Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

When I have to use my metal vice to hold delicate wooden parts I use these additional wooden jaws which are held in position by inlaid magnets. It's important to inlay them at least about 2/10 mm deeper than their thickness is to allow the wooden jaw to compress without letting get the magnet in the way which could lead to crushing the magnet with the metal jaw of the vice. Here I glued in simple magnets, 10mm in diameter, 4mm thick . No rare earth magnets needed.

Markus, Das war aber echt superklug von dir
That is en excellent idea - you seem to be full of them! I may steal this.

great idea and shall gladly copy thanks Markus.

Awesome idea!

As I used relatively weak magnets (don't want to magnetize the vice) the wooden jaws tended to slip out of position when putting something between them. Tired of aligning the accessory all the time I wrapped the metal jaws loosely with saran, put a glob of 5 minute epoxy on it where the screw holes are located and clamped the wooden-magnetic jaw in place.

This is the enhanced jaw with indexing epoxy-globs:
Now the jaws stay nicely in place.

Brilliant!

Finally the Fine Woodworking magazine reads my posts here!

If you are not a Fine Woodworking member, simply read the ANZLF. As a bonus you'll get the same information not only for free but also a few years earlier!

If you make a wooden curved front jaw with a single magnet in the centre, it is great for holding guitar necks and odd shapes. like this one on Frets.com ..note the cork linings on the jaws.