was missing, I got it for just a couple of dollars. You want to get one that has the replaceable jaws. The vise jaws that come with the vice are heavily serrated and will mar you work. I made replacement jaws out of aluminum and they safely hold my work. I bolted the vise to a steel plate and my regular machinists vise clamps onto that plate. See Fig 2.

• Fig. 2:
  

When I took a course with Peter Ross at the New England School of Metalwork in the summer of 2008, we had to do a lot of hand filing on the calipers we were making. Peter suggest making an "out-rigger" to support the far end of what you are filing. See Fig. 3. Having the far end of the item you are filing supported really makes the filing go much better. I have two support blocks so that I can use the "out-rigger" with both the vise by itself or with the drill press vice clamped into the regular vise. It is easy to make various height wood blocks as I need them. The 3" x 3" is bolted to the work bench next to the vise. All the parts of the "out-rigger" swivel, so that I can adjust the support to the optimum location for the particular item I am filing.

* Fig. 3:

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 09 Jun 2009