Moxon Vise - Thanks Tony!

[Frederick Skelly]

I've been reading posts on Moxon Vises for a year, both as they've come up lately and in the archives, trying to decide if I wanted one. Well, yesterday I decided that I do. So tonight I was trying to decide between the amazing Benchcrafted kit ($164), the kit offered by Tools for Working Wood (TFWW, $70) and a low price set from Taylor Tools ($37). (Based on an old post where someone priced out all the parts, I decided not to build my own from scratch. It was only a little more to buy the kit from TFWW. And I KNEW the kit would work. I was less confident of my mechanical skills.)

I was a little hesitant to try the kit from TFWW because it isnt as stout as some others, nor is it as deep. (Only 6 1/2"). But Joel at TFWW has never steered me wrong and he has a solid return policy. What finally sold me on the TFWW kit was when I looked at the reviews. The first one that came up was from our own Tony Zaffuto and it was a glowing endorsement. The other reviews answered a few residual questions I had. So I pulled the trigger.

Thanks Tony!

Fred

[Edit: our own Tom Bussey occasionally sells one of his moxon hardware sets, which are excellent quality by all accounts, for about $115. Knowing Tom's work, that's probably the best deal around if he has any available at the time.]

[Christopher Charles]

Congrats Fred, a good choice and one I considered. I will vouch for Tom's set as it is what I settled on and it is a fine piece of kit. And I have also had nothing but good experiences with TFWW. So, frankly I think these things can be (wonderfully) over-thought

Good luck with the build and hope you share your take.

Best,
Chris

[Bob Jones 5443]

Congratulations on pulling the trigger, Fred. I'm about to go out to the shop and FINALLY bore the holes for the lead screws and nut mortises. I've been slouching toward this day most of this year, so it will be good to get the vise into service. Good luck with yours.

One thing that has occurred to me in the past few days is to pay close attention to the order of operations with the Forstner bits. I'm using 3/4" for the lead screws and 1-1/4" to start the nut mortises. I hadn't thought about it at first, but the center tip of the 1-1/4" Forstner will leave a hole too large to accurately center the tip of the 3/4" bit, so I had to write out my steps to make sure I don't end up with a nasty surprise.

[Bob Jones 5443]

I now have all the holes bored and mortises chopped. The mortises turned out well and some of the 3/4" holes were fine, but I seem to have bored one or two of them a bit skewed. I think this happened when I clamped the vise chop to the drill press table.

This opens a quiet little corner of the Moxon vise saga for me. Is there anything wrong with boring the lead-screw hole in the rear chop at 7/8"? Heresy, on the surface, but all we want is a smooth throughput of the lead screw that will allow strict perpendicularity to the 1-3/4" channel in the front chop. My rear holes were a tiny bit off at 3/4" diameter. For one of them I free-handed a larger bore with the 3/4" Forstner and it cleared that side up. But I just decided, what the heck with the other side and used a 7/8" bit. Now the perpendicularity is controlled by the two nuts. The vise operates smoothly and the front chop moves in and out freely.

So, on the subject of using 7/8" (or 13/16") for the rear lead-screw hole, does anyone do this?

What I really want to ask is, has anyone run into alignment trouble trying to drill precise 3/4" holes through both chops?

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks guys.

Well, the hardware arrived yesterday and I was in the shop till midnight designing and building my Moxon.
* I had intended to prototype it using dimensional lumber to get the hang of how high it needs to be and what features I wanted. But the board I planned to use had twist. So I set that aside and played around until I had a first cut at dimensions.

* I decided to build it 6" high. For me, that height "seemed" best after mocking up heights between 4" and 6". I decided to make it 18" long, which gives me 14" between the screws.

* The material I had available was 4/4 POPLAR. So I had to face glue two pieces to get the 2" thick rear chop I wanted. The front chop is 1". Poplar was not my material of choice - I suspect it will wear quickly. But this is, after all, a prototype......

* The kit from TFWW uses rectangular nuts that you mortise INSIDE the rear chop. I didnt feel confident I could cut "good" 3" deep mortises - even drilling out most of the waste. So I cut two stopped dados in each of the 2 parts before I face glued them. I was pleased, because when I face glued the two parts, the two dados aligned well and I had two very functional 3" deep mortises in my (now) 2" thick rear chop.

Bottom view of rear chop showing one mortise.
20201212_082137.jpg


1:45pm update: Went into the shop and put it together, just as a test. Seems like it's going to work very well. Still need to do some cosmetic things and the put on a finish.

More, plus pictures, as I finish this build......
Fred

[Frederick Skelly]

Well, I got it done. Man does it work nicely. The hardware from TFWW is good quality and works well. Here's a few more pics.

Front view.
I put a 60* chamfer on the front chop for extra clearance when sawing.
20201213_142629.jpg

Back view, from Top.
The hold downs are rock solid, so I did not include a "clamping ledge". Eliminating that let me shrink the storage footprint.
20201213_142541.jpg

Here 's a sort of Side View.
20201213_142715.jpg

Front view with removable "spacer and table jig" installed.
Reading Derek Cohen's website convinced me that using a spacer was a good idea for me. I also decided I did not want a permanent table hanging off the back - but I did want a clamping surface. So before I figured out how to build Derek's latest spacer, I came up with this. It's nothing special - just 2 pieces of 1/2" baltic birch joined at 90*. The side that goes in the chops is as wide as the span between the screws and as tall as the rear chop. That gives even clamping. It's costs me some clamping capacity on thick stuff - no issue.
20201213_141757.jpg

Here's another pic of just the "spacer and table jig" itself. Unless I just fall in love with this thing, I intend to copy Derek's spacer and microjig clamp (assuming Santa brings me the microjig I requested).
20201213_141842.jpg

Anyway, thanks to all of you for your help and advice here. I'll use this a while and figure out what I like. Then maybe make one from Maple!

Happy Holidays!
Fred

[Bob Jones 5443]

Nice looking build, Fred. Now you and I need to get to work on some dovetails.