Wooden Vice

The idea behind this project was to create a simple and useful woodworking vice (yes, that's how you spell it over here in the UK) that could be clamped to my makeshift workbench (my desk).

As I don't have any metal working equipment, and only a few hand tools, a wood based vice made sense. Also, the wooden clamps I made a few weeks ago have performed so well that they seemed to be a good base for the project.

To build this project I used the following tools:

A bench hook (home-made)
Two wooden clamps (home-made too)
Panel saw
Hack saw
A plane
Marking guage
A square
A drill
screwdriver
And a sharp pencil

The vice is built from a recycled piece of MDF, to give the flat vice faces, and some stronger stock to act as a clamp - a section of 2x1 would be ideal, but this is just what I had lying around (and I dont mind using a saw and a plane).

The threaded rod is M6 and so are the nuts and washers - this should be plenty strong enough.

From the left:

The clamp rails are 30cm x 2.5cm x 4.5cm

The MDF face plates are 14cm x 18cm x 2cm

The front rail is 18cm x 3cm x 2cm

The studding is 14cm and 24cm

This is a relatively simple build, just be sure to keep the vice faces and the back rail sandwiched together with clamps before drilling the holes for the studding - good alignment will improve the strength.

Also once the first hole is drilled, thread a piece of studding through the sandwich to ensure the second hole will be true.

Now all you do is put all the pieces together.

After assembly the front face was sticking so I've widened the holes to 9mm improving the travel.

Enjoy !