Vise Question

[Dr. Deb]

I am in the process of getting everything ready to build a woodworkers bench. The current plans are for a wagon vise on the end and a leg vise. No problem there.

Here is the question, is there any reason - except the slowness of the opening and closure of the vise - I could not use a thread maker and use 1

1/2 6tpi wooden screw on the leg vise? I thought about a 1" 6tpi wooden screw on the wagon vise.

There has to be a serious problem that I am not seeing and wondered if any of you could enlighten me. The bench is going to be out of 7/4 southern red oak and I was thinking about using the same for the screws.

Thanks

Deb

[Larry W]

Wooden vise screws were common before the 2nd half of the 19th century. You still see them at places like Williamsburg.

[Larry W]

A second thought on your wood choice, might be worth researching if red oak was typically used "back in the day." I don't know for sure, but my guess would be that something with a tighter grain, or maybe interlocking grain, would do better.

[Larry Blanchard]

I've made a couple of vises with wooden screws. I used maple - I think it holds threads a lot better than a coarse grained wood like oak.

One warning - the thread cutter I used, one like this:

is actually metric. A nominal 1" is actually a 25mm. Doesn't sound like much, but I had to chuck up a 1" dowel and turn it down a smidgen to make it work.

Also, I don't think 1/2" would be strong enough - I'd go with the 1".

[Dr. Deb]

Larry, I will see what I can find. I have some soft maple, which cuts very well. But, for obvious reasons, I would prefer hard maple. You don't happen to have a full 2x2 of hard maple, about 42" long, in your hip pocket, do you? :-)

Thanks

Deb

[whit3rd]

Well, sure there is. Your screw would have 1/12 " threads sticking up, and that is a very bad short-grain situation. That can be made a little better by using triangular threads instead of square threads, but it's still 1/6" at the base. The triangular screw also wedges tight when you apply any force, and wedges worse if the shaft doesn't remain completely straight.

A steel square-thread nut/screw is superior to wood, and they're cheap. Buy. Enjoy.

[Limp Arbor]

You may want to consider a vise like this for your bench.

put a similar one on my benct and love it. The dog holes give you plenty of clamping/holding options. I also put a hole in the tail section and ran a second set of holes. This gives me two rows of holes running the length of my bench.

For the hardware I just bought a screw from Grizzly.

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[Larry Jaques]

Nice!

It's missing a pivot piece by the handle. See

and for reference.

-- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -- Seneca

[Limp Arbor]

Thanks for the correction. I did use the first one you linked to. Not even sure what you would do with that first screw I erroneously posted.

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[Larry Jaques]

 See> reference.

That thing bothered me so much I called Griz this morning and talked to a nice lady in Customer Service. She neither knew what it was for nor quite how it worked, so she gave me the number for Griz T/S, who wasn't up at that hour.

-- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -- Seneca

[Larry W]

No, I'm just happy to see you. :)