Vise Liner Eliminates Grip With Slip

It’s inevitable that after a few weeks of use, especially as much use I give to my vise, that the wooden jaws themselves become slick and without surface friction the wood being clamped inevitably slips unless you increase torque. I have the bad habit of under clamping not over clamping, so 99% of the time there is no problem. I have posted on this recently but here is the improved Paul Sellers’ rare-earth-magnet-anti-slip-get-a-Jaw’s-grip-retrofit for your vise.

First off I should say that I am making my flip-flop liner because I don’t like permanent liners in place the whole time.

For the original prototype I used silicone shelf liner and this grips the work very well and I still use this for difficult to grip pieces such as spoons or shaped pieces that defy parallel clamping and such. However, I found that when I permanently installed the liner between the wooden liner and the metal jaw of the moveable vise jaw, the outer one, that the shelf liner broke down more quickly than I liked. Now leather doesn’t grip quite as well but it does grip and grip very well, so i tested everything out loose first to see if zi liked it and I did.

First I removed the vise jaw to install the leather piece. The leather is just softer upholstery hide that seems to grip better and fold better than the harder leathers. I am using the suede out so the suede is gripping the wood and the smooth side is against the wooden jaw.

I used two sided adhesive tape on the metal part and used that to secure the leather first. Then, with the leather in place, I relocated the wooden jaw and screwed it back in place.

When the leather is flopped over between the jaws it tends to bulb up above the wooden jaw so when you want to plane close too in say 3/4″ stock the leather can get in the way or get caught by the plane or other tool. To solve this I made sharp folds in the leather using the following technique:

I spray the leather with a light spray of water.

I install a scrap board lightly clamped in the vise. Not too tight but tight enough that the leather grips the wood.

I tapped the edge of the board downwards into the vise so that the leather tightens up on the corners of the wooden jaw. Tighten more and tap to tighten as tight as feels right making certain that the leather is even all the way across the vise. Also, make sure all of the leather is sandwiched from top to bottom between the board and the wooden vise jaw. Leave overnight or until dry.

In the morning the leather will have nice tight corners and the leather will flop nicely to the jaw.

Now I used the liner like this for a couple of weeks and was very happy with the way it worked. because I liked it I decided on a further improvement. By adding a rare earth magnet to the suede face near the bottom I could flip the leather out of the vise for the times I didn’t want the leather there. Before, because I had creased the leather, the leather tended to bulb up and create a hump on the top side adjacent to the vise jaw. Adding the magnet meant I could tug the leather and the magnet held it tight and out of the way.

To receive the magnet when the leather was in use, I drilled a shallow hole in the vise jaw.