# Crosshatching jig? Ideas?



## totalrewind (Mar 6, 2012)

Hey all,

I have a problem. My drill press vice jaws have a series of diagonal cross-hatches, which are worn out.
I tried cutting them back in with a hacksaw blade, but I have a hard time keeping it from wandering and ruining the groove. Plus it's tedious and my thumbs are getting pretty sore.

What I really want to do is unscrew the jaw face, toss a v-groove bit in my router and zip it out, but that leads to the question in the title: How to make a series of straight lines at a set spacing from one another?

There has to be a simple solution, but I'm at a loss what that might be.

Thoughts?

-Kurt


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## John Smith_inFL (Dec 15, 2017)

if you can get the jaw faces off, you could run the cutting wheel
on an angle grinder in the existing groove with more accuracy than the router.
the vice that I have, the jaw face is held on with two hex screws on each jaw.
..... (that's what I would do).










.


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## GrantA (Jul 19, 2014)

Wow I had to go back and read that again, I thought you were talking about cross hatch on the chuck, imagining that you were somehow gonna cut that with a router!
I'd suggest a triangular file


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## John Smith_inFL (Dec 15, 2017)

if you don't have the angle grinder and you really don't have a problem with the router,
you could cut out a cavity in a board that the jaw would fit flush in, then you could free-hand
the V bit through the existing grooves. that way the workpiece would be flush with the router base.
put a couple of screws in the jaw to make sure it doesn't move
wa-la = done deal


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## hairy (Sep 23, 2008)

Maybe this will help. It's a wooden meat mallet with a crosshatched head.


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## John Smith_inFL (Dec 15, 2017)

Kurt - I was "assuming" the jaw faces were metal ~ are they wood ???

.

.


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

I hope they are wood!


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

they better be WOOD :<)))) LOL


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## totalrewind (Mar 6, 2012)

The jaws are cast iron. Fairly soft for metal. I've seen guys cut that with carbide router bits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urz57RVC15A), but of course, the harder the material, the shorter the lifespan, I'm sure.

Thanks John Smith. I do have an angle grinder just hanging there on the wall right in front of my face, yet for some reason that never occurred to me. I see how the cutting wheel would help to keep the line straighter. (Just don't wanna sneeze and cut the thing in half! LOL!)

That doesn't help with the spacing, but combined with hairy's video, I'm starting to get a nugget of a plan in mind. I'd need to figure out how to mount a grinder in place of the router-an interesting sounding tool to have around, now that I think about it.

Or, as suggested, just freehand the dumb thing and call it good enough.

Thanks everyone for your input!


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## John Smith_inFL (Dec 15, 2017)

like I tell a lot of my cohorts - it's a WORKING TOOL - not a piece that
will go on your great-grandmothers antique china cabinet !!

share some pics when you gitter dun.

and as for a wood router bit in iron - on my last table saw, I had a nasty "scar" 
in the cast iron table where I didn't lock the router depth handle and a 3/4" 
pattern bit slid down about a 1/8" by 6" long before I noticed the mishap.
(a little Bondo and all is good).
so, I know from experience that a carbide router bit designed for wood will
definitely cut cast iron and other soft metals.

.
.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

How about a wide cold chisel and hammer; file or sand down the burrs?


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## wichman3 (Sep 12, 2016)

Do you have an oscillating multi-tool? A diamond half round cutter would handle the cast iron, and this tool would be much easier to control.
Or
A metal cutting blade in a tablesaw, used with a fingerjoint jig.


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