Wooden vice

[Thenihilist]

I've been making a vice completely out of wood but i've hit a wee stumbling block, i used a metal bolt to tighten and loosend the vice but i wan't to use a wooden bolt instead.

I drilled the hole for the the bolt with a bowdrill and carved a wooden bolt but the bolt won't bite in the hole to make it's own thread.

Would an oak bolt form a thread if screwed into pine if i made a pilot hole with a bowdrill? if not would bone? and is bone easy to carve?

 

[Loenja]

i think you need to use a thread cutter if i understand your problem correctly

 

[jojo]

You'd really need of of those thread cutting kits sold from Axminster and other places.

I would have posted a picture but I seem to have problems doing that on the forum at the moment...

Jusr re-read your post: you carved a thread? any chance of seeing a pic of it? Darn things aren't easy to do!

 

[jackcbr]

maybe a pin and camlock might be a better solution. Drill a series of holes in your bolt, drop your piece between the jaws. Drop a pin in the closest hole and on the other end make yourself a cam handle to put the bite on. If that makes sense. I'll try and find a link to what I'm on about or do a drawing.

 

[Thenihilist]

I don't have any tools apart from my knife and no money to buy any hence a wooden vice lol.

I've made the thread on the bolt, the wooden threads aren't strong enought to bite into the wood.

Sorry no pics dude, no camera ATM.

If i can't get the bolt to bite i'll have to figure out a way to make the corresponding piece for it to bite, not sure how i'd do that with a knife, unless i split the block so i can acess the pilot hole then carve a dovetail joint to reattach it.

 

[Bluebs4]

Don't think bone would hold a lot of pressure and snap ,crack as a bolt but oak with a loose thread might be ok,all according what your trying to clamp,what about a press type with wood and rope or twine ?

 

[Tjurved]

Hard but try to think outside the box . Don't try to copy a metal vise and make it out of wood. Abandon that wooden thread and bolt and go with alternative solutions based on the goal. What's the goal? Hold stuff. Perhaps you could use wedges and wedge the two jaws together? Or use two ropes twisting on each side and making tension like on a bucksaw?

 

[jackcbr]

OK, so maybe I've dreamed this up and it might not work, but here's my idea

 

[sandbender]

"...OK, so maybe I've dreamed this up and it might not work, but here's my idea..."

I like that, if anything I'd suggest that the lever on the cam should be pushed down rather than pulled up, but thats just my gut feeling, someone smarter will be along shortly.

In answer to the op's question, no I don't think you will be able to form a thread by screwing an oak bolt into pine, if you have the skills to carve an accurate thread on the bolt, then perhaps carve the thread into a socket that is in two parts, when the threads match lock the two parts of the socket together by placing them into another piece of wood that will hold them together.

Some pics of your work so far and your future efforts would be interesting to see.

 

[jackcbr]

Lol, well I never said I knew what I'm talking about. I'm just an ideas man, I'm sure there are far more practical people out there who have far simpler ideas. can't think where I saw this idea (or parts of it), but it might just work.

 

[Thenihilist]

The bolt i made is inch thick and shaped like the thread on an Auger.

I like the idea of that cam, might give that a wee go when i get more wood

@Sandbender

My woodwork consist of about 90 try sticks, 3 packframes, a cordage swivel, some pot hangers and a lot of captive balls, nothing that impressive.

Most of the things i attempt to make are usually so insanely complicated they verge on the impossible and end up as feather stick practice, see my thread on pack frames to see how insanely complicated the ideas i have are. Theoretically very ambitious: practically, implausible or impossible.

 

[Hoodoo]

You can make a wooden vise the same way you make a tarpclip. Split a chunk of wood lengthwise, use a stick for a pivot for the two pieces. Lash pieces together in middle. Use a wedge to jam one end.

 

[JohnC]

would something like a shaving horse be an option?

http://www.greenwoodworking.com/ShavingHorsePlans

 

[Whittler Kev]

[video=youtube;ngriuHgDiFc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngriuHgDiFc[/video]
or
[video=youtube;TiqG8w_ktXs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiqG8w_ktXs[/video]

 

[sandbender]

two youtube videos

Inspiring stuff! Thanks for posting. I have always admired those über workbenches but would be terrified to dent it if I ever owned one.

would something like a shaving horse be an option?

http://www.greenwoodworking.com/ShavingHorsePlans

Would seem to be the easiest way to go. There is a rough and ready one pictured on the Woodlore blog, here.

 

[Ian S]

Ricard McGuire's website shows his benches with the technical spec and I think he uses 2.5 inch diameter threads at 2 TPI - a really really big thread. A small thread in wood just won't take the forces involved. I'd keep with the metal bolt for the time being.

Cheers