?

Hi Mike

Thanks for that, I did not know they were commercially available, first produced I think around 1940??s.
I watched a You tube on repairing one and for an engineering project I was thinking of maching one from scratch in mild steel?
and the final small jaws that actually do the gripping using Silver steel (drill rod) and hardening/temper.
The basic engineering "method" for me would be to make the base vice, just normal standard milling from bar stock
or even find a cheap cast iron drill press vice and modify it.
The actual swivel jaws would need to be a combination of either lathe faceplate and or CNC milling and jig boring, again not really a problem.
My concern over the past few weeks thinking about this new project is the cutting of the male and female tenons that stop the jaws from falling out,
as they should "slot into each other by swivelling in place"
The 3D printing did an excellent job of this, but to conventional machine these tenons would be tricky.
It would require an awful amount of dedicated tooling, once used then it?s a throwaway as i would only make one vice to hold the parts. even?
using a special double tipped dovetail boring bar. you could not use a standard milling dovetail cutter indexing the part on a 4th axis head I think I am correct in this.
I refer back to mikes link of commercial unit for sale $$$$$$$ and I notice when zooming in there are no dovetails, the connecting lips look flat, so how do the jaws stay in place?
Any forum members are welcome to offer there opinions on this feature, as if NO dovetail tenons are required, than the manufacture is doable without a lot of sweat.
Thanks

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John