In article ,
RBnDFW wrote:

My mill came with a 4" Palmgren vise. It's a bit light, and lacks
dovetails & gibs. It's basically a drillpress vise.

So I acquired a heavy old Victoria 4" milling vise. It looks fine save
for the jaws, which need replacing. Any chance of buying replacement
jaws for this old vise?

Assuming the answer is no, making jaws looks fairly simple.
I think I have some tool steel plates in about that size.
Is that the appropriate material?
Will my bandaw cut it?
Will regular drills work?

I made some flat (no teeth) jaws for my 3" Wilton Machinist vise out of
O1 Oil Hardening Steel, and it worked just fine. Ordinary saws, drills,
and mills work just fine, but don't stint on the black sulfur cutting
oil.

I plan to harden the jaws, but have not yet gotten around to it, and
they don't seem any the worse for it.

The key is to make sure that the new jaws rest firmly in their pockets
in the vise, so the clamping force is transferred from jaws to frame
without undue concentration. In the Wilton, this required that one long
edge be beveled (so it wouldn't bottom on the inside radius of the
pocket) and the elimination of all burrs and irregularities.

All this can be done with hand tools, but is a lot easier with a mill.
The hardest part is making the counterbores to accept the 1/4-20
Filister head screws that hold the jaws to the frame.

I replaced the original screws with hex socket head machine screws so I
could change the jaws without taking the vise apart using a standard hex
key.

Joe Gwinn