anyone build a bench vise?

[Jim Heffner]

Just curious has anyone here...built their own wooden bench vise? The ones like you see pictures of from a bygone era. I know that old time craftsman had to build a lot of their own stuff, benches, tools, leg vises,
wood screws and the like, and I was wanting to get some insight on how to make things like the wood screws for the vises and clamps.Any ideas?

I know that the acme threads on vises and clamps can be bought from
sources like Woodcraft and others, but I'm more interested in the best
source for the taps and dies to cut the wood. Any and all help appreciated....TIA.

[Roger Newby]

Lee Valley sell a threading kit that you use with a router for wooden threads, but you'll be blinkin' like a toad in a sandstorm when you see the price....$139.00:eek:.

Roger

[David Christopher]

Jim, grizzly has die's for threading wood

http://grizzly.com/products/searchresults.aspx?q=Wood Threading

[Ben Davis]

You need to head over to the neander subforum.... this is what we love to talk about! All kinds of good information over there on how to make your own dies and taps, saw, etc. Great stuff.

As an aside, I made semi made my own leg vise. Nice 8/4 Ash and used a simple screw vise from Lee Valley. Works great and I can clamp all the way to the floor.

[george wilson]

We built all our bench vises in Williamsburg.As toolmaker,I also had to furnish new wooden vise screws when they wore out.

We had a 2" dia. X 3 TPI German made cast iron screw box and a tap for it,that was there before I came there in 1970,and is still there.

I saw a large German tap and threading die in the Dick catalog several months ago,but it was well over $1000.00. The Dick catalog sells many tools from Europe and other places. They are in Germany.

[Jim Heffner]

Thanks guys for the answers to that question on a bench vises. I like the idea of getting the tools from Grizzly, sounds as if the prices are more in line with my finances right now. Those $1000.00 prices for the stuff from Germany is way out of my price range! I would like to see those pictures of that leg vise....sounds like a project I'm ready to tackle in the near future ......thanks again. Jim

[Alan Schwabacher]

Woodcraft and Highland woodworking carry what appears to be the same tap and die set as Grizzly. But look closely as there are three parts to a full set: the die, a standard tap, and a bottoming tap. All three are shown in the picture in the Grizzly catalog, but the parts are sold separately and the bottoming tap is not listed there. Highland had the best prices for the full set when I was looking.

Note that these sets come in sizes up to 1 1/2" diameter, and something like 6 TPI. That could work for a bench vise, but it's a little small and slow. A vise screw of 2" - 3" diameter with 2-3 TPI is more like the traditional size, though a reasonable dovetailing vise could certainly use a smaller screw or screws.

If you are interested in making your own larger threadbox, take a look at Roy Underhill's The Woodwright's Guide: Working Wood with Wedge and Edge. It explains how to make large wooden screws, and I highly recommend the book.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Ideally the threaded shaft is no less than 2" diameter and I'd reccommend larger. Maybe 3" or 4".

You can hand chase threads on a wood lathe. You can and chase both inside and outside threads. Which is all the reason to make it larger than 2" so you can get a hand made chasing tool in the cavity.

Make a thread chasing tool with the appropriate geometry with some 3 - 5 fully developed threads on it.

Sharpen the lead thread former and leave the rest dull. You could sharpen 'em all. I think Sorby does.
The trick (and it's a trick) is to get the thing started by hand and eye and let the following teeth in your tool to catch and just move the cutter along. That's why I say don't sharpen 'em all.

You'll go through a couple large diameter chunks of lumber before you get the feel for it.

The tool is made from a flat hunk of any hardened (or hardenable ) steel that you can grind the profile into. ( I'd stisk with hack sawing and filing and try to skip the grinder unless you can dress a wheel accurately to produce a tooth configuration. Many people like Car or Truck leaf springs.

Anneal the Leaf Spring first~!!
Take your wood stove ( or any close analogy) to a full on hot as hell blaze with a deep, deep bed of coals. S-L-O-W-L-E-Y raist the temperature of the leaf spring to a warm red color. Take your time. this should happen over about an hour. Lots of guys skip this step - it is error. I can explain all about how failure to anneal causes microscopic carbides to accumulate in the steel and causing weak spots and chipping at the fine sharp edge but you already know all about that right? You do now. Then after it's red pop it in the hot coals and leave it till the next day.
That should anneal it just fine.

Some steels like O1 don't really suffer from a fast pre heat but others do. Many automotive springs ware made from 5160H High Cromium Oil Hardening Steel that won't hold quite the edge that O1 does but, will do just fine - and won't rust so fast as does O1.



Leaf Springs are handy because they are excellent steel, can be annealed and re hardened (you only need to heat threat the business end. And they they lave an awful of of extra metal to mount in a really hefty handle.

I believe all Automotive leaf springs are oil hardening.
You'll find out quick enough if the steel you have to hand hand is.
It'll either hardenup correctly or it won't.

Coming out of the quench it should be so hard that no file will touch it.
The file will itterally have zero bite in the metal. It'll slide over it like it wasn't a file.

Then pop it in an oven at 350 Deg F (not a scosh more) Maybe less. For like 6 hours or more. Longer time in the tempering oven is better. Ya gotta have a reliable oven thermometer. Oven dials and oven thermometers are terrible.

5160 Can be tempered at higher temperatures but - you don't know what steel is in your leafe sping for sure so start at 350 F
If after the temper a file shows slightly more bite. You are golden. If not raise the oven temp to 400 F and let it go another few hours.

[Walter Plummer]

Hello Jim, check out www.bigwoodvise.com (http://www.bigwoodvise.com). It might be a viable choice.

[harry strasil]

My demo bench,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/bench2-1.jpg


My basement shop bench.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/nu%20bench/coatedbench050809.jpg

[Jim Heffner]

Harry, great pics of that bench...did you build it? looks solid and well constructed throughout. I like the pics of the leg vise and I want to build one in the near future I think it would be a really handy addition to a workbench! I also like the dog or holdfast holes, great way of holding large or odd shaped pieces of wood securely to the bench. Thanks again!

[harry strasil]

Jim the whole bench build is in Neanderthal Haven, http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=76185&highlight=nubench

[harry strasil]

My portable Demo Bench is here, http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=38637&highlight=bench

And my portable shop trailer is here, http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=35235&highlight=bench

Here are some pics of the portable shop set up,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/HNM2.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/HNM1.jpg

[Brian Millspaw]

Jim,
I worked in a carving factory on an old factory made bench with wooden screw vises. Wood screws are great because they open and close the vise quickly. I thought that I should have one for myself, It took me a year to figure out how I should do it and after I did, I thought that I would be selling these bench screws hand over fist. Anyway that was 7 years ago so here are some pics of my vise and the screw tools. This is for a 2.25" screw.

The screwbox is the same as the roy underhill one, a twopart box. the rear is threaded and the front is the outside diameter hole. but instead of the v cutters I use a router with a bit ground to the thread shape. The tap gave me problems for a while, until I realize that I didn't have to make the whole thing from metal, Just the cutters. So It is a wooden tap with two steel cutters inserted and ground to the shape of the tap

I hope this helps
-Brian Milspaw
www.finewoodcarver.com (http://www.finewoodcarver.com)

[James Sherman]

I am in the process of working on a prototype 2" diamiter wooden screw that will be machined on a CNC Lathe. I am doing the first set for myself but am thinking about doing production runs for sale. I know that there is some interest in them but not sure if it will be enough to support this. Anyone have a take on the Idea?

[phil harold]

http://www.bigwoodvise.com/Shaker.cfm

little spendy for my taste...