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One of the shortcomings of the Parrot style vise, in my opinion, is the looseness of the aluminum swivel jaws. They tend to flop around and not retract with the vise jaws.
I drilled a 5/8" diameter flat bottom hole in each aluminum jaw and dropped in a button magnet prior to gluing the leather jaw pads in place. The magnet holds the swivel jaws against the cast iron vise jaws.
Also added a clamp knob at the base so the vise could be held in position prior to tightening the vise jaw.
Nelson[img][/img][img][/img]

Hey Todd
I'm off to my day job now but will get a closeup of the clamp knob later today.
It knob with threaded stud addition works well to lock the vise in position prior to clamping. I couldn't get used to it wiggling around when tightening the jaws. As you probably know, the vise comes with a setscrew adjustment to minimize the amount of looseness. The problem is that it's hard to change the vise from horizontal to vertical orientation when this adjustment is snugged.
Nelson

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Here ya go, Todd.
The thread is 1/2"NC-13. Probably could be smaller.
Let me know if there is any more info you can use, glad to help if I can.
Nelson Palen

Wanna borrow some of these Todd?

Nice job Nelson, on mine I found that just the pad on the fixed jaw was a problem. I made my own pads out of plywood and cork and left the pad against the fixed jaw flat, it does not pivot, and screwed it to the fixed jaw through the holes provided. The pad at the other end rests on the sliding bar so tends to stay near the jaw. It seems to work fine, but if I need to make it different Nelson I will be incorporating your design ideas.

Thanks

Shane

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Canada