The discussion revolves around the viability of using aluminum as a material for making vises or clamps, particularly in relation to its strength and suitability for various applications. Participants explore different types of aluminum and their effectiveness in clamping tasks, including specific use cases such as PCB rework and metal fabrication.
Participants do not reach a consensus on the suitability of aluminum for vises, with multiple competing views regarding its strength and application. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the best practices for using aluminum in this context.
The discussion highlights the dependence on specific applications and the characteristics of the materials involved, but does not resolve the uncertainties regarding the strength and viability of aluminum vises.
improvisation or fixing of our steel iron stuffs i.e. clamp 3-5 mm thick steel to be cut/ground/drilled or reformed its shape etcberkeman said:I have an aluminum vise/clamp that I use, but it is for PCB rework. What is your application? What clamping force and clamp area (hence clamp pressure) do you need?
It's so dependent on what you want to hold (material and shape). One of the best compromises is to use a steel vise with pads of different materials. I have used copper, tufnol and aluminium pads in an assortment of steel vises. Copper is particularly good as you can easily anneal it (red hot then quenched) and it can form itself around odd shapes (say aluminium threads) and harden itself after flowing . (Copper is great for softening the jaws in a lathe chuck)abdulbadii said:TL;DR Summary: which type aluminium for make up a vise clamp
Is it really going to workable/viable and which type aluminium could reliably be as vise clamp ?