After years of having put up with just having a single 6" vise w/8" oak jaws in my shop as my primary means for clamping, I decided it was time for a change. I"ve been eyeballing a Moxon vise for quite a while as an option. I like the simplicity as well as the potential versatility the design offers. Construction of the vise is a straight forward process with very little to screw ya up as you go along. The primary hardware for one of these a couple of #8 ACME threaded rods and a couple of hand wheels. The threaded rod as well as the hand wheels can be substituted with numerous options. All depends on what suites your fancy and your budget.
Wood for the build comes down to whatcha got and whatcha want. I had some very old hard maple that I picked up as part of a Wormy Chestnut buy several years ago. Wasn't much to look at, but I held onto it none the less, now I"m glad I did. A nice 1" walnut board was used as much for decoration as anything else. The jaws are made up of some really sweet 2" hard maple and the legs/supports are made of some equally nice 2" walnut. Lumber for the bench portion was milled up to just under 2"s. 2 halfves were glued up separately, ran thru the planer and the bench dog holes were drilled. The two halves were subsequently glued together, hand planed perfectly flat and sanded. End thickness of the bench is just over 1 7/8's. Final dimensions are 24 1/2 long by 23 wide. A small Veritas insert vise was added for some of the smaller things I like to play around with. Namely inlay work.
The vise jaws themselves are made up of a pair of matched 2" thick hard maple boards. Holes were drilled with 18" centers which should accommodate just about anything I'm liable to come up with. Leaving almost 6"s of either side of the rods for boards that would be difficult to slip into the jaws. Holes for the front jaw were elongated to avoid racking as the board is positioned for clamping.
The walnut was used for the legs/supports. Typically a Moxon vise alone only requires a single support for clamping. Since I went with the attached benchtop a second support was needed. A pair of 2" x 5 x 28"
blocks were milled up and cut leaving a foot on either end to support a clamp. A 3/8" hole was drilled in each foot so as to accommodate mechancial anchoring to the bench top.
All in all I think it turned out pretty nice. Looks good to me and the clamping capabilities of the vise is quite impressive. I plan on padding the jaws since the clamping pressure is such that it will leave marks on the wood being clamped if not careful. Remove the hand wheels and front vise and the thing is still heavy, but quite manageable if relocation is required.
Finish was nothing ore than a couple of coats of tung oil I had sitting around and wanted to use up. use of the tung oil will also most any touch ups quite and painless.
Wood for the build comes down to whatcha got and whatcha want. I had some very old hard maple that I picked up as part of a Wormy Chestnut buy several years ago. Wasn't much to look at, but I held onto it none the less, now I"m glad I did. A nice 1" walnut board was used as much for decoration as anything else. The jaws are made up of some really sweet 2" hard maple and the legs/supports are made of some equally nice 2" walnut. Lumber for the bench portion was milled up to just under 2"s. 2 halfves were glued up separately, ran thru the planer and the bench dog holes were drilled. The two halves were subsequently glued together, hand planed perfectly flat and sanded. End thickness of the bench is just over 1 7/8's. Final dimensions are 24 1/2 long by 23 wide. A small Veritas insert vise was added for some of the smaller things I like to play around with. Namely inlay work.
The vise jaws themselves are made up of a pair of matched 2" thick hard maple boards. Holes were drilled with 18" centers which should accommodate just about anything I'm liable to come up with. Leaving almost 6"s of either side of the rods for boards that would be difficult to slip into the jaws. Holes for the front jaw were elongated to avoid racking as the board is positioned for clamping.
The walnut was used for the legs/supports. Typically a Moxon vise alone only requires a single support for clamping. Since I went with the attached benchtop a second support was needed. A pair of 2" x 5 x 28"
blocks were milled up and cut leaving a foot on either end to support a clamp. A 3/8" hole was drilled in each foot so as to accommodate mechancial anchoring to the bench top.
All in all I think it turned out pretty nice. Looks good to me and the clamping capabilities of the vise is quite impressive. I plan on padding the jaws since the clamping pressure is such that it will leave marks on the wood being clamped if not careful. Remove the hand wheels and front vise and the thing is still heavy, but quite manageable if relocation is required.
Finish was nothing ore than a couple of coats of tung oil I had sitting around and wanted to use up. use of the tung oil will also most any touch ups quite and painless.