586,103 active members*
3,402 visitors online*
Register for free
Login

View Poll Results: Do you make your own jaws or do you buy them

Voters
168. You may not vote on this poll
  • MAKE OUR OWN AND WOULD NEVER BUY BLANKS

    87 51.79%
  • MAKE OUR OWN AND WOULD BUY BLANKS IF THE QUALITY WAS HIGH

    41 24.40%
  • BUY ALUM BLANKS

    27 16.07%
  • BUY STEEL BLANKS

    32 19.05%
Multiple Choice Poll.

Thread: VISE JAWS

Results 1 to 20 of 20
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    17

    VISE JAWS

    I have always wordered about this, How many of you make your own jaws complete or buy blanks if not would you buy blanks if they were high quality and made of steel.

    Thanks for you time

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    449
    I use vise jaws of various sizes. I always make my own, the major reason I seem to run a lot of jobs that the bar stock remnants are perfect to make jaws from.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    440
    Quote Originally Posted by vegas705 View Post
    I have always wordered about this, How many of you make your own jaws complete or buy blanks if not would you buy blanks if they were high quality and made of steel.

    Thanks for you time
    Most of ours are alum so water jet some plate that is flat to .002/ft and a cold cut saw blanks them out nicely. One old fadal 4020 and a fixture that is mounted most of the time and you have holes and c'bores.

    If we used more steel jaws we'd buy them if they where of consistent material quality, had a good machinability factor and had a decent tolerance on flatness and sizes.

    Thinking of starting a business venture?
    Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
    Mark Twain

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    17
    Quote Originally Posted by Shotout View Post
    Most of ours are alum so water jet some plate that is flat to .002/ft and a cold cut saw blanks them out nicely. One old fadal 4020 and a fixture that is mounted most of the time and you have holes and c'bores.

    If we used more steel jaws we'd buy them if they where of consistent material quality, had a good machinability factor and had a decent tolerance on flatness and sizes.

    Thinking of starting a business venture?
    Thought about it I make all of my jaws from 1018 the are pricey but work well and are consistant as well as strong and rigid

  5. #5
    most places I've work we'd make hundreds of pairs of steel and aluminum soft jaws as one of those filler jobs when times were slow , then we'd rapidly eat them up when things picked up
    A poet knows no boundary yet he is bound to the boundaries of ones own mind !! ........

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    57
    I thought you meant Lathe chuck jaws we got them for 40 for steel jaws. Anyways for our shop we buy em less then 20 bucks a pair for vice jaws we cant make it for that.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    13
    mostly make our own. the shapes of the items we make demands customability.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    3
    i cant remember working anywhere that bought soft jaws for a millvise but ive only been in the business since 1990. it seems to me that anyone can buy some 1"x2"x12' bar and blast out 12 pairs in an hour and hardly bust a swet.now im no astronaught but i think thats about 5 dollars a jaw.so if there's someone out there selling them for less than that i would love to hear from them

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    36

    Thought you were talking about 3 jaw

    I make all my own vise jaws we can crank these out so fast that it doesn't pay to buy them. Three jaw chuck jaws are a different story. i found the guys at Monster Jaws on EBay 33 bucs for a set of serated jaws to fit a 10 in CNC chuck is unbeatable. The jaws look fantastic you almost don't want to cut them up. LOL LOL Just my Two cents thats only worth about 1/2 cent these days. Tim @ PPM Inc

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Posts
    1

    Dave

    Monster is the only way to go. I buy them ten sets at a time, in 4 and six inch.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    7
    we have some hard jaws but we make our own soft jaws, and serated jaws we harding

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    449
    If you are thinking about making jaws to sell you are obviously going to need to make lathe chuck jaws, it seems myself and everyone else makes their own jaws for our mills. I make my own mill jaws and buy my lathe jaws, even the lathe jaw industry seems to have a lot of players. Most of us don't have the tools or the patience to make the serrations. For what it is worth, I pay $25 a set for standard (not the pie type) for 6" Kitagawa chucks, I believe you would have to undercut that price to even have a chance of grabbing any market share. Good luck to you if you are still interested in producing jaws for sale.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    7
    we don't sell our we use them and we make some serrated ones that you can replace the serrated part

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Posts
    1

    Make Mill jaws, buy and cut lathe jaws

    Mill soft jaws are easy to make and use over and over, but the lathe jaws come cheap and can be cut and re-cut for different jobs. From both an R & D and Production, making mill jaws and buying lathe jaws has been our most cost effective option.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    89
    I agree with dertsap, mill jaws are a "fill in", steel and alum jaws are too easy to make for yourself, to even contemplate buying them. ?What about shipping costs? Also if you look at some of the older lathe chucks you will see some very good interfaces between chuck and jaw. Take a new set of steel serrated jaws mill the chuck profile into them, heat treat them to make a "master jaw" and then make "top jaws" out of alum. for your lathe. Extremely inexpensive for lathe jaws and they repeat well enough for 90 percent of the jobs you will do. Pie jaws and steel jaws for the lathes are the only ones we will buy. We've made pie jaws in the past but it is not economical now.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    7

    hi

    we also buy lathe jaws

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    89
    I'm kinda surprised that not too many other people out there make their own lathe jaws. If anyone is interested I will supply some dim's to make master jaws out of purchased steel jaws (for the serrated portion) and then you just make the top jaws which require milling a couple of slots, drill, cb, then away you go cheap! this set-up with alum top jaws repeats better than .0005 TIR and is very easy to make. If you need better TIR then move em in a notch and skim chip every time you remount them. My dims would be for a 8." Kitagawa. But once you see the basic concept it could be adapted to larger or smaller chucks easily.........Sorry chuck jaw manufacturers.....

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    82
    I would like the jaw dimensions if you would provide them.

    [email protected]

    Thanks

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    2
    Hi i am Devander (Dev) newly posted in cnc department in our company.
    I don't know any thing about cnc. But i did my electronics and communication engineering. so i have little knowlede about controller , microprocessor etc.
    Sir can u guide me how to start working in this new cnc department.
    Tell me if any good books are there.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    116
    We buy are lath jaw how can you not only run about $25.00 US a set.
    As for vice Jaws they vary way to much so we make those.
    You must remember that 99% of my posts are Bullchit!

Similar Threads

  1. vise jaws for parts with kerf?
    By bink in forum Work Fixtures / Hold-Down Solutions
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 08-03-2008, 01:45 AM
  2. Soft jaws for the Tormach vise?
    By zephyr9900 in forum Tormach Personal CNC Mill
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 10-29-2007, 06:13 PM
  3. Home Made Vise Stop - For 6" Kurt Vise
    By widgitmaster in forum Bridgeport / Hardinge Mills
    Replies: 20
    Last Post: 12-15-2006, 03:49 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •