Question: Hardwood or Softwood for vise!

[Gary Lange]

I put a vise in my bench now I need to attach the wood blocks in the jaws. Should I use a Hardwood or a softwood for these blocks?

[David Christopher]

Gary, I dont know if this is right answer but I used oak in mine....its tough enough to take a beating and soft enough to squeze things without denting them

[Gary Lange]

That is kind of what I was thinking. Something to soft would be needing replacement to often and to hard would be damaging the wood.

[Gary Breckenridge]

I used plywood in mine. Next time I'll use walnut and cut a spare set at the same time so I can replace them as needed. I might even try glue up leather.:cool:

[Jerry Olexa]

any hardwood is better for this.

[Bill Huber]

I have always use the softest I could, that way when I clamp down on a broad it will not dent it.

I always though that with hardwood that if you clamped down on some softwood it could dent it.

I guess thats what I get for thinking.....:D

[Bill Houghton]

Some people use leather. I used maple in one vise (wood tended to slip a bit) and masonite in the current one (wood slips even more).

I think I'm going to try the leather next time.

[george wilson]

Hardwood is best,but be sure to keep it from getting glue,or other stuff on it which will press onto your project. Leather faces should be fine. Some 1/8" urethane jaw liners are being used by some. I like to have hardwood only on another vise,to sharpen scrapers and grasp other very thin objects. I consider a very smooth grain wood like Maple as ideal,so as to not print woodgrain onto a soft wood project. Beech is also good.

I tend to make small things,so the vise I've used more than any other is the "universal" type that sits on top of the bench,can be rotated,and the jaws swivel. It is really a gun stocker's vise. I got one in about 1965 from Woodcraft. They were German,and cost $40.00. They kept going up till they were about $250.00. Finally,Taiwan made clones came out for $99.00. I like to test these vises in person,as the fit on some can be just fine,but sloppy loose on others on their horizontal rails.

We had another German one wear out its nut,surprisingly,and it jumped the threads. It wasn't too old,either. We were going to make a new nut,when we found that the screw from a Taiwan machinist's vise,which had broken in the shop,fitted it perfectly. We bored out the nut,and silver soldered in the threads from the other vise,after turning the threads to produce a cylinder with internal threads. I still have my old German one,and have had no trouble with the Taiwan ones wearing out,but do check them for wobbly jaw travel when buying one.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I cut a pair of MDF jaw faces, inset some rare earth magnets, and have not had any problems. When they require replacement, I will probably go with hardwood, though Schwartz used pine for jaws on one of his benches and it seemed to do fine too.

Doc

[Jason Hallowell]

I've always used soft pine, but I also work with a lot of softer woods. They do require replacement more often, but it's worth it to me.

[Howard Acheson]

>> I always though that with hardwood that if you clamped down on some softwood it could dent it.

Not true. The number of square inches in most vise faces is quite large. Mine is 11"x3" or 33 sq. inches. About the best pressure you can get with a vise screw is maybe 100 psi. That means that you're only getting about 3 psi at any one point on the face of the vice. Unless you were working with balsa, I doubt that there is any way that you could leave an impression in a piece of wood.

Some restorers have removable leather faces they can put on their vises. That way they do not damage any finish that may be on the piece they are working on.

[David Christopher]

. About the best pressure you can get with a vise screw is maybe 100 psi. That means that you're only getting about 3 psi at any one point on the face of the vice.
QUOTE]

are you sure, .....I would think it a finger could stand 3 psi and my finger cant stand the pressure that my vice can produce

[Frank Drew]

Any reasonably durable wood will do, but I strongly endorse lining the jaw faces with leather, and in my experience rough-out leather grips a bit better than smooth, and with less clamping pressure.

[bob hertle]

You guys got me curious, talking about vise screws, jaw pressure etc. I've never looked at my ww bench vises in terms of technical details before, so I decided to check.

Here's the specs:

screw dia 1.06"
5-tpi
handle length 10" from center

Let's conservatively assume a handle force of 20 lbs. at the end of the handle. The calculated screw load would be ~940 lbs. Now it's really only meaningful to project this over the entire jaw face if you're not gripping anything. If you're gripping a 4x6 inch piece, on the screw centerline, the result is about 39 psi. If you're gripping your finger, my guess is you'd pass out before you could put 5 lb. of force on the end of the handle!

For the record, my vise jaw (replacement) is 8 x 20 x 3" soft maple. The bench was my grandfathers, built somwhere in the late 1800's. The metal screws appear to be original. I rescued the bench about 25 years ago after my father passed away.

Regards
Bob

[John Keeton]

My choice would be "use what you have." I doubt it makes any difference, but for aesthetics. I used SYP and it works just great on hardwood and softwood objects. Leather faces or the urethane may give a bit more friction, and that would be nice in certain instances. Seems that lack of friction is more of an issue than anything. I think if my vice faces had greater friction, I could use a bit less vice pressure at times.

[Vic Damone]

I glued some, approximately 1/4" thick, latigo leather to my economical pattern maker's vise.

[glenn bradley]

I used beech but, I have dog holes in my vice jaws so something softer wasn't what I was after.

[Gary Lange]

Well I sure got a bunch of replies on this question with all kinds of answers and all of them good. I had some Birch Plywood laying around and used that. If it wears out I can just replace it with some more scrap. Sure appreciate the great ideas presented.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Cheap pine.
Some guys like to apply leather rough side out on the facings for the increased grip.

I'd prolly do that too except I abuse my vise so much that I'm frequently swapping the jaw facing for fresh wood.

[Dan Sink]

>> I always though that with hardwood that if you clamped down on some softwood it could dent it.

Not true. The number of square inches in most vise faces is quite large. Mine is 11"x3" or 33 sq. inches. About the best pressure you can get with a vise screw is maybe 100 psi. That means that you're only getting about 3 psi at any one point on the face of the vice. Unless you were working with balsa, I doubt that there is any way that you could leave an impression in a piece of wood.

Some restorers have removable leather faces they can put on their vises. That way they do not damage any finish that may be on the piece they are working on.

Sorry Howard, but that isn't correct. PSI is a force measurement (pounds) per area measurement (inches squared), not a total force measurement. You can't divide it again by another area measurement. If your vise is giving you 100 psi and the surface area of a jaw is 33 sq. inches, that means that your vise is supplying 3300 pounds of total force. The way you were doing it would give you a measure of pounds/sq. in/sq. in.