On 2008-11-15, Michael Koblic wrote:

"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...

[ ... ]

If you can't follow Harold's valuable advice on clamping, pad the
moving jaw with a piece of wood to spread the grip area and keep the
cuts light. I do the end facing first and use the cut-off remainder of
the stock to balance the vise.

The case in question was even worse than that. I am ashamed to admit that I
clamped the workpiece the way I would have done for drilling in the press -
in the top groove of the vise. Not surprisingly, the grip area was very
small. When I spotted the error I reclamped using some of the lathe tools as
parallels and managed OK. However, Harold's advice is indeed valuable and
will be followed in future.

Another trick for when you don't have another piece of the same
dimensions is to use an adjustable parallel set to the same size to
place in the other side of the vise. They are fairly expensive, though,
so be careful not to mill them while milling the workpiece. :-)

They can also be used to support one side of a workpiece which
has two different heights.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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