iLuthier

NOTE: Click on the photographs for a larger image.

A number of years ago now I decided to make a small wooden “utility” vice that I could use while filing and shaping some of the small parts needed in instrument making. I also thought that if I could utilize different “jaw blocks” I might be able to do a wide range of jobs such as trimming pegs and dowels, holding irregular shaped items and – what I use this vice mostly for – shaping and roughing out nuts and saddles.

The first thing I needed to do is work our what wood to make the vice from. It needed to be tough and hard wearing, with little or no compression – well, not enough to affect the workability of the vice anyhow. I also wanted it to look cool. After all if you can’t make a tool that’s pleasing to the eye as well as functional then you might as well just buy it off the shelf if possible.

LEFT: The wooden parts ready for final assembly.

I found some colorful Honduras rosewood (Dalbergia stevensonii) that I had leftover from another project so I decided to use that. The wood looks great and it’s quite hard wearing so I figured it would work fine for the job. Though this wood can be a pig to glue sometimes and is therefore relegated – for the most part – to making percussion instruments I felt that most of the assembly would be pegged or screwed anyway so gluing wasn’t really an issue at all.

I then set out a simple plan drawing of what I wanted and machined the wood up into blanks for the parts.

LEFT: Showing the stopped rebate (on the rails) for the brass “stay-bar” on the sliding jaw and the rebate for the captured nut in the “anchor” block.

I figured I would need 2 rails, two end pieces – one acting as one of the vice jaws and the other as an “anchor” block to hold the captured nut for the screw handle – and a sliding piece to act as the other half of the vice jaw. I also cut a third “rail” which I later planed to a hexagon shape to act as a handle for the screw. As both the jaws and the anchor block are profiled in the same way there’s really only 2 different shapes to make in this project – rails and blocks.

LEFT: Another view of the anchor block (right) and the slot in the sliding block (left) to house the “stay” for the screw end.

I decided to make my rails 3/4″ wide by 3/4″ high by 8″ long but they can be any size you want really. 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 8″ just seemed like a good size to me. The block pieces are made from 2-1/2″ wide and 1-1/2″ high blanks. The lower 3/4″ square is removed from each side so that the side rails fit snugly in. This can be done with either a hand saw or a bandsaw if you have one. Once the waste is removed from each of the three blocks they can be filed and sanded smooth, then the parts “dry assembled” to see if everything is working right. I should also add that the wood for the handle is 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 4″ long so make sure to calculate that in to the overall length of your screw thread.

LEFT: The screw parts (left) including the captured nut that has been ground down on one side to fit.

Now comes the drilling and chiseling. This is where the rosewood is a little hard on your cutting edges so take care to make sure you keep them as sharp as possible. If they’re not sharp you have to put more muscle into your work and if you put more muscle into it then it’s easier to slip and have an accident. In short keep those chisel edges sharp.

LEFT: A close up of the screw parts. The handle has been drilled out to fit the all-thread and epoxied in. It also has had a hole drilled through the wood and the steel screw and a 1/4″ brass rod added for extra strength. Note the groove at the end of the all-thread where the retainer bar locks into.

Clamp two of your blocks together if possible. One will be your anchor block and the other will be your sliding block. If you find it hard to clamp them the try gluing them together – face-to-face – with a bit of super glue. It’s only temporary so don’t worry about strength so much. It just has to hold together long enough to drill a hole through both of them while they’re together. Make a mark about 9/16″ from the top and in the center and then use a drill bit the same size, or slightly smaller, than your all-thread. Once this is done check to make sure it’s a nice tight fit without any sloppiness. Separate your blocks and concentrate on the anchor block.

LEFT: The thread is then fed into the sliding jaw and locked in with a flat brass retainer bar which has been hammered in through the slot at the bottom of the block. This slot can be filled in afterwards with epoxy if desired.

The first part of the anchor block can be hand or bandsawed away. After all the bottom 3/4″ will butt up against the inside walls of the side rails so it’ll look nice and clean anyway. It’s only the last part – where the nut actually sits – that will need drilling and mortising. Try not to make the fit too loose but remember that you can always shim it or epoxy it in tight afterwards to make sure the nut won’t spin around.

LEFT: Another view of the partly assembled vice.

Now move on to the sliding jaw. Cut, plane or sand about 1/16″ to 1/8″ from the bottom so that you can screw a brass “stay-bar” to the underside of the block. The bar (which unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of) overhangs each side of the block and “rides” in stopped rebates that are cut into the underside of each rail (see second picture from the top). This helps to make sure that the sliding jaw doesn’t wrack or lift off the rails and that it slides along the rails fairly evenly.

Some smaller holes are drilled into the bottom deep enough so that the brass retainer can fit into the groove that you will file on the end of your screw thread. This will make it so that once the thread is screwed into the sliding jaw block and the retainer hammered in the screw can not unscrew out of the block again.. The holes are then slotted and cleaned up with a very small 1/8″ or 1/16″ wide chisel if you have one. If you don’t have one then you might be able to sharpen the end of a small flat jewelers screwdriver if it’s of reasonable quality to hold an edge. I’ve made many chisels from these things and they work wonderfully for inlays and other small jobs. You can also use a Dremel tool to do this if you have one handy.

LEFT: The finished vice with removable mahogany “nut jaws”. The jewelers hand vice on the left is also useful for holding nuts and other small parts.

Now dry assemble everything again to see if there’s any changes that need to be made. There’s no need to hammer in the retaining bar until you know that everything is working OK. Only when you’re sure that things are fine you can now screw, dowel, pin or glue the parts together. If you’re really going to be cranking the vice up tight I would do a combination – either screw and glue or pin and glue. In my vice the glue was just an extra precaution and I wouldn’t want to rely solely on it when using Honduras rosewood. If you’re only going to do light work (as I do with my vice) and you’re using another wood then either glue, pins, or screws will do.

LEFT: An end view of the vice with a nut in the nut jaws. Having the jaws angled and proud of the rest of the vice allows for easier shaping from a larger choice of hand positions.

Clean up all the surfaces and smooth off all the edges. Apply some varnish or a sealer coat and you’re done! I’ve made a couple of sets of “secondary jaws” out of mahogany that I screw to the jaws and use for various specialty jobs but they’re not really needed otherwise. Because the vise is for small work I don’t bother about screwing or clamping it down to my workbench. I just hold the vise with one hand and file, cut, shape and sand with the other.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Fretting, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.