Soft Jaws

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SteveM
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by SteveM »

A friend asked me to drill a hole in the center of about 30 stainless steel caps.

Bored the soft jaws to the needed diameter with a should to hold them with the face perpendicular and we knocked them off in no time.

Steve
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Steve, thanks for posting this write up. Many people have commented on soft jaws but I’ve never seen an actual description and photos of parts made with them that made sense. The workholding really points out how to make these things work and how they can be used.

Very beneficial.

Glenn
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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GlennW
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by GlennW »

I found a 40" length of aluminum bar just waiting to be useful...

DSC01091.jpg
I'll de-bur them as I use them.

That should do it for soft jaws for quite a while, and the CNC mill is quite happy.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by GlennW »

2" bushings needed shortening as well as ID and OD changed.

Needed .002" off of the OD, so the soft jaws were pre-loaded and cut to accept the bushing flange. The bushings then ran dead concentric to the spindle axis, so shaving .002" from the OD was easy.
DSC01094.jpg
Now the ID gets sized.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by GlennW »

I saw in one of "Patio's" threads where someone asked about holding threaded objects.

If you're too lazy to get out the soft jaws like I sometimes am, or don't have them, an aluminum sleeve to cover the threads works well for me.

I make a fair amount of these, but only one at a time, so I have a dedicated sleeve to save tome switching chucks. It also gets a square machined on the top for a wrench, so the sleeve aids in grabbing it in the Super Spacer to cut that, as I don't have soft jaws for the Super Spacer.
DSC01255.JPG
DSC01256.JPG
I machine and thread it as bar stock and then part it off. Then use the sleeve to hold it for the other features.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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tornitore45
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by tornitore45 »

My lathe is too small for a 2 pieces chuck. The smallest I can find is 5" and can't justify the cost having already 5 chucks.

So every time I need the function of soft jaws I make a split bushing.
Is not the same thing but accomplish the same purpose even if each part needs to be re-clocked.
But I rarely do more that a few parts.

I place them in a bag labeled and hang all of them on a long spike, sorted bi size. I have reused some quite a few time.
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
SteveM
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Re: Soft Jaws

Post by SteveM »

tornitore45 wrote: Sat Oct 13, 2018 1:50 pmSo every time I need the function of soft jaws I make a split bushing.
That works for when you have a small part, but when you have a larger diameter you can use these:
Image

Steve
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tornitore45
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Location: USA Texas, Austin

Re: Soft Jaws

Post by tornitore45 »

That works for when you have a small part, but when you have a larger diameter you can use these:
Something to store away in the old memory vault in case I ever need it.
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
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