Shop made Bench Vice

nicely done. curious - since you mentioned you are on a budget, what this this build total at?

I picked up the Threaded ACME rod (with four nuts) for 5 bucks at a garage sale.
If I had to buy the rod and nuts I think I have a local supplier that has them for around 20 on the threaded rod 3' length 1" and the nuts are bout 2 or 3 bucks. I needed 1 nut. and the rest of it was wood I already had on hand.

so… 5 bucks.

Nice job, I am sure it will be nicer than anything you could buy anyways. Being all wood its much nicer on the tools. If you want to see how to make wooden screws and nuts look at my workbench blog entries, I have one on wooden screws, and one on wooden nuts.

Very ressourceful. Nice.

I like that a lot. I've wanted to make one and haven't done it. Maybe I will now. BTW, there is a plan in the current "Shop Notes"

Just beautiful. I love seeing the things lumberjocks make like your vise that will repay the effort for years to come.

Did you turn the dowels and handles, too?

The only part I turned was the front part that the handle slides thru. The dowels were already on hand.

Great job on this, looks to have been built in a simple and elegant way. I have one question: how does the threaded rod connect to the part that accepts the handle?

Vakman,

I have an acme tap. but I did get idea from a member on www.woodworkingtalk.com who made a similar vice and on that end of the bar he ground a slight taper and then cut grooves to make a make-shift tap. then drilled a hole and used epoxy. I used epoxy as well, but I used a real tap for mine.

Thanks for the response. Yeah that's what I was afraid of, probably the more equipment-specific aspect of this project, as I have neither a tap nor a serious grinder (though I suppose a file and some spare time could do the trick).

How do you think the assembly would fair if I used two 1/4" steel pins going through the bar and turned piece instead?

to be honest I think you would fair well just by drilling an undersized hole where the threaded rod goes (not to "undersized") and maybe thread it in a little, then back it out, then in a little more, and back out etc. once you get close to bottoming out apply a lot of epoxt and finsh tourque it and let it set overnight. If you want more insurance drill a hole through the turned piece and the rod and run a bolt through it.
should work out fine.

Very nice bench vice, and inexpensive too. Just wondering how long lasting will be.

Nice vise; it will serve you well.

I've had this type of one on my short list. I have a basic Irwin bench vice with some maple slabs screwed to the hardware. Not bad in function, but doesn't handle boards that are more than a couple feet well. I also can't put too much money into a vice and this is what I'll likely do when it comes to it. From all the plans I've found, the threaded rods seem to be the difference. Some tap wooden ones, but I don't see that as holding as a vice is punished a bit. Well done.