Introduction: Vice Soft Jaws - Cheap and Easy

By
About: I'm not an expert in anything. I just enjoy making things sometimes for the process sometimes for the end product.

I found these over sized erasers at the dollar store and bought a couple. I initially planned to use them for making custom rubber stamps but then I quickly realized I could use them as soft jaws for my vice. This is a very simple build that will net me a lot of use. I already had the neodymium magnets and epoxy on hand so I only spent the $2 for the erasers. I believe magnets can be purchased for about $3-4 in the hardware store. I plan to use this for my knife making. I also think they will come in handy when working with wood, since I don't have a proper woodworking bench I can use these to hold the wood with out marring the surface. I hope some of you all find this quick build helpful.


Step 1:

These erasers were flexible which I hope meant would allow them to contour to the shape of whatever clamp in them.

Step 2:

The first thing I did was to square them off. So I marked the length of my vice jaws and used my band saw to cut the excess off the erasers.

Step 3:

Next I marked the locations of the magnets. I made sure that the magnets would align with the flat portion of the inside of the vice jaws. I used the magnets as templates to mark the position of the holes. Then I took the erasers to my drill press and drilled two holes. I made sure the holes were roughly the width and depth of the magnets. This is a good opportunity to use the depth stop on the drill press.

Top tip: Use a scrap piece of the eraser you just cut to do a practice hole to check the depth before drilling the actual holes.

Step 4:

After drilling all the holes I mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and glued the magnets in place. Do not use acetone to clean the residual epoxy it may eat away at the eraser.

I let the epoxy cure for a couple of hours.

Step 5:

I tested the soft jaws and was surprised how well they worked. They gripped the knife blade well with no issues and no marring. This is a very simple but very useful build. I hope you all find this helpful.