Sacrificial jaws for a 12" vise?

[Upscale]

I'm finally getting around to pulling my 12" Record vise out of storage and installing it on a workbench. I have a question about suitable jaw liners for the thing. Any suggestions on the best wood for this? Maple, something a little softer? I'd even consider using magnetic jaws with rubber liners except that the biggest I've seen are 6" wide, way too small for this 12" vise.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[tiredofspam]

I would go with a smaller vise. You can send the 12" record to me.

8>)

Maple is fine... Beech. You can line the moveable maple face with a piece of leather.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------- Got some 1/2" (9 ply) Birch ply?

I'd use 2 layers (1" total thickness) per face.

Strong, stable and flat.

Lew

[Martin H. Eastburn]

Like on my 8" wide monster metal vice - one jaw is Al, the other hard steel.

I talked to Dad about that - remember him making the Al on the lathe (no mill) and now I can mill steel - he mentioned a soft jaw can save something under compression. Hard materials will imprint while soft stuff will get marred. So for softer stuff - use soft stuff and harder stuff - harder.

I have rubber inserts and Al inserts in my Gun vice. I use rubber mostly.

Mart> I'm finally getting around to pulling my 12" Record vise out of storage and

[J. Clarke]

Just a thought but you can get 8-1/2 x 11 magnetic inkjet sheets at Staples, intended to make refrigerator magnets, at 15 bucks for a package of four. They're a little resilient with a paper facing--you should be able to glue a piece of rubber or whatever to them, they may even be OK as is--they're a little bit resilient but not very thick.

[Upscale]

I was thinking of adapting a pair of magnetic tool bars. The next time I'm in Lee Valley, I'll check them out.

[Bob La Londe]

I guess it depends on what you are going to use it for. I used to have a simple square 6" bench vise that I used for everything (before I broke it). I used to cut a dozen or so jaws out of plywood at a time and leave them stacked on the shelf above the bench. Whenever I needed to put something in the vise I didn't want marred by the steels jaws I would drop a pair of these in. They were great for things like aluminum motorcycle forks, etc. I would cut them to be an exact match for the jaws at one end and loosely fit over the center extension of the vise at the other. Worked great for me. I would just throw them away as they got tore up, and I could get amazing holding force out of them by crushing them around a work piece if needed.

Now I have an aluminum vise, and I have prismatic plastic jaws for odd shaped pieces at the other end of the work bench from my new(er) steel vise.

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[willshak]

$14.00 for a pack of 5.

They're a little resilient with a paper facing--you should be able to

[Larry Blanchard]

I've used some of the nonskid stuff they sell for shelf liners with good results - the solid stuff, not the fancy open grid type.