Homeade Vice Speed Wrench

A Vice Speed Wrench is used to quickly spin the screw on a vice to move the jaw. Once the jaw is snug using the shorter socket then the longer socket is used to tighten the vice.

Design:

I just made a drill press vice, so I wanted to make a dedicated wrench to operate it. I looked up pictures of one I had seen before, and made my design similar to it. I then did a ruff design sketch of what I wanted to make.

Jack / Lug wrench

Scrap metal

Bolt

Hacksaw

welder

drill

tap

when making my vice I used the ACME threaded rod from an old Jack, so the jack/lug wrench fit my vice. To start with I marked and cut 1 in chunks of the lug wrench. I cut scrap piece of wood and quickly laid out the proportions I thought I wanted, then drilled holes in the wood to insert the inch pieces in it and test if I had the correct distances. I made the holes a snug fit, so I was actually able to test my wrench at this stage and see if it functioned properly.

I went to the scrap pile and decided to use this piece of c channel to weld the sockets to. I transferred the dimensions directly from the wood to the metal and welded the sockets in place. I also drilled and tapped the hole for the handle. I just grabbed the correct length bolt out of the bolt bin for a handle. It works well, but is not very attractive. There are many ways the handle could be made/shaped if I ever get a lathe I may make a better looking handle for this at a later date.

There are many ways that this simple project could be improved or customized. This project took very little time or tools to complete, and only used scrap materials and a bolt I had on hand. I used welding to fix the sockets to the body of the tool, but I'm sure if you want to make something simmilar and don't have acces to a welder you can think of a way to make this work. If you make one I would love to see how you improved on my idea. This speed wrench functions as intended. If you liked this instructable be sure to check out my other instructable on making the vice.