Table vise - buy or make yourself? Cheap do-it-yourself bench vise How to make a do-it-yourself vise swivel mechanism

If you go to the store and look at the cost of a bench vise with a jaw width of 120 mm or more, it becomes somehow sad...

After looking at the metal that I have available at the dacha, I decided to spend a day on the independent manufacture of a bench vise.

The material that I looked after for making a vice:

Iron sheet for vise base 4mm thick
- shaped square pipe 50mm with a wall thickness of 4mm
- corner 60mm with wall thickness 5mm
- corner 75mm with wall thickness 8mm
- strip 10mm thick
- threaded stud 20mm
- long nut 20mm

I had a plate for the base of the vice with a size of 200x160mm.
I decided to cut off the same one and drilled evenly holes with a diameter of 8 mm in one of the plates with spot welding and fastened these two plates together.

Cleaned up welds:

I drew a central line in the center of the plate and also drew a couple of lines 20 mm wide along the edges of it - the thickness of the stud.

I installed a long nut into which the stud will be screwed onto a spacer - a piece of a strip 10 mm thick to which I welded this nut.

I installed the nut on the spacer in the center of the drawn line and, screwing the stud into it, aligned it in the center.

After that, I welded the platform with the nut to the base plate and cleaned it.

A 60mm corner with a wall thickness of 5mm and a length of 200mm will be used as sidewalls.
I put them in to see what it would look like:

Here is a general view of the parts for a bench vise:

In a 50x50mm profile pipe, I made a longitudinal groove with a grinder a little more wide than a welded stand with a nut.
On the edge of this pipe, I left an uncut part equal to the width of the future sponges.

The corners clasping the profile pipe were grabbed with tacks to the base sheet.
Between these corners I put a plate 50mm wide and 10mm thick. In order for the profile pipe to move normally, I made a spacer between this plate on top and the profile pipe itself.
As a spacer, I used a pair of hacksaw blades for metal.

After that, the plate was welded along the entire length. It turned out a kind of box:

Since the gap between the plate and the corners turned out to be quite large, after welding the plate on top, I cut off the tacks and welded the same plate from the inside.
Since the profile pipe has semicircular edges, the welding seam from the inside does not interfere with the progress of the profile pipe.

After that, the resulting box was cleaned:

As a base for the vise jaws, I used a thicker corner of 75mm and a wall thickness of 8mm. The width of future sponges will be 150mm.
Having installed the corners on the future attachment points, I cut them off a little on the bevel.

As the sponges themselves, a piece of a strip 10 mm thick will be used.
Sponges will have a size: 150x50x10mm.

Having attached these future sponges to my corners, I secured them with tongs-"dogs" and drilled 4.2mm holes through.
Then I cut a 5mm thread in the corners, and drilled holes in the jaws with a 5.1mm drill and made a countersink under the sweat.

I screwed the bolts into the threaded thread and screwed two nuts on the reverse side, which I then welded. It turned out a kind of elongated thread 5mm.

I made holes for attaching the sponges to the corners in the center of the sponges - 25mm from the vertical line and 30mm from the edges.

From the end of the profile pipe, where in the future the collar will be attached to the stud, I originally planned to weld a square platform.
Then I decided to weld along the edges of the pipe along a segment of the corner in which I would then cut the threads and I would not weld this platform, but fasten it with screws.
This will allow me to later disassemble the vise if necessary.

Putting a corner with future sponges on this part, I made the bevels of the corner relative to the protruding welded corners.

In the future, to strengthen the sponges, braces will be welded on the inside of the corners and all this is welded with a 4mm thick plate.

To reinforce the upper part of the vise, where there is room for an anvil, I put another plate 8mm thick (like the corner of the jaws) and a width equal to the overall width of the box.
Thus, if in the future it is necessary to use the anvil for its intended purpose, then the entire load will be carried out on the vertical ribs of the side corners.

Having welded reinforcing braces, I closed the corners of the sponges with a 4mm thick plate and cleaned everything with a grinder, and then with an emery wheel with a grain of 40.

Yes, welding...
I cooked with the Forsage-161 apparatus
Electrode - MP-3S 3mm
Welding current - about 110A.

When scalding the corners with a 4mm plate, I used the same electrodes, only at a current of about 80A.

The slot in the profile pipe was cut out in place so that this cutout did not interfere with the movement of the pipe relative to the welded platform with the nut.
So that nothing sticks.

One of the main tools of any workshop is a vise. At first glance, this is a fairly simple tool, but in fact, with the help of a vice, you can perform a fairly large number of operations. There are a huge number of varieties: carpentry, locksmith, chair, cross. It happens that the vise can become unusable. In this case, you can make a vice with your own hands.

In any carpentry workshop you can see a vise. It is often necessary to clamp parts in order to turn them or simply glue them together. Homemade vices that you can make yourself can cope with these tasks, and the price of such a product will be quite small. Often vise jaws are made of soft wood to prevent damage to the clamped part.

For convenience, the vise can be screwed to the workbench. In the fixed part, it is necessary to fix the furniture nut, into which the stud will be screwed, which, in turn, will move the movable mechanism. A washer must be rigidly attached to the movable sponge, and the knob itself must be attached to the handle. As for the sponge tips, they can be made from pieces of plywood.

If you need to assemble a carpentry vice with your own hands, then this option is considered optimal.

First you need to mark up all the details, then cut out three identical bars (the longer the bar, the larger the product can be clamped). The bed can be made from a thick board or from 3 pieces of plywood. Drill two vertical holes in two fixed bars. In one of the bars, drill a hole for a pin, which will act as a clamping mechanism. The next step is to install the nut in the timber.

At the end of the stud, you need to weld a small rectangular patch and drill 4 holes in it for fastening. After that, screw the pin into the fixed sponge and screw its end to the movable sponge, and the structure itself to the workbench.

These vices are also called Moxon vices or bench vices, they quite successfully cope with clamping large-sized boards, plywood, and various panels. The advantage of this type is that they do not occupy a small area in the workshop, but they are made of wood.

Dimensions must be selected independently, carpentry vise for a workbench with your own hands can be made using a minimum of tools and material.

The structure looks like this:

For manufacturing, you will need two studs, four nuts, three boards. After the boards are prepared and cut to size, it is necessary to drill two holes in the fixed and moving parts. Then, in the fixed part, insert the nuts into the drilled holes, having previously lubricated them with glue on both sides. A small nuance: the holes in the fixed part should be slightly smaller in diameter than the nuts themselves, in order to prevent the nut from turning in the hole. First, the studs must be welded on a collar for convenience or a wooden handle must be made. The frame for the fixed part can be made in the form of a step. Screw the finished structure to the workbench with self-tapping screws or bolts.

If you often have to work with metal, then for these tasks you need a strong metal vice, which you can make yourself.

In order to assemble a bench vise with your own hands, you need the following tools:

Welding machine.
Electric drill.
Bulgarian with a cleanup circle.
Square to meet the required angles.
Drills of various diameters.

In addition to the tool, you will need:

Steel channel with a diameter of 6 mm.
Sheet metal with a thickness of 5-6 mm, more.
Corner 70 to 70 or 50 to 50.
Twenty bolts and nuts.

If there is a stud with a diameter of 16 mm, then it will be possible to use it as a clamping screw that will move the moving part. It is quite difficult to make two nuts into which the screw will be screwed, and besides, the rest of the parts are rather non-standard and quite difficult to find, so it makes sense to turn to a turner.

Then weld the nut to the channel, this must be done coaxially.

The ends of the channel must be closed with a piece of sheet metal and a hole for the screw cut in the bar.

Cut out two corners and a plate with a grinder. Lean the corners against the channel on both sides and cover the top with a piece of sheet metal. Get a kind of U-shaped design.

The bed can be cut out of 7-10 mm metal and drilled four holes on each side, as well as 6 holes in the U-shaped.

Weld one nut to the frame, and weld two metal stoppers on the sides of the nut.

From steel, you need to cut blanks for two sponges, movable and fixed. A stationary workpiece can be welded immediately.

Then weld the second workpiece onto the moving part. On the sponges themselves, you need to make peculiar heels of thick metal. They can be welded or bolted.

If desired, the jaws can be reinforced on both sides with thick metal corner scarves.

These vices are no worse than purchased ones, and a minimum of material costs will be required. By this principle, you can make another version of yews from a manual jack. The finished product can be painted to give an aesthetic appearance.

Anyone who uses a drilling machine probably knows how difficult it is to drill and at the same time hold a workpiece that strives to scroll or fly off and injure the master. As a rule, in old machines there are no vices on the bed, which brings certain inconveniences. For more comfortable work, you can purchase a tool, or you can make a vice for a drilling machine with your own hands.

For a machine vice you will need:

Corner 30 to 30.
Threaded pin.
Stud nuts.
Small bearing.
If desired, you can paint the product.

The drawing looks like this:

First you need to saw off two corners. The size is selected depending on the dimensions of the bed of the drilling machine. Cut out two sponges from thick metal with a grinder and make markings. Drill holes in them to attach the sponges to the base.

Take a piece of angle and drill a hole for the stud. You can immediately weld the bearing, as shown in the figure.

Opposite the mount with the bearing, weld a similar corner and drill a hole for the shaft.

Opposite the mount, where the bearing is located, it is necessary to weld three nuts.

In order to make it convenient to turn the stud, you can weld a nut to its beginning, into which to insert the knob. Homemade vise for a drilling machine is in no way inferior in design and quality to factory ones and is several times cheaper.

Most anglers prefer a homemade fly tying vise over store-bought ones. The device itself has a fairly simple design, which allows you to make them in a short time and without special tools at home. The most difficult step in the manufacture of a vice is the jaws themselves. They are made from a rectangular steel bar. Two holes are drilled in the finished jaws for fastening to a yew and one for an adjusting screw. In the holes, you need to cut the thread (M6) with a tap.

The yew support can be made from a T-shaped or L-shaped steel bar. Sponges are welded to the end of one of the blanks. The bar must be welded to the support, and if it is necessary to make the support adjustable, then a piece of cut pipe is welded to the workpiece, the diameter of which is equal to the diameter of the workpiece. It is recommended to make the length of the support about 20-50 cm high for more comfortable work.

If the vise has become unusable and there is no way to fix it, then you should not immediately buy new ones, but try to do it yourself. Such a tool will serve for quite a long time and will cost many times cheaper.

Locksmith vise is a necessary equipment in the workshop of any man, without which it is difficult to do in this or that type of work.

It is not at all necessary to place them in the garage; you can arrange a vise corner at home, for example, using a table or an ordinary stool for this.

What are locksmith vise for?

When processing or sharpening any part, it is necessary to fix it firmly and securely, that is, to keep it in a certain position. The photo of the vise shows the principle of operation of this equipment.

The parameters and dimensions of the vise are determined depending on what type of tool you need to firmly hold.

The design of the carpentry vise includes:

chassis screw;
handle;
movable and fixed sponge;
base plate.

The main types of locksmith vise

Beforehand, how to make a vise with your own hands, you need to decide on the choice of work related to them.

All types of vices are divided into two types:

non-rotary ones have a simpler design and are easiest to make yourself. The part is fixed strictly in one position.
swivel 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 vise body is most often made of durable cast iron. It is important to know that cast iron is not intended for exposure 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 costs and make compact small vices.

A small vise with a ball joint base is useful on the farm for processing very small parts that can be fixed individually. These are mini-vises with suction cups, mounted on a glass or well-polished surface. But they are suitable for rare frivolous works.

Please note that it is wise to introduce soft nozzles on the fastener to work with soft parts so as not to provoke damage to them. A vise with the least backlash, with the jaws fully retracted, is ideal.

A vice without a rotary mechanism will significantly save money, unless, of course, it is useful in work.

Work on the manufacture of locksmith vise at home

Carpenter's vise, self-made at home, will significantly save the family budget at times than their store-ready "brothers". And a huge plus is that the product can be made according to personal preferences and for certain individual types of work.

It is absolutely easy to find material for construction, it can be: a part of a technical pipe, a used jack, old lathes, presses, etc.

And if you go to a metal collection point, there will undoubtedly be a suitable vise part that will cost you a penny.

Classic Homemade Vise

There are many types of vise, but the most popular and traditional is the steel material type. Such a vise will be much more reliable than bought factory-made.

The design consists of:

Note!

a steel plate of at least 3 mm., but it can be much thicker;
channel external and internal (120 and 100 mm.);
steel ears;
turning cutters 2 pieces;
a small piece of reinforcement (rod for the gate);
nut (2 pieces), stud or screw of a certain diameter that matches the bar;
washer (2 pieces) of the same diameter with a lead screw;
screw pair 335 mm;
a thick plate is needed to secure the undercarriage of the screw.

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 retaining ring so that the part is completely collapsible, you must first weld the thread from the screw to it.

The handle should also be collapsible on one side, and on the reverse side it should be welded with a nut. It is necessary to weld a nut with a channel from the screws flush to the plate. In order for the channel inside with the screw to move easier on the go, it is recommended to lightly process it with a file.

Sponges are welded to the so-called ears, made of turning tools. They are placed in the right place when the lead screw is screwed in, so the ears stand at an ideal distance from each other.

But you can also link 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 to the bottom.

Such homemade vise allows you to process larger parts.

Note!

To perform work in the home workshop, it is recommended to choose the simplest fixed vice for the machine.

It is not difficult to make them yourself, you just have to watch the video and recommendations, which can be easily found on the Internet and preliminarily correctly draw up drawings.

DIY vise photo

Note!

A carpenter's vise in a home workshop is simply an indispensable thing for those who are engaged in the manufacture of wooden structures and carvings. Thanks to them, it will be much more convenient to process certain workpieces. It is best to do this, also using a special workbench.

Of course, you can also process the sides or end of the board with clamps pressed against the bar. But the work will be much easier if you make a carpenter's vice for a workbench with your own hands.

Finished product design

You can make your own carpentry vise or purchase it at specialized retail outlets. The purchased product is a case with a movable bar. It moves along two guides, and the base is a place for screwing nuts or bolts to the vise.

It is possible to fix all kinds of wooden, plastic or metal linings on the sponges. They are needed in order to protect the workpiece from damage. It is especially desirable to set this if you are working with soft types of wood.

Shop vices are able to fix workpieces at least 20 cm, and in order not to move the clamping screw for too long, it is better to use a special spring mechanism that will do this much faster by moving the movable lip away. In the required position, the tree is fixed with a screw equipped with a trapezoidal thread.

Features of homemade designs

Well, if you are going to make a carpenter's vice, then they will have a slightly different structure. As a basis, we take a screw with a thread of 20 mm, while its length is 150 mm. Often such designs are used in sports-type corners. They are inserted into vertical pipes in order to lift certain things higher with their help. The threads in such screws are quite large, while they are not designed for heavy loads. However, it is quite possible to make a carpentry vice with their help. It is better that the screw be longer, since the distance between the lips will increase.

Be sure to select the appropriate hairpins, which can be specially purchased for this work or found at home. Other types of fasteners may also come up instead. Some even used motorcycle mirror attachments. They have a curved structure, so they need to be straightened on the anvil with a sledgehammer before work.

Product manufacturing example

And now we will consider in more detail how to make a carpenter's vise with our own hands. To get started, make a board from the expense of two clamping sponges. The size is determined individually, depending on your working surface in the workshop. Then, on the front sponge, you need to make markings for two holes, and they should be spaced as close as possible to each of the edges. We place the front board over the back and make a hole in it, depending on the diameter of the clamping bolt. Under the T-nuts, we drill holes according to the marks made earlier and then insert them there. Our carpenter's vise is ready. Now you can put the back sponge on the table, press it with a clamp and, holding the part, make cuts.

To fix the handle in the long head of the screw, there must be a slot. If it does not match the handle in size, then it can be modified with a file, expanding the hole. Instead of a lever for unscrewing the clamping screw, you can take a design with a ring instead of a cap.

As a fixed sponge for a vise, carpenters use a pine board nailed to the table. And its moving part should have a thickness of 20 mm, a width of 18 mm and a length of 50 cm.

A hole for the screw must be made in both parts using an adjustable drill with a diameter of 21 mm, but for the studs you can use the usual 10 mm, respectively. So that both sponges can be processed in this way simultaneously through and through, nail them to each other, and then pull the nails out when the work is completed.

Benefits of using the product

We looked at how to make a carpentry vice at home for the convenience of working with wood and other blanks. There are other options for their manufacture, in particular designs with higher jaws, which are used exclusively for manual carpentry fixtures. Often in a vise carpenter's work shop they have a task called "double screw". The classic version of the product - two threads and two jaws, which are fixed in front of the workbench, has been widely used for more than one century in a row.

Moreover, a carpenter's vice is a fairly simple thing to use. It is enough just to insert the part to be processed between the jaws and clamp it with bolts. Thanks to them, carpenters got rid of many problems, in particular, they can process parts regardless of size, and they also help level the back over the table surface.

Masters note the key advantages of a vice:

they can be placed anywhere on the working surface of the workshop, in this regard they are very portable;
since this product is not used by the master every day, they are easy to remove and place on the wall in a dedicated place;
the product can be installed on the table and used as a large clamp.

How to make a vise with a pressed nut

To make a similar product with your own hands, you need to prepare the following:

bolt with nut for breeding;
metal staples.

So that the key does not break off the nut when squeezing a wooden or metal workpiece, it must be pressed into it. To this end, the sponges need to be heated on fire and embrace it too. To assemble such a structure with your own hands, you will need a minimum of materials and necessary parts.

Assembling a vise based on shock absorbers

If you have experience and imagination, then you can assemble such a product from any old parts and fixtures that can be found in a workshop or garage. In a specific example, we need:

shock absorbers;
nut M18;
corner based on metal;
hairpin;
rod from the gas stop for the design handle.

With the help of all the details we assemble the vise, and then we attach them to the table. We drill holes between the shock absorbers in the corners and attach them. To make it easier to work with the key material, the corners can be welded. Shock absorbers will move easier if they are burned a little.

Any carpenter working with wood and other materials will note that a carpenter's vise for a workbench is a very convenient device that greatly simplifies the work. What’s more, you can easily make them yourself.

It is very difficult to hold a metal workpiece with your hands and at the same time process it; in this case, we recommend making do-it-yourself machine vice. If you need to rigidly fix the part at an angle, you will not envy the master at all. For such work, a vise is simply needed. But most manufacturers do not include tooling that automatically increases the cost of equipment. Factory milling vices are relatively inexpensive and, nevertheless, some craftsmen manage to make home-made counterparts with their own hands.

Grooves on the lips reduce the area of the supporting surface and increase the holding force therefore, it is desirable to have them on a bench vise. But the drilling effort is applied differently, so you can do without corrugations. But if you really want to, you can make longitudinal corrugations (along the long side) and a couple of transverse ones to hold round parts. Corrugations are made with the help of an angle grinder and a guide pressed with clamps to the sponges. Good jaws for drilling vices can be made from a rough (bastard) file. Pieces of the file can be glued to the vise on epoxy resin with the addition of metal dust (aluminum powder). An important addition to the jaws of a drilling vice will be a step

Do-it-yourself machine vice video

Making a rotary vise with your own hands

To make a rotary vise with your own hands, you need skills in metalworking, welding and related equipment. A do-it-yourself homemade device is made of stainless steel.

A clamp is being 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, smooth pins along the edges - guides for the pressing sponge. We attach a handle to the free end of the screw pin for ease of control.
With our own hands, we fasten a fixed sponge onto the bolts, we embed the heads of the bolts in the tangent surface, we place the nuts on the outside. To make a holder for the pressing sponge, 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 sponges in the future, for example, you can make additional ones from the corner for fixing pipes.
We make a do-it-yourself hinge to change the position of the workpiece. To do this, again you have to use a welding machine. The position is fixed with a threaded pin and a pair of nuts.