# Shop Made Bench Vice



## slickSqueegie (Oct 8, 2011)

Hello all I'm new here and wanted to say hello first..

I have been needing a bench vice for some time now. I have this 3'stick of 1" Acme threaded rod.
I did several searches and found no designs for a shop made vice so I made one. here it is.

I started by looking at store bought vices they seem straight forward enough.










I needed some way to enclose the nut solidly and stout! so I cut4 small blocks with the 30 degree angle and a top and bottom plate to glue the blocks to and enclose the setup.



























after that was glued up in (in two pieces top and bottom) I needed to cut the jaws for the vice. and drill holes to allow the rod and support dowels to attach to the front jaw only. on the inside jaw all three are slightly over-sized to allow the sliding movement.
I also cut the back plate for the nut holding setup and the rear dowel attachment and drilled holes. the back plate does not get glued yet. but you can go ahead and attach the dowel rod to the rear support dowel attachment. 
I simply cut (with my band-saw) 1 groove at the end of each dowel rod and used a wedge to secure it to the rear support with glue.









































































on to the handle.
I wasn't sure how to go about this one . I found one other person longknife on woodworking talk that did something similar (with excellent results) It seems he tapered the handle end of the rod and then cut grooves (like a tap) and tapped it in along with some epoxy. Its a great idea, luckily I had the acme tap as well so I turned a 3" cylinder about 4" long and drilled and tapped one end of it and then drilled for the sliding handle.




































While the handle is setting I glued the inside jaw to the nut holding assembly and the rear plate and attached the dowel to the front jaw. I wanted to be able to take it apart if need be so I did not glue it. I just used a small strip of sticky 340 grit sand paper on the end of each dowel. after tapping them into the hole I used the wedges again to hold it tight.
I also punched a 1" hole in 2 pieces of leather to make a washer to prevent the handel assembly doing damage to the front jaw.













































I will attach it to the bench today and take a few more pics.
Thanks for looking.


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## Planeman40 (Nov 3, 2010)

Now that's just slicker 'n deer guts on a door knob!!!

Great Job. I have to say I have a concern regarding the grain of the two clamping boards. If you only "snug" up you should be fine, but if you put too much pressure on those two boards when you tighten one may crack along the grain. Just a thought.

Planeman


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## slickSqueegie (Oct 8, 2011)

Thanks. yeah, I have thought about that as well… I'm thinking about gluing a plate for the front jaw with the grain running perpendicular. That should make it OK. And the only jaw that would crack would be the front. The other will have the support of the bench top.


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## woodtickgreg (Nov 11, 2009)

you have made excellent progress, does the handle slide or is it fixed? thats really cool, I want one, don't need one as I have a woodworking vice but it's just really cool!


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## slickSqueegie (Oct 8, 2011)

The handle does slide freely, it works great, but my bench is a piece of crap (the top anyway. And I really don't have a good enough mounting position. But it works for now.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Looks good from here ;-)) I have thought about that or using pipe clamps to do it.


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## jpc (Sep 9, 2009)

hello and welcome, I tried this same thing when i first started wood working and getting a work table togather, Didnt come out no where near as well as yours, great work and nice walk thru with the pics, be sure to post more after install and good luck


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## SnowFrog (Jun 6, 2011)

A lot on ingenuity when into this. Congrat good work.
Thurly hope it work good for you.


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## Rogerdat (Oct 15, 2011)

Nice work. Looks great.


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## Egor (Aug 2, 2007)

Thanks for sharing. I see one for myself in the future.


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## TS_Al (Dec 16, 2011)

Great job! Great write up!


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

Very interesting and nice job. Good presentation too.

helluvawreck

https://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com


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## sawedoff (Oct 10, 2011)

Very Nice….


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Looks great. I would make the jaws from thicker material, like 1-1/2" hard maple


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## Seenya (Sep 18, 2011)

Nice job. I'm thinking about making a Moxon vise soon.


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## slickSqueegie (Oct 8, 2011)

Thanks everyone for the very kind comments.

Mr Ron. If I was to do over! I would use laminated butcher block jaws with the grain running vertical ( I think that would give it the least amount of give.)

this vice has been working great for me Im very glad I made it!

Seenya, My next vice will be a moxon!


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## Dinnersnack (Jan 14, 2012)

I'm glad you posted this, i was in the process of deciding on buying or making a vice too. I also couldnt find any plans anywhere.

Couple of questions:
How is its strength? do you feel like you can really clamp down on things?
Is there much play in it? Dose it wrack about the same as a normal vice? if you had them, would you use steel rod instead of wood for the guide rods? 
i was going to go with 3/4 acme rod. is 1" a must or is that just what you happened to have?

any input now that it is made would be appreciated.

ps, i was planning on using Hickory for the wood part. any thoughts?

-JD


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## MichaelAgate (Jan 15, 2012)

Yeah that's what i like to see. Homemade. woot woot. Great idea. I may have to make one of these. Thanks for sharing.


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## slickSqueegie (Oct 8, 2011)

Dinnersnack, It is strong. an adjustment I have made was Making the height of the jaws shorter. I only gave them 2" of clamping area. That made a world of difference. I was having "uneven" clamping pressure. that fixed it. other than that, it is serving me well… It does not rack around. it is solid as any store bought.

3/4" should be fine. and no. the support rods are fine being wood…

any choice of hard wood, would be fine I would think.

one last note… 
I am thinking of dismantling it (even though it is working fine for me) and cutting the rod in half, to make a moxon double screw type.

but thanks for all the compliments!


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

"Now that's just slicker 'n deer guts on a door knob!!!" 
Planeman, you've been listenin' to too much Missouri blue grass music.
Grain orientation is my only concern with the jaw faces. Press on (no pun there?).
Bill


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## slickSqueegie (Oct 8, 2011)

Bill, Yeah, If I was to do this one over again, I would have made (cross) laminated jaws. two boards per jaw glues up with the grain running perpendicular to each other. But this works fine.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

I just found this . A super job ,very well done.


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## Tomj (Nov 18, 2011)

I made one very similar to yours using a threaded rod from a broken C-clamp, (having a lathe would have helped) but I do like yours better. I had the same problem with uneven clamping pressure so I would just prop a piece of wood in there to keep it even. One thing that does help with the slides is waxing them (much smoother back and forth). Nice job.


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