Laminated Wood Vise Jaws

I'm about to install a Veritas Twin-Screw Vise on my workbench and was thinking of laminating two different types of wood for the front jaw, maple on the front and cheap soft wood on the inside. My thinking it would serve two purposes. The soft wood wood is cheaper and it would also help to protect whatever I'm working on. The outer layer made of maple would mostly be for aesthetics but also might hold the vise hardware better and stiffen the softer inner jaw. My first concern is gluing two different types of wood together as I've never done this before. Anyone approached making jaws this way before?

Maybe the softwood could be attached with a couple of screws sunken under the surface of the soft jaw. That would make it easier to replace in the future.

If a vise jaw can be laminated with leather, why not softwood?

jtk

If it turns to doo-doo, it seems to me that it would not be that big a deal to swap it out. At any rate, I highly recommend that you glue some leather (I use thin suede) to the faces of whatever wood you decide on.

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Originally Posted by David Eisenhauer

If it turns to doo-doo, it seems to me that it would not be that big a deal to swap it out. At any rate, I highly recommend that you glue some leather (I use thin suede) to the faces of whatever wood you decide on.

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Does that include the back jaw, which in my case is the face of the table? If so, doesn't the thickness of the leather defeat the purpose of having the back jaw in line with the side of the table when clamping long pieces?

I laminated up 2 layers of hard maple to get the thickness I was after. I then added leather on the front jaw only. It adds just enough more grip to really let you grab stuff without having to crush it. If you are planning on adding a wear surface it should not be part of the structural function of the jaw. I would pass but, if I were to do it, I would screw it on.

Steve. I have thin leather on the inside of both of my vise chops. I do this on all of my vises and it makes the vises work so much better. The leather is thin, maybe 1/32"? or less? and is has not caused me any problems with clamping long pieces on the side of the bench to work on an edge. Again, if it causes problems, it would not be an issue to remove it at all in my opinion. Try it and see. I bought a scrap looking, irregular shaped piece of thin sued leather at a Tandy Leather store for not tons of $ and I have slowly been cutting pieces off of it for various uses. I even have small leather pads glued to the faces of my holdfasts for better grip and less marring of the work. Same for my square bench dogs.

I have been using poplar for my vise and I like it due to the bit of give it has compared to hard maple. I tried pine but it gets damaged too quickly and compresses too much. I have been also using naugahyde instead of leather, but only because a customer left me a large piece and I thought I would try it. Really can't tell any difference from using leather. The piece on my vise has been there for at least 6 months now and I woodwork daily. I don't think the naugahyde would work for a holdfast.

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I don't think the naugahyde would work for a holdfast.

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Why not?

Maybe cut a piece a bit bigger than the pay on your holdfast and test it on pieces of scrap.

jtk

I'll try it when I remember, but the vinyl doesn't have the fibers interwoven like leather does. I expect it to puncture with pressure confined to such a small area.

At work we have glued a layer of Cork about 5 - 8 mm thick to the jaws, works really well, isnt to expensive and easy enough to remove if it does wear down.

I just built a portable Moxon vise and created the jaws using laminated maple boards as I did not have any 8/4 maple lumber around. Had plenty of 4/4 boards though. The results are great so far and the glue line is practically seamless. I would recommend alternating grain orientation of each of the laminations if the boards are plain-sawn. This will serve to counter any cupping or bowing. I have an example of this in a pic, some more info in a recent blog post at my site

Norman

The naugahide doesn't work worth a hoot on a holdfast. I started trying it early last week and by early today, I just pulled it off and threw it in garbage. I'm usually fairly patient, but I had enough of what was clearly a useless exercise. I have Gramercy brand if someone thinks it may work better on another brand, I doubt it.

Seems to me that naugahide would be too slippery.

It is on a holdfast, I have it on my vise liners and it is fine. Some experiments take a while to know if they are going to work out. This one took three days to p@!!s me off.

I feel for you Bob.