Hardtail Vise Build Ep.10: Milling the Bolt-On Jaw Face 

Always like looking at that photo of you, your Dad and Grandad.

This series so far has been your best so far. I hope you get another rough part to show all the ways you can machine something. I'm not a machinist but i enjoy watching your videos. Could always learn something or maybe a different way to approach things.

When you announced that you were going to go ahead and machine that cast face I spoke out loud to the Monitor "Yes, Thank You!" Then felt a little foolish but that was the right thing to do aesthetically for the vice but me trying to talk to Adam directly on the screen is a bit of a Senior Moment. It's my 82 birthday Friday and my sister is taking me to a birthday lunch that I wouldn't want to miss as you never quite know if you are going to have another one next year so I am leaving Stick-Notes everywhere to remind me and Stick-Notes to remember to look at the other Stick-Notes. Even way back when I was more spry in the memory department I noted down the dimensions with a Sharpie near the machine if not on it because the stronger I felt that I was remembering the correct number it seemed the greater the chance was I was wrong. Just the other day I needed to tap a 1/4-20 hole 🕳 and wondered why my tap fell trough the hole I just drilled, I used the "F" clearance drill instead of the #7 tap drill. Now that's a BOZO move if I ever heard of one. I needed the clearance drill alright but in the other half of the part. BOZO showed no mercy!

I am not a machinist. Never been one and never will be one. I don't even know one. But I really appreciate watching expert craftsmen in any field do their thing. So when I found this channel I binged it a bit. Now I try to keep up. Adam is great and for a guy like me, his explanations of what he does and why are informative and entertaining at the same time. I also like seeing some of that old American iron still doing what it was made to do.

Drill the mounting holes to print on this jaw, and don't worry about it dude. Other option is to drill the holes to print, then deck 0.030" off the bottom surface of this jaw and both surfaces of the static jaw too and make custom jaw inserts to match that. it would mean that the jaw insert mounting holes would be 0.030" offset from their print, but would make them a universal fit for either side... Or just leave it and use the vice with some grace as you do with your other tools and just don't worry about it and keep stock parts compatibility. I would love to see it done exactly right, but it's just not worth it in this case. Sometimes you just gotta know when enough is enough.

Nice that you are doing this job in the old shop it's much more realistic

I do mistakes like that all the time. I would fix by milling bottom of both jaws in the same process the exact amount. Right on Adam appreciate you.

Thank god im not the only one that mixs up numbers like that. I let out a sigh of relief when i saw that

I was just thinking ‘How often do those chips stick to the flutes of that 2” end mill’, and BAM! It went to slow motion. :D

We all know that you can correct that little error you made, if it needs it. Not a biggie. Great video 😊

Really love the old shop action. I can practically smell the cutting oil in the air.

I love the old shop man, it looks so cozy it makes you feel like home even though it's through a video screen.

Those rolled up tube chips are the BEST! The Forbidden Taki's.

Spray weld that cast iron back up and mill it again right. We all LOVE the spray welder in action👍👍

A fantastic casting such as these deserves the care that you lavish on them. Beautiful workmanship Adam.

If that gap really bugs you, could you take the 0.003 off the lower face? It’d drop the jaw a little, but maybe that’d be worth it to get rid of the gap? That finish is beautiful!!

The jaw ledge should have a radius to prevent cracking from the shock loads it will be subjected to. The rippa cutter has a small corner radius which would have left a neat internal radius & the vertical face finish would be better for mating faces. Traditionally don't leave sharp internal corners & chamfer external mating external corners ( the jaw ) to clear the radius. The bottom face of the jaw location will be subject to shock loads so the stress will certainly benefit from not having a sharp corner where cracks start. The lip on the top which is now redundant is there to take some of these shock loads to protect the vulnerable casting face at the bottom of the jaw from cracking. So the lip needs to sit on the top by removing material from the bottom of the jaw. Otherwise you will have the worst situation where all the force is on the casting face & a sharp corner there ready to crack. Cast Iron is a brittle material & prone to cracking compared to other more ductile steels.

Great series!! Will be great to see the shaper make those cuts! :-)

As someone else mentioned below, it's actually probably a good idea to have clearance on that top edge. Otherwise if the jaw insert is not perfect, you could wind up with all your weight on just that top lip, which would be bad. It's better to force using the bottom edge.

I’ve been taking my time watching this series and really enjoying it. Keep it up, love seeing these smaller projects progress and multiple machines being utilized. 👍🏻👍🏻

Looks great, thanks for sharing. That cuts like butter.

Really like the old K &T mill 👍 I finally got me a K&T 2HL horizontal mill have a little work & clean up on it before I can use it. Thanks for the video Adam!

Thank You for the time and effort You spend on these videos Adam. Best Wishes to You and Your Family for the Holiday Season.

My father was a professional Carpenter and he always said that the difference between a professional and an amature was a pro knew how to cover up his mistakes.

Man been there quite a few times in my career with having the wrong dimension in your head and running with it. The best of us do it from time to time, hard to be perfect all the time. Just 99% of the time lol.

22:40 it's amazing to watch those chips stick to the flutes and go around for another spin.

Im loving these project so far. The showcase of machines and techniques is amazing.

I mean, you could always cut down the lower ledge and drop the measurements down on the other jaw and mounting holes to compensate for the error.

I guess Adam slowed the camera down to the ‘awesome mode’. That was pretty impressive. Thanks

If you can't cut deeper - for the excess cut - to seat on both plains , what about shimming the gap ? Thanks again ;)

I dont know why when i was in the trade, Side milling is my absolute favorite machining operation, just something about the chips coming off the side of the cutter.

I would cut 30 off the lower ledge, so the standard jaws fit if they ever need to be replaced. It's just a vice, tolerances are whatever.

Super finish! Thanks for sharing!

Great video,Adam.Thank you.

Really enjoying this series!

The K&T looks like it's watching you.... LOL @6:25

The project looks amazing, Adam. I look forward to seeing more.

Nice installment, thanks

a simple fix for the gap is to make some jaws. i like that step Jason put in, there is more casting up there to not crack off. 👍

In my opinion you can never fail to attract viewers with a shaper video. So yes, bring on the shaper! KOKO!

As someone else has said take the bit off the bottom of the jaw to make it sit correctly on the two faces of the body, then make the fixed jaw the same. Two wrongs make a right.

Adam it just goes to show we are all human with our frailities

Love the home shop

Spray weld the lip and re-machine it. Or cut the bottom surface down to make the jaw sit in there, then machine the other side to match. Or put a shim in there. Or Machine the jaw to fit that side, then level both jaws off once assembled. All Four options would be interesting to see in a video.

Adam I like all the videos....mistakes or not....Merry Christmas

Well there goes my ability to sleep tonight.... That gap is going to keep me stirring.

12:32 the finishing end mill, sure worked well. Great video!

Easy mistake... easy fix. Put a slice of .030 shim in when you mount the jaw to share the load.

Looking good 👍🏻

Allays love the end shot of the three generations. I'm positive the last two are proud beyond belief.

Good job. Thank you 😊

Nice work

Great project & nice job ! Best to channel.. good video

Beautiful cuts, cast iron is really pretty but oh man is it messy lol. But nicely done! Also, I don't think mistake is actually a mistake per se. You could shim it with brass stock and that would actually allow for a bit of shock resistance. Which might make the vise last even longer. Just a thought.

That slowmo at 24:30 is awesome. Great video

That little space up there looks actually useful, If it was a bit higher than it should it would make the jaw hang of it, being a bit shorter makes the jaw supported by the bottom part.

Sure did leave a nice finish.

17:40 wasn't it Jason's point that the vertical load would rest on the top step of the jaw, rather than on the bottom step of the casting, to prevent breakage of the casting (as seem sometimes with regular rectangular crosssection jaws)?

Good stuff

Your camera does a great job filming, I love watching the chips fly in slow speed. This is a great series. Good Job Adam. Later

Love it thanks man

well done.

Gotta love carbide !!

Put some shim stock to tighten up the top cut of the jaw insert.

I wish Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to and your family. Greetings from Germany

Mill the jaw a hir to bring it down some. Easy peasy.

I've really been enjoying these vice-videos. It shows that you're enjoying your time making things just right. Beautiful work, as always!

Just take 30 off of the Jaw, and remember to do the same on the other jaw. You are doing this machining, make it your own. Yes, it's "not to spec" and you have "manufacturing prints", but make it a one off-one of a kind-hand made, piece of work. You have the liberty to take what it should be and what it could be. Again, make it your own! If this was for a customer, I would do my best to fix it. But, this is for you! Change the other side to match and it will still work great and as intended! Love your work and your videos, all of them, the cooking and traveling, they've all been great! Thank you.

nice video!

You could put some shims under the lip of the jaw to get back that little bit of extra support

You could just recut the bottom step and then carry that over to the vice body.

Beautiful work Adam ;) be proud of yourself ;) mistakes happen to everyone ;) its good this mistake is not critical for a job ;)

I see a couple ideas about the small "mistake" just to add my 2 cents in. If you still want the jaw to be resting on both surfaces you could always machine a shim to put in that space. I am a machinist and I learn a lot from you and love watching you work. Thanks for the awesome content!!!!!

Just mill off a bit on the bottom as well, and the jaw will sit perfetc. It's just a vice...

Lay a shim under the jaw or machine the jaw to fit. Great vid.

Love youre Videos Adam youre are a great Man. I always a bit shocked that you never perfectly clean youre Work Peace before measurement its so necessary every Dust and Metal Span will fake the measurement. Very nice Viddeo anyway love it keep up Adam

I don't know if anybody had mentioned this, but when you're running end mills in particular the trickery of 60 frames or 30 frames a minute on video, makes it look like that the End Mill is running in reverse unless you slow it down and then you see the correct direction.

I use cigarette rolling papers for getting close. They are much thinner than regular printer paper, about .0005" range.

I would machine the jaw to match and alter the hole positions

According the tests done on the vice the gap will have an impact. The idea is that the downforce ist distributed betten in the jaw. Now its only the down ledge and thats were the copetitor vices broke while the hardtail suceeded. How about compensate by milling the lower rest deeper and do that on both vice jaws. This will only result into a minor deviation of the jaw height, but restore the toughness of the construction.

He could just mill the difference of the mistake off the bottom of the jaw insert. After all, he's likely to make other inserts for it anyway.

MERRY CHRISTMAS👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😄

Shim it, shim it now!

Merry Christmas Adam & family!! I also think a glued in shim for the 30 thou oopsie!

I would leave the "shelf" under the jaw in its raw cast iron look. That area is similar to the table face on an anvil. It is a sacrificial face. Many times you rest material when working or pounding vertically and it gives you extra support. If you face it off to a machined finish any small nick will make it look awful. I think just running a radius across the transition between the face cut tail and that table area to reduce stress risers would be all that would be necessary. My .02 $

25:44 never seen a caliper used like that

18:09 Showing your mistakes show amateur people that mistakes can happen to everyone and instead of being frustrated by those mistakes you can just learn from them and move on.

I would criticise the error, except I have just made two left-handed parts and I needed one of each !

Adam, We all make mistakes true, it would bug the crap out of me if I left that 30 thou mistake there....my OCD would have compelled me to fix it by just dropping down that 30 thou amount on the fixed jaw step and carrying over the new base dimension to the moveable jaw side. Just saying......Great video !!!

Perfect timing. Came to see if the next episode was out and BAM 41mins ago! TY for the video! :D If for some reason I end up hating it, I will come edit my comment and say so. But lets be real, I wont hate it. lol

Machine 2 or so thou off the bottom of the actual jaw insert to give a closer fitting

You're awesome! Thank you again for sharing ALL of your journeys and in the last video some were saying use this or that machine. I am a good student and pay attention. You said you were going to use ALL of your machines on this video. I say use them all! Merry Christmas! Stay awesome!

I think a bit of shim stock would fill the gap?

Mill some off the bottom of the bolt on jaw and it will fit perfect

I'd just cut the lower surface another .030 down and then match up the fixed jaw side. I don't think that would compromise the strength and it'd all match up.

This series is really teaching me tons about how you go about making a hardtail vise!

You could take a piece of solid and solder to take the difference in that shelf.

put a shim under and you will be good

❤ Yes I have made some mistakes that were very costly when I was a Tool and Die Maker. I have worked on a die section for over a week only to find out that I made a mistake on the very first day I started it. So I looked at it this way. You have to count it as 3 times. 1- the time you worked on that part the 1st time. 2- the time you had to remake the section part. 3- the time you could have been doing something else. I made a gurglelizer outta the first part if you have ever made dies, molds, jigs, or fixtures you probably know what a gurglelizer is.❤❤ Enjoyed the show and that is going to be a beautiful vice just wish you had another generation to pass it on to.

A lot of people suggested that Adam should do the machining on _all_ of those overblown vices, lol. How much would each one cost in the end? Ten grand?