I've wanted a good set of vise soft jaws for a while, but I've had trouble finding large lead plates to cover my vise at a reasonable cost. I looked for others who had made their own, but found little info. Here is what I did:
Bought a 5" square Lodge cast iron skillet from my local outdoor shop. Filled it with old decoy anchors and put it over a camp stove:
Melted it in about 5-10 minutes. Maybe less. Skimmed off the gras-du that came to the top.
Let it cool and dumped it out on a piece of sheet metal:
Scrubbed off some residue on the bottom / skillet side and put them in the vise. Pounded the whole thing to shape and the edges smooth.
Ran out of time to put them to the test, but they are nice and thick and should do just right.
