Project Information
My favorite shop tool. 8/4 air dried maple from my Amish friends in Ohio. Benchcrafted hardware. Works beautifully and saves my back on a daily basis!
The plans for the Moxon vise can be found on the Benchcrafted website for free, so if you're interested in building this vise I would suggest downloading them so you can see how easy this build is! In this picture I have my centers lined up and marked, as well as the mortise for the fixed jaw marked out.
http://benchcrafted.com/PDF%20Files/Benchcrafted%20Moxon%20Vise.pdf
I worked over at my tablesaw because the light is much better there for pictures. Takes too long to go back and forth from the bench to the saw.
Stabilizer block for the back of the vise.
I got this diagram from Chris Schwarz's article here: http://www.leevalley.com/US/newsletters/Woodworking/5/3/article1.htm
and resized it until it was 1 3/8" wide. Then I printed it on cardstock and carefully cut it out.
To layout the Lamb's Tongue, mark a point (mine was about 5 inches in, but go with whatever you think looks good) and trace your template. Then flip it over and trace it on the other face of the chop. Then use your marking gauge to scribe a line from the top of one end of the template to the other, then repeat on the opposite face. Keep the same setting so things remain even.
I used my crosscut saw to cut right down to the corner of the template. This will help out a lot later. Repeat on the opposite end.
Then (still using the handsaw) I made a cut every half inch, making sure not to go past my scribe lines. This took about 5 minutes.
After that I used a 3/8" mortise chisel to pop the waste out. Also make sure to get your table saw or benchtop as messy as possible, that's really going to help you out here.
After chopping out the waste I used a spokeshave set for a heavy cut to take out the bulk of the material. A drawknife would be ideal here, but I don't have one. As I got close to my scribe lines I set the spokeshave for a light cut and eased up to the lines. Then I used a rabbeting block plane to get into the corners, planing across the grain. This whole process only took about 10 minutes.
Now it's time to work on the Lamb's Tongue. I used my fret saw to saw out most of the waste. On a smaller Lamb's Tongue you can use a bench chisel for the whole process, but I did not want to remove this much waste in hard maple with a chisel alone.
I used a 1/2" bench chisel to pare close to the line. I kept the chisel skewed and worked across the grain taking light cuts
To carve the tip of the Lamb's Tongue I used a #6, 14mm gouge. I think any gouge #3-#6 would do fine here. Used a scooping action to remove the waste.
Used a file to clean it up.
Then I sanded it and took it up through 0000 steel wool.
The shadows are pretty dramatic.
Applied a simple tung oil finish.
This is the contact cement I found and it seemed to do a good job. I brushed the first coat on the suede (not on the wood at this time) and let it dry for 20 minutes. Think of this as your pore filling coat.
Normally you would only glue the suede to the movable jaw. But I usually work in wood species that are softer than hard maple and am concerned about marring the workpieces. I cut the piece of suede in half and put it on both sides of the jaws when I had it together earlier and the grip was rock solid. It did not seem to diminish the holding power at all. I also used a board that went the full distance between screws and there was no movement when the vise was tightened.
After the 20 minutes were up I brushed the second coat on the suede and immediately went to apply the cement to the wood. I live in Tucson, AZ, so the temperature in the shop that day was around 100°.
With the hardware in
Thank you for taking a look!
The plans for the Moxon vise can be found on the Benchcrafted website for free, so if you're interested in building this vise I would suggest downloading them so you can see how easy this build is! In this picture I have my centers lined up and marked, as well as the mortise for the fixed jaw marked out.
http://benchcrafted.com/PDF%20Files/Benchcrafted%20Moxon%20Vise.pdf
I worked over at my tablesaw because the light is much better there for pictures. Takes too long to go back and forth from the bench to the saw.
Stabilizer block for the back of the vise.
I got this diagram from Chris Schwarz's article here: http://www.leevalley.com/US/newsletters/Woodworking/5/3/article1.htm
and resized it until it was 1 3/8" wide. Then I printed it on cardstock and carefully cut it out.
To layout the Lamb's Tongue, mark a point (mine was about 5 inches in, but go with whatever you think looks good) and trace your template. Then flip it over and trace it on the other face of the chop. Then use your marking gauge to scribe a line from the top of one end of the template to the other, then repeat on the opposite face. Keep the same setting so things remain even.
I used my crosscut saw to cut right down to the corner of the template. This will help out a lot later. Repeat on the opposite end.
Then (still using the handsaw) I made a cut every half inch, making sure not to go past my scribe lines. This took about 5 minutes.
After that I used a 3/8" mortise chisel to pop the waste out. Also make sure to get your table saw or benchtop as messy as possible, that's really going to help you out here.
After chopping out the waste I used a spokeshave set for a heavy cut to take out the bulk of the material. A drawknife would be ideal here, but I don't have one. As I got close to my scribe lines I set the spokeshave for a light cut and eased up to the lines. Then I used a rabbeting block plane to get into the corners, planing across the grain. This whole process only took about 10 minutes.
Now it's time to work on the Lamb's Tongue. I used my fret saw to saw out most of the waste. On a smaller Lamb's Tongue you can use a bench chisel for the whole process, but I did not want to remove this much waste in hard maple with a chisel alone.
I used a 1/2" bench chisel to pare close to the line. I kept the chisel skewed and worked across the grain taking light cuts
To carve the tip of the Lamb's Tongue I used a #6, 14mm gouge. I think any gouge #3-#6 would do fine here. Used a scooping action to remove the waste.
Used a file to clean it up.
Then I sanded it and took it up through 0000 steel wool.
The shadows are pretty dramatic.
Applied a simple tung oil finish.
This is the contact cement I found and it seemed to do a good job. I brushed the first coat on the suede (not on the wood at this time) and let it dry for 20 minutes. Think of this as your pore filling coat.
Normally you would only glue the suede to the movable jaw. But I usually work in wood species that are softer than hard maple and am concerned about marring the workpieces. I cut the piece of suede in half and put it on both sides of the jaws when I had it together earlier and the grip was rock solid. It did not seem to diminish the holding power at all. I also used a board that went the full distance between screws and there was no movement when the vise was tightened.
After the 20 minutes were up I brushed the second coat on the suede and immediately went to apply the cement to the wood. I live in Tucson, AZ, so the temperature in the shop that day was around 100°.
With the hardware in
Thank you for taking a look!