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clemmy

Custom vise jaws experience?

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I just picked up a nice drill press vise that has a cam lock fitting for repetitive clamping. I know there are soft jaws out there, and I'll probablly utilize those for one off work, but to get the most out of this vise I'd like to use it for drilling out belly weight holes of a standard depth/angle on a given bait repeatedly for increased conformity. My thinking was to make some sort of resin jaw heads (rtv? silicone?) that would be molded with half bait shape on each side to securely hold the bait in position. I could probably follow previous molding directions to help for this unique application, and I thought it might be good to put magnets in bottom of mold and/or alignment pins...

Just wondering if anyone has done anything like this before so I'm not re-inventing the wheel..Or other ideas? Pete (Hazmail) to my knowledge is the king of jigs on TU so hopefully he might help. Of course, I barely understand his jigs, let alone am a good enough machinist to make 'em, lol!

Thanks!

Clemmy

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clemmy - K.C's idea sounds good to me, as long as all your lures are pretty close to exactly the same.I have searched and searched and can't find any of your lures to eyeball. Here's a couple of more ideas (simple). If your lures have no symmetrical flats on them, right angles (aluminium angle) hold curves well, just lay the lure on it's back in the angle, and place 2 posts on the end (of Al angle), slide the lure between them and this will centre the blank.

Much more simple - If your lures have some flats on the side (tapered or parallel), just fix 2 pieces of Al angle (one end only, parallel to each other) to a board @ the width of the narrowest part, slide the lure between them (on it's back) and the "wedge effect" should hold it very tight, then you would need to pack under it (maybe silicone with a bit of Gladrap) to stop it rocking vertically.

Looks very clear in my head, but is probably very confusing for you without pictures, if you need some pics , let me know. *****pete

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Thanks guys! I'll give the bondo a try. Yup, this would be for repeatable drilling of a given bait style for conformity. Depth should be a broblem, as I'll use a dedicated drill press with a stop. For unique shapes I can just use the soft jaws.

Thanks again!

Craig

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Heya Dave!

Long time , no talk! thanks for chiming in! Yes that would work, but I have a second drill press vise that has the tilt/protractor feature, so in my case simply alingning "straight" in the soft jaws, tilting the vise and locking, then using either drill press depth stop or simple tape on bit should work for one off prototyping. Failing that, I'd use your method for individual work. There is actually something like "smart beads" (i'll look up the name if any need) that you put in hot water to melt, then mold to your liking, then hardens as it cools. Then neat thing is, you heat it up again and reuse. I'm a physical therapist, and it's used to make custom grips for things like utensils for those unable to grip a "normal" spoon, etc. I've seen that it's available comercially as well. I've always though it would be good for mold masters for soft plastics, but never gottemn around to using it...

Only problem using it in this case would be that it might contain some wax or silicone, which could lead to cratering and other problems in the painting/coating..

Craig

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