Wooden Bench Vise

Most people will agree that bench vises are useful, so I decided to build one... out of wood. Now I must confess that there are two metal components used in this project: a nail retaining pin and a metal bar handle. Both of those parts can be replaced with wooden components, so if your determined enough you can make a 99.5% (still need wood glue!) wooden bench vise. Overall, this isn't a terribly complicated project if you have the patience, and I found it incredibly rewarding.

The only materials you need are:

-1x 12 x 48 x 3/4 board (for main components)

-1x 1/2 dowel (for threaded rod)

-1x 1/4 dowel or metal rod (for handle)

-copious amounts of wood glue (delicious!)

Tools necessary:

-CNC router (can be done by hand if determined)

-Bandsaw (for cleaning cuts and angles)

-Bench sander (for... you guessed it! Sanding!)

-1/2 in coarse thread tap and die set

-27/64 drill for tapped hole

-Lots of Clamps

-Planer

As with all projects, it's good to start with some paper. I then transferred my mad scribblings into Fusion 360 where I could could check my measurements and polish the final design. I love using Fusion for these projects as it usually discovers an egregious error on my part. To complete the design phase I 3D printed a model to get a tactile final look which I find quite useful.

To begin I planed down the board to an even 1/2 inch. I then loaded a negative of the cut onto easel. I ended up cutting my board in half so that I didn't need to deal with tiling but that's up to you. I proceeded to cut the parts out which I cleaned up with a scroll saw. You could theoretically do this all by hand through the use of a coping saw and stencils.

In this stage I finished all the parts to the point of the glue stage. This included cutting angles, drilling holes, sanding everything down, and threading all the parts. A special note on the threading: this is a very finicky stage and I advise extreme care to avoid destroying the thread you are cutting. It may seem difficult but it is possible. I also pinned the center of the swivel together which was pretty simple: just hammer in the pin. Also, the threaded dowel will need to be retained with a pin of some sort. I used a nail but anything can work.

This stage is pretty simple: just keep glueing! Glue and clamps are the name of the game in this stage. The only trick for this stage would be to glue the threaded "nut" while the dowel is in it to keep the thread aligned.

All that's left is checking functionality and screwing the dynamic jaw into the static jaw. Once that's done, It is ready to go! Congrats!