Thin Parallels, 4" Long, 11 Pairs, Premium

These 4" long thin parallels are great for the small 4" vises used on mini mills and bench mills because at a top size of 1" they can still fit in the vise. Smaller mill vises (under 6") are about 1" deep, meaning standard parallel sets have a bunch of parallels that can't be used. Custom made for LittleMachineShop.com, you can use ALL of these parallels.

This set of 1/8" thin parallels contains 9 pairs of parallels that step in 1/16" increments from 1/2" to 1". This gives you more sizes you can use in our small vises whose jaws are usually about 1" in height. No need to toss the taller sizes in most standard sets. The two pairs of shims, 9/64" and 5/32" high means that you can space things in 1/64" increments.

Parallel within 0.0002" on the top and bottom. The pairs are matched in height within 0.0002". Made of high-grade alloy steel hardened to 52 to 58 Rc. Comes in a wooden box

Vise jaws are often too deep for the work. In general, you want the top of the work piece to extend above the top of the vise jaws. To fill the gap from the bottom of the work piece to the "ways" of the vise, you use parallels.

Parallels are strips of metal that have been carefully ground so that the top and bottom edges are parallel with very tight tolerances. They usually come in matched pairs. Place one parallel adjacent to each jaw in the vise and place the work piece so it rests on the parallels.