Emmert 6A Toolmakers Vise Restoration: Making the Missing Swivel Jaws 

i wish i could have met you in person Keith, i live about 15-20 minutes away from WHF, i do enjoy your videos.

I do like that vise. Be handy as pocket in a shirt in any shop

that radial drill is a thing of beauty.

I continue to really appreciate your offerings, Mr Keith. You not only model excellent craftsmanship but also respect for your audience with your wonderful editing and commentary. I like the homage you pay to the technology of 150 years ago and share the evolutionary process over hundreds of generations. Thank you so much...jm

Always thrilled to see my iron machined👍

You amaze me with your ability to easily operate each of your machines as if you do it all day long in a factory setting

I have had a very hard month.. right now my wife is in for her second surgery and I am besides myself.. But sitting here watching you make these little things has brought me (strangely enough) a calm I have had not felt for a while.. I am rather amazed at this and thought I would just share this with you.. and tell you how much I truly appreciate your channel.. Carry on!

The pins and or jaws will also let you clamp something *open*. That same ring can be clamped by spreading the pins on the ID. Or imagine you've got a large piece of thick walled square/rectangle tubing... Such a fun vise.

Love the old machines

Man, that has turned into quite a handy and versatile little vise. Vey nice!

Ginger the Shop cat is indifferent... but I liked the subject and video: it's always great to see a restoration or "return to function" on these old machines and tools!

Keith, nice job as always. One suggestion; why sissy on the drilling? Start with a small bit to remove the center and continue with the final size you need. Looking at your wonderful radial drill; it doesn't complain when you do it like that. Industry style; get the job done right and in time. Another suggestion; add a groove for a springsteel "o-ring", or even a common o-ring, so the parts stay on when you rotate the jaws. Just suggestions, no nagging, like your channel, Best, Job

...and shortly after completion a job crops up needing specialist vice jaws, keith is wihing he had made jaws three sided, sloted one face and left the rest plaiin ready to machine for those special jobs! you just know it is going to happen lol, thanks again for the great content.

That vise is possibly the holy grail of vises. I saw one for sale on Ebay for $3000. Sounds a bit overly salty but it might sell

Thank you for sharing. Very nice Keith. Enjoyed.👍👀

NICE work on those castings! You and Clarke have done some wonderful stuff together.

Thanks for going through the work it takes to post your videos. Always interesting and educational.

GREAT JOB, GREAT VIDEO, PET THE CAT AND DOGS, SEE YOU ALL NEXT TIME..

Great work, as always, Keith!

Hey Keith Rucker! Theoretically you could make 2 more rotating jaws with 3 unique sides of different spaced pins or curves or??? Thanks for all the entertaining vids! Ride ride ride!

Good job Keith! Take care, God bless!🙏🎚🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾

Awesome. Nice project. Fun to do, fun to watch.

That's gonna be very handy little vice Thanks for the video

Keith another fine video. Nice to see an old tool brought back to fully functional use.

those are an awesome addition to the vise.

After making tons of v-grooved jaws in my machining and fab years in my shop I have always made the steel jaws and just used soft materials matching the machined or cutting materials as inserts on the steel jaws I would make. I had a Heavy use of round stock, squares on the ends and angle stock for all my custom jaws and could not have survived without them. Glad to see you making them as well, Keith...

Nice job they turned out great I can see that they will be very useful Thanks Keith

Nicely done, thanks for showing us.

A friend of mine has the same vice and he fab'd several different shaped "shoes/jaws' like yours. He is a bike builder and tubing fabricator so he made his own tooling. Good job Windy Hill and of course Professor Rucker!

Always a pleasure to see the Carlton radial drill put to work!

I was so excited to view you operate the Carlton Radial Arm Drill, I have never be able to view the operation of that Drill. I thank you for your video..... :)

It was good to see you operating the machine not just watching the cutter work ! Thanks

Keith you have some of the great toys, er…..tools to play, er……work with! What a collection you have assembled, I’m sure that almost everyone watching is envious. I like that you are using traditional methods and materials to resurrect , iffn it was good enough for the original build, should be good for the next hundred or so years. I lust for your biggie Wilton Bullet, we had I believe the 4” ones in metal shop in high school, and if teenagers couldn’t break them, a responsible adult would get a few lifetimes of great service.

great Keith

Nice project!

Thanks for the video.

Always enjoy seeing the restoration processes you go through. I was a bit surprised to see so much rust on your machines. Thanks for sharing.

Another great video... Thanks

A small ball detent and a groove in the jaws could be a nice addition to keep the jaws from falling of the bosses when not in use.

Keith, VERY interesting vice! As a model maker, I plan to make a similar set of these jaws out of aluminum to be used on a vice that I ca drill and tap holes for a shoulder bolt with the head ut off and a slot for a flat screw driver to install them (I MAY see about getting a Machine cap screw with shoulder and step drill the vice jaws to fit that way, one or another I can use a set similar but smaller for the same reason and plan to modify a vice I currently have for such a task on a smaller scale ("size" of the jaws) for my own uses!

You might consider making some rings that fit over the round bosses to protect the bosses from getting marred if you want to use the round "jaws."

Great to grip tapered shafts too.

Thanks for sharing!

Good morning from the UK

GREAT SERIES !!

Keith, Great job on those jaws, but I cant stop wondering why you didn't purchase 1.25 x 2.25 grey iron bar from McMaster and saw them up, instead of going through the hassle of casting?

As always Keith, very enjoyable!

You have the pattern made send it back to clark and re cast another set and cut smaller v ways so you can handle large and smaller diameter parts

That radial arm drill is the the design I have ever seen.👍

Great Job I have never seen a vice like that one

Those look great Keith. They look way better than the one you showed in the picture. Great job. 👍

Fine job 👌👌

Keith I am so happy I found your channel, I have enjoyed so many videos and you have such a great way of demonstrating things. ...thanks

Clark at Windy Hill does some very nice casting work! If it wasn't for the brutal shipping fees, I'd ask him to do some work for my projects here in Norway! 👍😎

Yes sir,keep it as original as possible and thank you for makinging and sharing this video with us🤗😎🤗😎

Looks like you're really having fun in the shop Keith; moving some metal, adding serious value kind of therapeutic activity. Ginger sees the door open and slinks into the shot while protecting her turf. Nice video all around.

Greetings from Dresden and Happy Easter!

Large valve-making companies who have their own foundry still use the 'seasoning' method on their cast-iron pieces--most commonly large disks to form the gates out of. When I was a child I used to walk around the yard and be astounded why they would let all these pieces of metal sit outdoors and go rusty. My father must have explained it to me a dozen times but it never sank in for some reason!

That is certainly a versatile vise. It must have been quite expensive when it was new.

Like the vise

Great video Keith ,keep'um coming..

Accessory number two would be a couple of copper or brass sleeves to protect the pins if you are not using the jaws.

I really enjoy watching you machine your own castings. Looking forward to more such projects.

Sometimes on vises, only one jaw is V grooved. Hard to tell, but the photo looks like only only had a groove. Nice work either way.

If the "v's" are a little deep, that just makes room for some custom copper shims for holding more delicate work. A single round "jaw" with a similar groove might be handy for bending round stock or tubing to a specific radius without kinking it ... if you don't have a tubing bender that is stout enough for what you are working on. (For What It's Worth.)

Good morning Keith thanks for another good video I really love learning from your Channel

That drill press has little to none runout.

Great job as usual. Could or will you stamp on One of the sides of each of the jaws what they go to go to, I would, plus I would have a home for them by where the Vice is mounted for easy access and less apt to be misplaced. From the looks of your shop you seem to have everything well organized.

Fine job Keith! Your meticulous work process is very instructive. Do you have a video illustrating drill bit sharpening? Best wishes.

Kieth, found that very interesting, just wonder if this type of vice is still made 👍👴🏻

Wow- .250 in one pass!

Just an FYI, beware of a light first cut on castings, you need to go deep enough (greater than 0.010" sometimes) to cut beyond the casting oxides on the surface. Or you will trash those expensive inserts.

If you surface the backside of the jaws, you can rotate the jaw and maybe protect the pins. Maybe a set of matching soft jaws are next! A O-ring on the inside of the jaws holes could help retain the jaws.

Great Episode Keith!! .. Very interesting the details of casting and stress relief, I've done some lost wax casting in the past.

Keith, with the pattern handy, another set could have replaceable steel or soft jaws too. I am surprised you ground off the gates on the jaw faces, especially since you machined that surface. Have you considered using a shop-vac on the mill(s)/drill press to vacuum up the cast iron cuttings while work is in process? Thanks for the video. Hope to see you at the Bar-Z. Jon

Great video

I imagine those would be a great way to hold a tapered piece as well.

Can also grip a rod that's tapered. And the flat piece that's like a wedge. Didn't mention that

Hiya Keith

V groove: “see what it sounds like.” First half of an old Victor Borge joke that ends: “ or we could hear what it looks like.” I wonder if the manufacturer ever considered some type of groove and retaining pin to keep the jaws from falling off when they are not on top. Thanks for the video.

Now you need to make a set of aluminum soft jaw blocks.

Another set of the jaws in aluminum would be convenient to have also.

I Live in WV and We dont have the rusting problem you guys further south do!!-Its sad to see the rust on machine tools , I have found Linseed oil will protect bare metal !

Photography comment: your SLR (a Canon, was it?) is doing nice work, but in the close up shots the autofocus is being a little aggressive, jumping to your arm when it comes in the corner of the frame, etc. Probably there is a menu setting to make the autofocus respond only to a small area in the center of the frame. That would let you set up focused on a cutter or whatever and it would only track that.

Why cast iron jaws? I’d tater use a medium carbon steel for jaws and harden them to about 56-58. If you want swift jaws, they can be made too. But CI isn’t generally the best material for jaws.

The looking off screen was unsettling.. I haven't notice you ever do that.

Cool 😎

If making jaws out of rectangular blocs of steel I would make them 2 sided with a much smaller V groove on the second side and also make a second mounting hole close to one end to hold short parts.

"Cutting like butter"

When did you mill the edges? I wanted to see that process.

While these small projects have been interesting, and you have been spending time on the Diresta band saw refurbishment, ,( you may still want to contact you tuber Engles coach shop for advice on the type of tires that may be required with the wood fellows on those bandsaw wheels) have been wondering when you might get back to the stoker steam engine project. Now that you have a vertical milling machine, you might be able to finish the re-milling in your shop even if you need to fabricate your own bits for the slide re-milling . Apart from that and the offset re-lathing of the crankshaft, (hopefully will not need more than a couple of thousandths to true it up.) you seem to be ready for rebuilding of the engine.

If my shop was that big, I could sweep the floor.

you could put a magnet across to keep them on vise so you do not have to look for them.

Now you need to make a set with soft jaws.

those could pins also open the door for so many other custom Jaws if needed

I just saw a similar Emmet vice on eBay for $3000

Does Windy Hill cast copper? Some soft jaws of the same shape might be just the thing for holding irregular objects that you don't want to mar.

Are you goiungto paint the new jaws to reduce rusting?

I believe that I would also make a set of brass or aluminum jaws.

Question Keith, did you harden these jaws after milling? The work looked great by the way.