A bench vise is a necessary piece of equipment in any man’s workshop, and it is difficult to do without in any type of work.
It is not at all necessary to place them in the garage; you can set up a corner for a vice at home, for example, using a table or an ordinary stool.
Why do you need a bench vise?
When processing or sharpening any part, it is necessary to fix it firmly and reliably, that is, to hold it in a certain position. The photo of the vice shows the operating principle of this equipment.
The parameters and dimensions of the vice are determined depending on what type of tool needs to be firmly held.
The design of a carpenter's vice includes:
- chassis screw;
- handle;
- movable and fixed sponge;
- base plate.
Main types of bench vices
Before making a vice with your own hands, you need to decide on the choice of work associated with it.
All types of vices are divided into two types:
- non-rotating ones have a simpler design and are easiest to make yourself. The part is fixed strictly in one position.
- Rotary vices are most often adapted for drilling on a machine. During operation, it is possible to rotate the workpiece without unclenching it.
The material of the vice body is most often made of durable cast iron. It is important to know that cast iron is not intended to be exposed to high temperatures, steel metal is suitable for these purposes.
If the work will be carried out with small-sized parts, you should not increase financial expenses and make compact small vies.
A small vice with a ball joint base is useful on the farm for processing very small parts that can be secured individually. These are mini-vises with suction cups, mounted on a glass or well-polished surface. But they are suitable for rare non-serious work.
Please note that it is wise to install soft attachments on the fastening part for working with soft parts, so as not to cause damage to them. A vice with the least amount of play when the jaws are fully extended is the ideal option.
A vice without rotary mechanism, unless, of course, it is useful in work.
Work on making a bench vice at home
Carpenter's vices, made independently at home, will save the family budget significantly more than their store-bought ready-made “brothers”. And a huge plus is that the product can be made according to personal preferences and for certain individual species works
It is absolutely easy to find material for the structure, it could be: a part technical pipe, used jack, old lathes, presses, etc.
And if you go to a metal collection point, there will undoubtedly be a suitable part for a vice that will cost you a penny.
Classic homemade vice
There are many types of vices, but the most popular and traditional is the type with steel material. Such a vice will be much more reliable than a factory-made one.
The structure consists of:
Note!
- a steel plate of at least 3 mm, but it can be much thicker;
- external and internal channel (120 and 100 mm);
- steel lugs;
- turning cutters 2 pieces;
- a small piece of reinforcement (rod for a gate);
- a nut (2 pieces), a pin or a screw of a certain diameter that corresponds to the rod;
- washer (2 pieces) of the same diameter with the lead screw;
- screw pair 335 mm;
- To secure the propeller chassis, a thick plate is needed.
It is necessary to separate the lead screw with washers on both sides of the plate. One of the two washers must be secured with a cotter pin or a locking ring, so that the part is completely removable; you must first weld the screw thread to it.
The handle should also be collapsible on one side, and welded on the other side using a nut. It is necessary to weld a nut with a channel from the screws flush to the plate. To make the channel inside with the screw move easier while moving, it is recommended to lightly process it with a file.
Sponges are welded to the so-called ears, made from turning cutters. They are placed on Right place When the lead screw is screwed in, the ears stand at the perfect distance from each other.
But you can also connect them with wire for greater convenience, so in the future it will be more convenient to fix uneven parts, the shape of which is expanded towards the bottom.
Such homemade vice Allows you to process larger parts.
Note!
To perform work in a home workshop, it is recommended to choose the simplest fixed vice for the machine.
It’s not at all difficult to make them yourself, you just have to watch the videos and recommendations, which can be found without much difficulty on the Internet and first draw up the drawings correctly.
DIY vise photo
Note!
It is very difficult to hold a metal workpiece with your hands and process it at the same time; in this case, we recommend making DIY machine vise. If you need to rigidly fix a part at an angle, you won’t envy the master at all. For such work, a vice is simply necessary. But most manufacturers do not include accessories, which automatically increases the cost of the equipment. Factory milling vices are relatively inexpensive and, nevertheless, some craftsmen manage to make homemade analogues with their own hands.
Corrugations on jaws reduce the supporting surface area and increase the holding force therefore, it is advisable to have them on a bench vice. But on drilling machines, the force is applied differently, so you can do without corrugations. But if you really want, you can make longitudinal corrugations (along the long side) and a couple of transverse ones to hold round parts. The corrugations are made using an angle grinder and a guide pressed with clamps to the jaws. Good jaws for drilling vices can be made from a coarse file. Pieces of file can be glued to a vice using epoxy resin with the addition of metal dust (aluminum powder). An important addition to the drill vise jaws is a step
Do-it-yourself machine vice video
Making a rotary vice with your own hands
To make a rotary vice with your own hands, you need skills in metalworking, welding and appropriate equipment. Homemade device made by hand from stainless steel.
- A clamp is made that will hold a homemade vice on the workbench.
- We cut out two steel plates with our own hands, in which we drill 3 holes for the guides. We weld the carriage and assemble the structure: insert a threaded pin into the middle hole, and smooth pins along the edges - guides for the pressure jaw. We attach a handle to the free end of the screw pin for ease of control.
- We screw the fixed jaw onto the bolts with our own hands, we recess the bolt heads into the tangent surface, we place the nuts with outside. To make a holder for the pressure jaw, we use welding. The holder is a corner with three triangular stiffeners. The horizontal part of the holder is bolted to the carriage. We also fix the sponge itself with bolts. This will allow you to change the jaws in the future, for example, you can make additional ones from a corner for fixing pipes.
- We make a hinge with our own hands to change the position of the workpiece. To do this again you will have to use welding machine. The position is secured using a threaded pin and a pair of nuts.
Hi all! Every carpenter should have on hand the means to firmly secure his workpiece or piece. A wooden bench vise is perfect for this purpose. Look at my version of this vise that I made with your own hands made of plywood and metal.
For this project, I used every tool I had (from a nailer to a welder). That's why I don't bring full list tools used. Use the tools you have. Be creative!
Step 1: Materials Used
First I cut the plywood to the required size. One piece was 2 cm thick, and the second 3 cm.
I then cut two 1cm thick strips of oak. These should be glued and nailed to the top edge of the jaws to give them stability and a better appearance. Then cut flush and sand.
I attached a 2 cm piece of plywood to the table using a pair of furniture bolts.
Step 2: Device Mechanism
Let's move on to the mechanism itself.
I purchased from a local metal shop metal rod 2 cm in diameter and a threaded rod M 27, as well as a pair of washers and nuts. In addition, I purchased a flat piece 4 mm thick and 6 cm wide. These are all the metal components that we will need.
Take wooden oak blocks and use them as guides. For the threaded rod, I welded two nuts to a flat piece and secured it under the table with screws (see photo).
On the outer jaw I decided to add the flat piece I mentioned earlier. This will provide additional stability to the entire structure.
It is very important that all elements are located on the same line, otherwise the vice will not work.
I also welded the washer to the threaded rod. This is necessary so that the outer jaw also moves when the rod is turned. Without this, the sponge will remain in place and can only be moved manually.
Step 3: Lathe processing
For the rotating head, I glued together several cherry and oak blanks. Then on lathe gave the required shape. The result obtained was quite acceptable. Next, using a chisel, I made a recess for the nut. Using a drill press, I drilled a 2cm diameter hole through for the handle. The hole turned out to be a little angled...
The handle is a spruce pin with cherry end caps that prevent the handle from falling out. Treat the handle with drying oil.
I also drilled 3cm deep holes on the outer jaw for stops on the woodworking bench. That's why I used 3cm plywood for the outer jaw. But a single row of stops on a woodworking bench won't do any good, so we still need to add other holes on this table. I'll do it when I get to final stage. I just have to consider the mechanical part underneath.
Step 4: Finish
To secure parts during processing, special clamps are needed. It’s not difficult to make a vice with your own hands in different sizes; you will need drawings with dimensions, as well as technological sequence performance of work.
A home handyman usually has many of the most different instruments. However, it is difficult to overestimate the role of the vice. They are used to install parts different sizes, so one workshop may have fixing devices various types And design. In metalworking they are mainly used hardware, and are widely used for wood processing wooden devices. Some craftsmen equip their work tables with homemade bench vices. It happens that you need a special fastening tool.
Vise elements
Clamping fixture must have several basic elements:
- the sponge is motionless;
- movable sponge;
- screw mechanism;
- transverse corner;
- movable jaw bracket;
- slider;
- main support (longitudinal angle).
Diagram of a homemade vice
The design of the clamp may be different. Sometimes as starting materials Even ordinary pliers are used.
The most simple designs
It is customary to determine by the characteristics of the device the following types vice:
- massive stationary. These are usually placed on one of the corners of the workbench. In forges it is customary to install it on a separate support mounted on a strong foundation;
- swivel can be used from several sides. If necessary, the location of the jaws is oriented in different directions;
- machine ones are intended for use on drilling machines. Can be placed similar products on milling tables, planing or slotting equipment, as well as on welding lines;
- wedge ones differ in that the design has a unique appearance. Such clamps make it possible to develop fairly large pressing forces on the parts being fastened;
- parallel structures Moxon. Their peculiarity is the use of not one, but several screw clamps. Long parts in different parts are fixed at different points;
- vertical ones are used for processing products that have a large height. The support of such a vice can be located at the bottom, and the processing area is located at the top.
Vice design development
Drawing of a homemade vice
If you want to make it yourself own design, it is necessary to prepare drawings (sketches). You can take rolled angles, channels, and I-beams as a basis. In industrial devices, cast iron is used. Small ones can be made from channel bars.
Do-it-yourselfers use different types wood or rolled metal.
Used in wood products metal elements:
- screw. Use studs with standard threads. If a jack is available, then the product being developed will use a rectangular thread;
- screw. It is selected to match the existing clamping screw;
- fasteners are used to provide rigidity.
According to the design of the device, it can be:
- stationary vices, placed constantly in one place;
- portable (easily removable) vice. They can be quickly removed and placed in the vehicle for work at the repair site.
Step-by-step technologies for making wooden vices at home
Workbench design
At home, a workbench vice is made in the following sequence.
 | Wide parallel vise made of wood. The width of the jaws is 600 mm. |
 | The end part is lined with steel plates 4 mm thick. |
 | Blanks are cut from birch boards. The choice of birch is explained by the fact that this wood is characterized by high strength and hardness. |
 | The surface of the boards must be brought to perfection. Are used grinding tools. Finishing is carried out using skins with grain size 120…180 units. |
 | A board is glued to the end, which will serve as a stationary sponge. |
 | Additionally, the board is secured with M5 screws and washers with a diameter of 20 mm. |
 | Guide bushings for the rods will be made from birch bars 100x150x50 mm. |
 | Holes with a diameter of 20 mm are drilled into them. The rods themselves will be made from Ø 20 tubes. |
 | M24 lead screw and guide rods. The length of the screw is 450 mm. |
 | Pre-assembly guide nodes. |
 | To ensure that the movement is carried out strictly in a straight line, you need a long nut. But you can look for something like this for a long time. It's easier to do it differently. 1 – take a strip 180 mm long (width 33 mm, thickness 5 mm); 2 – screw two nuts onto the screw; 3 – set the distance between the nuts to 140 mm; 4 – weld two nuts to the strip. You will get a long support that will reliably move the moving part of the vice. |
 | During installation, the screw and guides are located under the table. In the photo you can see how the design of such a vice is assembled. |
 | The movable jaw rests on a metal support. |
 | In order for movement along the screw to occur, the washer must be welded. It will not allow the moving part to move along the screw surface. |
 | The handwheel is turned from a piece of wood. |
 | After turning, a fairly comfortable handle is obtained. |
 | A nut is pressed inside the flywheel. |
 | To fix the nut, it is filled with epoxy resin. |
 | To fix large parts, dowels with a diameter of 20 mm are machined. They can be installed on sponges as well as on a table. |
 | A Ø 16 mm hole is drilled in the handwheel. A wooden rod is inserted into it. This makes it more convenient to rotate and fix the parts. |
 | Finished design wooden vice. Several rows of holes for dowels are visible on the table. By rearranging the counter stops, you can fix workpieces of quite large width. |
Making a wooden benchtop vice
Another design is used in carpentry production. This type of fastener is installed on the table. They can be further strengthened using clamps.
 | Solid oak is used. It must be dried in a special mode, which includes more than just drying. The modes alternate with humidification. This will prevent the appearance of cracks. IN this design the upper part of the jaws is small in width (only 60 mm). |
 | The block is placed on the table and then marked. |
 | The block is planed. |
 | Individual parts are cut out. The best type of fastening is considered to be a dovetail. |
 | The fixed part is turned separately. |
 | A working screw is turned on a lathe. |
 | A rectangular thread is cut. |
 | A hole is drilled at the end into which the rod is inserted. It helps the screw rotate. |
 | A support plate is cut from a 6 mm thick strip. |
 | Large diameter holes are drilled, securing the part in the four-jaw chuck of the lathe. |
 | Finished plate with a hole Ø 20 mm. |
 | Making additional cuts. |
 | Ready product used for fixing workpieces when making small sculptures from soft wood. |
Simple wooden vice
 | Apple wood bars are used. |
 | The base is a board 30 mm thick, 100 mm wide and 200 mm long. |
 | Additionally, three more elements were sawn. They will serve as sponges and intermediate support. Their dimensions: width 100 mm; thickness 30 mm; height 40 mm. |
 | An eye bolt with M10 thread is used as a screw. |
 | Additionally, you will need M8x70 bolts with nuts. |
 | Holes for M8 bolts are drilled on two bars. |
 | Additionally, two bars are drilled for M10 threads. |
 | The nut is pressed in. Additionally, a plate is used to fix the screw. |
 | All that remains is to assemble the elements on the support board. |
 | M8 bolts are used to install bars. |
 | The fixed jaw can be installed in several positions. Therefore, parts of different widths can be fixed in a vice. |
 | The vice is ready. They can be used to work with wooden blanks. |
Making metal vices
Small Machine Vise
 | For manufacturing you need: a plate 8 mm thick. Its width is 80 mm and its length is 120 mm; 2 solid squares 20x20 mm; 2 isosceles corners with a shelf 20 mm; profile pipe 20X20x1.5 mm. |
 | The parts used are tried on the plate. |
 | The angles will serve as guides for the pusher in the vise. |
 | The length of the corners is 60 mm. The pipe has a length of 45 mm. |
 | An M10 nut must be installed inside the profile pipe. You will need to saw through the window; a nut will be installed in this window; the nut must be welded in place. |
 | To make wine, a Ø 10 mm rod was used, with an M10 thread cut into it. |
 | Secured in a vice profile pipe, make a cut for the nut. |
 | The nut is tried on in place. |
 | You need to file two corners of the nut, then it will fit into the formed groove. |
 | The nut is installed in place. It needs to be boiled. A hole is pre-drilled on the reverse side, through which it will be welded back side nuts |
 | Welding is done from above. |
 | Then the reverse side is also boiled. |
 | The surface of all parts is sanded. |
 | A Ø 10 mm hole is drilled in a plate 50x30x6 mm. |
 | A notch is cut into the squares. It will fix the parts secured in a vice. |
 | The prepared parts are laid out on the workbench. The device will be assembled. |
 | The fixed jaw is welded. Having installed the profile pipe as the determining direction, the corners are welded. The stroke of the movable jaw will be 30 mm. |
 | A plate 20 mm wide needs to be welded on top. It will limit vertical movement. You will need to attach the profile pipe to the movable jaw. |
 | Part of the welding work has been completed. The movement of moving elements is checked. |
 | A nut is welded to the screw. It will not allow it to move along the axis. The plate is located at the back. It also must be rigidly fixed to the supporting surface of the vice. |
 | The parts are adjusted according to location. |
 | By welding the plate, a small vice is obtained. |
 | You can carry out a trial use by securing the vice on the table. |
 | The parts are secured securely. |
In the vastness of the RuNet you can find statements like: “A real master makes a vice only on his own.” What will he say about this? a real master, it’s not hard to imagine. Whether he is an amateur or a professional who lives by his own labor, he knows perfectly well which tools and equipment are best to buy and what is worth making from it himself. However, there are times when it makes sense to make a vice yourself. For example, for a dacha (bought ones sit idle there over the winter in vain, and they can be stolen), when working on the road and/or on occasion (I came to visit relatives, they asked for help, but they are not artisans at all). Unfortunately, given the current situation with the tool, there is also a circumstance that makes you think: shouldn’t you still make a vice yourself?
Cast iron and steel
The parts of the frame and the clamp of a bench vice should be made of structural cast iron - it rusts very poorly, is hard and tough, and has a low TCR (coefficient thermal expansion), but the main thing is that it is practically not subject to metal fatigue. Cast iron vices last not decades but centuries. Since “the strength of the entire chain is determined by its weakest link,” the jaws of the vice and the lead screw-nut pair are made of tool steel various brands. A simple structural one is too plastic, it has a strong tendency during welding, and it rusts easily. Therefore, leave homemade vices like those in Fig. below, it is not recommended to spend the winter at the dacha - they can become completely unusable over the winter.
But this is not the essence of the problem. The problem is that now the jaw jaws of vices bought at a reasonable price often break during the first clamping; V best case scenario With regular use, the vice will last six months to a year. When examining the fracture, it turns out that they are made of simple gray cast iron. The legs do not break, this is how the running pair wears out - the thread there is the usual triangular profile (see below), and the steel, it seems, is no better than St44. And the prices for certified vices with full specifications and a guarantee... let’s not talk about sad things, let’s rather remember something good from the past. As a result, the question arises: isn’t it worth making a vice yourself at home? Not to mention the case when you need to clamp a workpiece, but there are no vices within reach. They won't turn out better, but at least they'll cost less. Or for free, if there are suitable scraps of metal profiles in the trash, see, for example, the plot:
Video: homemade vice in half a day from scrap metal
Primitive from a block of wood
Most material processing operations require securing the workpiece, and your own hands and feet are by no means the most suitable device for this. Therefore, let's start with a vice made of a wooden block. To make them you will need 4+ hundred square nails or 150-200 mm and an ax. A rip saw wouldn't hurt either, if you have one. The type of such device is modern man will cause either laughter or horror, but the ancestors of the Stone Age would have shed a tear of tenderness over it - a vice made from a block of wood holds workpieces quite reliably irregular shapes from almost any material.
How to make a vice from a wooden block is shown in the figure:
A piece of log/log made of good straight-grained wood is split (sawed) as shown on the left in the figure; a crooked chip can be roughly trimmed onto a plane. The fixed jaw and thrust heel are attached to the “frame” with nails; the ancients secured them with sharp slivers of hard wood. The nails are driven in obliquely so that the clamping force pulls them rather than bends them.
The movable jaw slides freely along the bed. Clamp – wedge; a wedge can be hemmed at the end of a branch or a pair of them. Some skill is required to trim the wedge(s) correctly: too sharp will tip the movable jaw onto the workpiece, and too dull will push it (the jaw) upward. But the clamped workpiece, due to the elasticity and viscosity of the wood, holds quite securely. So secure that you have to knock out a wedge to release the workpiece.
Note: Long workpieces can be fixed with a pair or more of the same vice.
What to expect from homemade
The described device is, of course, temporary - all its parts get wet quite quickly, even if the tree is crushing the tree. Therefore, let’s first address the question: what homemade vices should be made?
The clamping devices themselves various kinds an innumerable variety is used in technology; patents for them number in the thousands and tens of thousands. It makes sense to make a vice yourself, firstly, the most commonly used ones. Secondly, they do not require manufacturing special materials, production equipment and complex technologies.
An ordinary bench vice (item 1 in the figure) will have to be made non-rotating. Otherwise, you will have to look for either a ready-made neck-skirt pair (see below), which can also be taken away during assembly by welding, or the opportunity to use a shaping machine (simply - shaping). Of which there are very few left in operation, labor- and energy-intensive shaping processing is increasingly being replaced by precision casting, stamping and robots.
Note: in a shaping machine, the workpiece is clamped motionless, and the cutter, rotating, moves along the longitudinal and transverse axes. In screw-cutting lathes and rotary lathes, the workpiece is clamped in a rotating spindle (on a rotary table in a rotary machine) and the cutter moves in the longitudinal-transverse (in a lathe) or in the vertical-transverse plane. It never occurred to you to think about how the flanges/necks of curved cast pipes, casings of centrifugal “snail” pumps, etc. are turned. parts of complex configuration? On shaping.
Adjustable (mobile) mini-vises, pos. 2 seem to be simpler, but their production requires particularly high-quality and, accordingly, difficult-to-process materials. The fact is that the clamping force of a hand vice is determined by the muscular strength of the worker. A cross section parts of the vice decreases with a decrease in their size according to a quadratic law, i.e. fast. The paws most often break off just at the mini-vise. However, expand them functionality It’s not difficult to do it on your own, see below.
Conventional carpenter's vice, pos. 3, included carpentry workbench and without it they are inoperative. But next we will look at how to make a Moxon vise for woodworking, which turns any workbench (including even a desk) into an almost full-fledged carpentry workbench.
Here's what you really need to do yourself home handyman, so this is a single-axis machine vice (a simple fixed table) for a drilling machine, pos. 4. They can also be used independently (separately from the machine) for a wide variety of jobs. The material for machine tools is the usual one that is widely available; Literally nothing is required to produce a machine vice that is not inferior to a branded one.
Jewelry vices, manual (item 5) and tabletop (item 6) are the most convenient things for small precision work. But alas, their production requires special materials and equipment, which is available at every general machine-building plant. At home, you can make good substitutes for “frog” vices, pos. 7, which, by the way, are often included in the set of desktop jewelry vices, pos. 8.
But with an angular vice (item 9) for clamping parts connected at an angle, the matter, as they say, is deaf. It is possible to make something similar with your own hands (item 10), but, firstly, it turns out that it is very difficult to ensure clamping at a fixed angle of exactly 90 degrees, and if you succeed, then the angle then quickly “floats”. It’s not worth talking about a homemade corner vise with an adjustable clamping angle. The same applies to 2-3 coordinate manual machine vices (pos. 11-14) and, for example, devices for tying fishing flies (pos. 15), which are no longer a vice, but a highly specialized machine.
Locksmith
The design of a hand bench vice is shown in Fig. The shaped screw nut is fixedly fixed in the frame tunnel; it also includes the shank of the clamp, called the slider. The sections of the tunnel and the slide are also shaped (of complex configuration) and correspond to each other.
As has already been said, you will have to abandon the rotation of the vice in the horizontal plane: for this you need to machine a neck on the base plate, and a skirt on the bottom of the bed. This does not require ultra-precision, but special equipment is required, see above.
The second problem is paws with sponges. The paws must be very rigid so that the clamped part does not react, and at the same time viscous so that they do not break. Therefore the most cheap material The legs of a good vice along with the clamp and bed are made of structural cast iron, but it is poorly processed, and the clamp and bed are cast. You can’t set a cupola furnace or electric furnace at 1700-1800 degrees at home, so we forget about casting ferrous metals.
However, cast iron is also very hard and quite fragile, and therefore paws without jaws can either damage the part or crumble on it themselves. Jaws made of hard, wear-resistant and at the same time very elastic special steel solve the problem. It would be possible to make all the vices from it, but their price then... You haven’t come across a tabletop vice at a price of... $1 for also 1 mm jaw width? These are all-steel ones, but we need to think about how to make a frame and a vice clamp, suitable for at least occasional use, from ordinary structural steel.
Running pair
But what problems arise with that seem insurmountable is with the running pair of vices. It seems nothing complicated: a screw with a nut or a threaded hole in the frame. There is a groove machined in the neck of the screw; it seems that you can select it with a file by clamping a screw wrapped in thin aluminum by the thread into the chuck drilling machine or a drill mounted on a table. In the clamp (or in the slider of a vice assembled from individual parts), the screw is fixed with a fork grip, see fig. on right.
The thing is that all these parts have to take on huge workloads. If you lean on the knob with a force of approx. 20 kgf (nonsense for a normal adult man), then the thread with the neck of the screw and the counter parts will require more than 120-130 kgf/sq.m. mm. In total, so that the vice does not wear out very quickly, the screw, nut and fork must be made of steel with a yield strength of more than 150 kgf/sq. mm; for a conventional structural thread it is less than 100. And a regular metric thread of a triangular profile will quickly wrinkle or stick together.
Blueprints lead screw bench vices with jaw widths up to 180 mm are shown in the figure:
One critical point is bypassed here: instead of a groove on the neck, there are a pair of bushings made of ordinary steel. In this case, the fork grip can also be made from it. The screw retainer parts will have to be changed periodically, but that's all right. But how to cut a D20 trapezoidal thread? Looking for a running pair from an old vice? So, with a 99.0% probability, it is the “stroke” that is worn out in them, and the cast-iron frame, clamp and plate are still quite suitable for use.
It's not all bad
A lead screw and a nut for it for irregularly used vices with a jaw width of up to 150 mm can be found in almost any hardware, tool or construction store or at an iron market. New, the fly was not sitting. Where? From fastening units designed for a load of at least 450-460 kgf. These units are very important, and the steel used for them is just right, even better - a running pair of vices, which are not used intensively, will be quite durable and have a regular metric thread.
The cheapest option is a ring anchor for hanging heavy chandeliers or multifunctional exercise equipment from the ceiling and walls, shown above in Fig. below. Just make sure that the screw is either cast or the joint between the ring and the neck is welded (shown by the red arrow). Anchor rings are available up to M22 with a length of up to 450 mm - make the vice you want. The anchor ring M12x150 holds a load of 480 kgf, and M16x220 for a 150 mm vice is also suitable with a margin.
The second option, “the class of the fly did not sit” will cost more, but perhaps at the price of scrap metal - if it is broken. This is a hook-ring lanyard, shown below in Fig. Of course, the ring part comes into play (shown by the green arrow). The advantage is that you will immediately have an excellent wear-resistant nut. The disadvantage is the shorter length and, accordingly, the stroke of the vice jaws: the lanyard screws for 200 have a length of threaded parts that is slightly more than 100 mm.
Note: some disadvantages of both - the vice knob will have to be turned for a long time each time, because step standard metric thread approx. three times smaller than a special trapezoidal one. The running pair will need to be periodically lubricated with grease or other grease - a “dry” vice with such a running pair rotates tightly, but does not press well.
Sponges
How a bench vice, well known to readers of the RuNet, works is shown in Fig. below. There is, however, a mistake - the locking nuts are also M16. The rear one, along the screw, is screwed on first and welded to the stud. Then the pin with the rear washer on is inserted into the clamp, which in this case is also the slider (“moving part” in the figure); the front washer is put on, the M16 front nut is screwed on and welded, and the eye for the knob is welded; this is already an M18 nut. Bed (“moving part”) – square corrugated pipe 120x120x4; the slider is also a square corrugated pipe 100x100x3.
So far so good, but the sponges are also made from professional pipe. Their working surfaces are smooth, but they need corrugated ones, but that’s not so bad. But the trouble is that even with just a little pressure the lips will irreversibly separate (added to the picture). The jibs inside or outside will not help - the metal itself is unsuitable. The reader may have already guessed - since the problem is described, there is a way out. Even two, see below and next. chapter.
Note: The advantage of a bench vise made from sections of corrugated pipes is their low cost. Suitable pieces will probably be found in any scrap metal pile, see for example. video below:
Video: homemade vice from pipe scraps
The first one is also from RuNet: paws and jaws from the shanks of metal turning tools. On the paws there are thicker incisors; on sponges - less. But this, in general, is not a solution. Tool steel is very difficult to process. Almost all that can be done with it in a home workshop is to saw off the shanks with a grinder, weld jaws to the legs and weld the whole thing to the frame and clamp. Tool steel has almost no resistance to welding. But it is also poorly cooked: the finished legs with jaws, when welded to the corrugated pipes, will have to be heated so that the frame/clamp will move unacceptably. And the times now are not those when worn-out cutters could be collected from a factory dump, and defective ones could be bought for pennies in a store." Young technician" With the spread of electric arc melting of metals in the world, tool steel has become a valuable secondary raw material, and at enterprises, used turning tools are counted individually. Therefore, we move on to the second exit.
Machine tools
As stated above, it is most profitable to make a machine vice with your own hands. They greatly simplify drilling work, and the material for the machine vice is suitable for almost any available material: from a channel, see video:
Video: simple channel vice
to plywood, see story:
Video: plywood carpentry vice for a drilling machine
And again sponges
The strength and stability of the jaws for a machine vice is even more important than for a bench vice: if a drill (cone, cutter) turns a part out of them, this can lead to serious injury. And so, we return to the question above: what are the vice jaws made of? From a corner from 40x40x4. In this case, the entire sponge will work not for shear, but for bending, to which the metal resists much more strongly. This is the case when less iron turns out to be stronger.
But not every corner of the same size is suitable. A drawn and cold-rolled corner (pos. A and B in the figure below) is unsuitable - the metal is rather weak. The jaws of both homemade and metalworking and machine vices must be made from hot-rolled angle (pos. B). Firstly, it is much stronger. Secondly, the range of its standard sizes is wider: if the thickness of the flange of a cold-rolled angle general purpose up to 0.1 of the smaller width, then for hot-rolled - up to 0.2b. That is, you can find a hot-rolled angle, say, 60x60x12 - the vise jaws from it will be quite reliable.
A hot-rolled angle is easy to recognize by the type of cut: the entire edge of the outer corner is always sharp (shown by the arrow on the left in the next figure), and inside it there is a fillet larger than that of a cold-rolled angle. If the vice is assembled by welding, both equal and unequal angle angles will do. If you assemble them with bolts, it is better to use an unequal shelf with a shelf width ratio of (1.5-2)/1 (a/b = 1.5...2/1). In this case, the large shelf is laid horizontally!
The design diagram of a homemade machine vice from a corner with bolts is given in the center in Fig. on the right are their drawings general view. The slider and bracket for the clamping screw are bent from a steel strip with a thickness of 1.5 mm. The screw in it can be fixed with a groove, because its fixation works only when the movable jaw is retracted and is loaded negligibly. On the clamp, the tail of the screw rests directly on the sponge; the screw itself is M16-M20. For more information about homemade machine vices from a corner, see the video:
Video: simple vice for a drilling machine
Improving the mini
Modern mini-vises cannot be improved much, but if you come across or already have old Soviet ones (for example, pos. A in the figure on the right):
Their functionality can be significantly expanded as follows:
- Drill out (carefully, not all the way!) the flared shank of the set screw, which holds the set clamp plate. You need to drill with a drill with short “poke” diagonally from different sides.
- The plate is removed and the mounting clamp screw is unscrewed (do not lose either it or the plate).
- A hole is drilled in a section of the channel for a bolt with the same thread as on the clamp screw.
- The vice is mounted on the resulting stand and secured with a lock nut (pos. B).
- In the clamp screw, through the remainder of the shank, a blind axial hole is drilled for the M2-M3 thread. This is not difficult to do, because... There is a conical depression left in the peg from the shank.
- A thread is cut in the axial hole.
- The plate is put back in place and is kept from falling out by a screw with a conical head (shown by an arrow in position B).
- The clamp screw is stored in the stash, sorry, stash.
Thus we get, neither more nor less - turntable for small drilling work. True, without an angular divider, but instead of it, a protractor can be attached to the channel base, and a pointer arrow can be attached to the vice bracket. The resulting accuracy of 1 degree is sufficient for amateur home work. And if you remove the vice from the base and return the clamping screw to its place, they can be used for their original purpose.
Making a frog
Jewelry vices in amateur work, as mentioned above, in most cases are replaceable with a frog vice; They can also be clamped in a regular vice. Best of hers homemade version– if your pliers or other pliers have a broken handle, at the top in Fig. To drill the jaws of the pliers, you need to purchase a carbide twist drill - a regular one for metal will not take them.
Homemade “frog” vice (locksmith’s clamps with fixation)
A simple replacement, if the pliers still don’t break, a frog vice made of oak or beech bars, a steel bracket, overhead jaws made of steel angle and fasteners, bottom left in Fig. A stronger option is a frog from a door or small barn hinge, bottom right. But you will have to work on it using a regular vice. The workpiece may need to be tempered by heating until red hot and then cooling slowly.
Carpentry
The Moxon carpenter's vise is designed for traveling joiners and carpenters. In Europe, the USA and Canada, this is a rather in-demand specialty: given the prices for lumber there, many customers demand that the master work with them locally and leave the slightest scraps, even sawdust and shavings, to the owner. A pair of Moxon vices, which makes it possible to work with long materials, can be carried in the trunk of a car, on a bicycle, on a scooter or in a bag. The find was immediately appreciated by amateurs - Moxon's vice allows you to quickly and reversibly turn any more or less durable table into a carpentry workbench.
The appearance and method of fastening the Moxon mobile carpenter's vice are shown on the left and in the center in Fig. On the right is a device for their amateur version for fastening tightly to the table.
The Moxon vice has spawned many modifications. Drawings of one of them, a very simple and convenient carpenter's vice made of just 3 boards and a pair of clamps, are shown in Fig. Further. True, you will actually need 2 more short clamps to attach the vice to the table. An extra 4 clamps (also not a very cheap pleasure these days) can be expensive for an amateur. But for an individual carpenter who works on call, such a vice is a godsend; disassembled, you can carry it with you in a regular duffel bag.
