I'd really like to see the results on this, I could see this working quite well!
However, the teeth in the plates on a vice grip may rip into your parchment/oil slick pad. I would suggest putting flat smooth SS plates over these teeth if you haven't already
Latest result.
Pressed 4.7 grams of blackberry kush, super dense and triched nug.
Got 0.8g yield in a single run using my method of directly heating the 1 inch plates of the c clamp, and pressing at around 215-250 degrees for 5-8 seconds.
Not bad, I can see the yield possibly reaching 20% by running the nugs a second and possibly 3rd time.
The teeth on the plates do seem to sometimes create holes/indents on the parchment, but ive had more trouble with the main stem on the .2 nug poking through the parchment which also hasn't been bad just gotta deal with it before you try pressing.
The biggest issue with ripping the paper has been when pressing down if the 2 plates don't come down on top of each other pretty evenly, they slide and create small folds in the parchment potentially ripping it.
But all of the aforementioned issues are pretty minor in contrast to all the positives in comparison to using a hair iron.
I tried this with my harbor freight locking c-clamp pliers and it worked pretty well. temp control was difficult though since my IR gun can't read bare metals accurately. I tested it by pressing some printer paper and observing the discoloration. Once the discoloration lightened and eventually stopped, I pressed the nug. it was still too hot since the weed coin had a brown, toasted appearance and the rosin was decarbed. Wasn't expecting much though, so I was pleasantly surprised. I suppose that's the beauty of rosin tech -- it can cheaply and easily be done with household materials, and by novice hashmakers to boot.
I was actually going to buy a cheap laser thermometer for 20-30$, but was gifted a thermometer my friend uses for his HVAC work that you physically make contact with whatever you want to read and can go up to 500 degrees F.
Those are also pretty cheap and have been working great for us and seem consistent and reliable, deff recommend.
All in all at the scale I am working at, heating the clamps directly seems to be the best idea yet!
One idea we have that might speed things up and make things more consistent would be to place a few of the c clamps in boiling water till they reach max temp which should be 212F.
They shouldn't go any higher than that which should allow us to skip calibrating temps and testing with the thermometer. Plan is to press at 212 for 10 seconds or something and once finished put the clamp back in the boiling water and grab the next pair, and so on.