Jaws of... Aluminum?

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:29 pm

I am looking down the barrel of having to bend my longerons. Having helped Wicked Stick do his and padding the vise each time, I elected to whip up a set of aluminum jaws for my vise with some 3/8" thick AL plate I discovered!

I am thrilled with the end product and it adds more versatility to the vise now! I can just hit them with scotchbrite and am assured a relatively soft and firm "bite" on the material!

Whatcha think?

CJ

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:44 pm

Looks great CJ! Did you drill in to the vise to screw the AL in, or were there already threads there?

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:49 pm

The threads were already there, as the vise came with replaceable steel jaws.

It was a simple procedure of match drilling the AL ones to the steel, recessing the heads and screwing them in!

CJ

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:39 pm

Gotcha. I went out and looked at mine, and I see the screws to replace the jaws now. Great idea!

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:19 pm

Hey CJ, good thinking. I made myself a set of Delrin vise jaws once for a delicate project. The machinists call aluminum jaws "soft jaws", and machine pockets into them to match the shape of whatever they're holding -- i.e., you wouldn't want to clamp a thin-walled circular part between flat steel jaws.

JohnR · Post by **JohnR** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:34 pm

Good idea CJ, I may have to makea set like that.

Post by **Spike** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:29 am

I like the way you think John.

jim_geo · Post by **jim_geo** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:46 pm

That looks like an awesome setup John.

aparchment · Post by **aparchment** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:22 pm

His name is Jaws, he kills people.

C'mon folks . . . name the movie.

Oops, sorry, my stream of consciousness brain misfired.

Womack2005 · Post by **Womack2005** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:27 pm

Spy who loved me (007)

aparchment · Post by **aparchment** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:31 pm

Bingo -- somebody give that man a ceeeegarrr.

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:01 pm

captain_john wrote:I am looking down the barrel of having to bend my longerons. Having helped Wicked Stick do his and padding the vise each time, I elected to whip up a set of aluminum jaws for my vise with some 3/8" thick AL plate I discovered!

I am thrilled with the end product and it adds more versatility to the vise now! I can just hit them with scotchbrite and am assured a relatively soft and firm "bite" on the material!

Whatcha think?

CJ

CJ, only suggestion I would make would be to round / radius the ends so that you don't have a hard edge when your bending the long's.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:40 am

Yes, Dave!

I have noticed that the corners can collide with the vertex of the angle and affect it's original shape!

I am going to take a bit off the top, inside lips before I do the longs.

They worked VERY WELL in holding all the firewall parts firmly! Man, there are alotta little cuts to make in that firewall!

CJ

papakeith · Post by **papakeith** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:22 am

John, you and I must be on the same wavelength or something.
This weekend I created some aluminum spacers with countersunk holes too.

Question about the longeron bend. is it a constant curve Once the curve starts? or is it more of an elipse?

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:43 am

PK,

The long is straight until about the instrument panel, where it gets a gradual bend outward until it reaches the baggage area. From there it is straight again. Once that is made, the forward part gets a TWIST to line up with the firewall weldments.

You need to delicately use a percussion device (bang it with a hammer!) and coax it into shape!

CJ

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:47 am

captain_john wrote:Yes, Dave!

I have noticed that the corners can collide with the vertex of the angle and affect it's original shape!

I am going to take a bit off the top, inside lips before I do the longs.

They worked VERY WELL in holding all the firewall parts firmly! Man, there are alotta little cuts to make in that firewall!

CJ

I was more referring to the ends (sides) where the longerons will be up agains when bending, but yes, you could round off all the edges a bit.

I'd recommend a radius on the ends where the bend will occure of about 1/8".

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:50 am

Cool, got it!

Thanks.

CJ

papakeith · Post by **papakeith** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:13 am

Granted this is probably overkill, but I've been playing around with some Delrin for working the aluminum on my project. I can see you getting really fancy and creating a non-maring channel in the vice out of that stuff for the longeron to run through. No stop, clamp, bend. Just a smooth bend as you're pulling it through.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:22 am

mmmm, delrin jaws!!!

I like it!!!

CJ

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Jaws of... Aluminum?

Jaws of... Aluminum?

Jaws

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Re: Jaws of... Aluminum?