This is chapter 2 in the old-fashioned tricks and tools department. Someday, this sliding vise might save you some time and hassle. Takes about 10 minutes and zero cost to make.
The first picture shows the three components that make it. The second picture shows it in use.
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Replies
Hummm... I haven't needed one of those since Friday... Now if I can just remember how to do it the next time!
I have a regular clamp on vise that I keep close, but I likew that deal.
Are you sure that isn't my job? I see resin paper on the floor, rough cut planks for workbenck, a Milwaukee circ saw, and a Stanley Tri-square . Yeah, looks just like my job!
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Seen-your Peef- een,
Resin ees de stuuf you scrape out of your pipe. De stoof on de floor es called "rosin" paper. Knowink dat might help yoo from hallucinating that your are see-ink your jobsite on de com=pew-ter screen.
Thanks ron,
I use a similar self adjusting vise to hold rips on edge that I'll plane. Your design is way better.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I've used a similar setup for spiling boat planks. That kind of a setup has a lot of flexibility for solving a lot of clamping problems and is way cheaper than a pile of clamps.
Can you tell us what is 'spiling boat planks'?
Thats a technique I use a lot, especially for getting hardwood flooring tight.
Carpenter / Builder, Rhode Island
As brief as I can make it:
Round bottom boats change dimension and curvature from bow to stern. At the stem, or bow portion for example, the distance from gunwhale (pronounced gunnel) to keel is much shorter than say, from the gunnel to keel amidships where the beam (width) of the boat is widest.
To fit a plank to that 3 dimensional shape requires that a piece of plank stock (or a template called a spiling plank) is bent around the frames of the boat and "spiled" or scribed to fit the plank below it.
You will start with a plank, which may start out to be a 3/4" X 8" X 12' cedar board on a medium sized (say 25' sailing hull), but will end up, after being spiled, as typically, a board that is narrow at the bow end, may have curved edges fore and aft top and bottom and will fit sweetly against the plank below it (Carvel planking), or evenly overlap the plank below (lap strake or clincher).
It is more involved than this when it comes to fitting the ends, edges with changing bevels, splicing planks with butt blocks, maintaining eyepleasing planking lines, etc.
But traditional woodenboat carpentry is fun and a way to learn some carpentry skills that have helped me a lot with some house carpentry problems.
And making tools and jigs like presented in this thread is an enjoyeable part of it.
Interested in the subject: Checkout http://www.WoodenBoat.com
They have a great forum, too, and the magazine is excellent.
nice to see someone else using a hand plane - thanks for posting -
Great setup. Self tightening and portable too - just screw it down wherever on whatever. Have just the spot in the van to keep the parts handy.
Nice feature to have the diagonal cut on a bevel, to keep the sliding jaws flat on the bench.
I will make one this week. Thanks Ron.
Ron - the mopre I think about it, the more I am cedrtain this deserves a piece in the tips column in FHB periodical. Submit it for pay and get to ssee you name and a line drawing of this rig. I'm ralizing how three or four minutes on the tablesaw with a scrap of lumber will yield me an invaluable tool
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
It, and variations of it have already been in tips and tricks in FWW.There are several variations of this in the FWW book that is completely compiled of tips and tricks that have been in the magazine.(Yeah, I'm a tips and tricks fanatic. LOL)
Are we there yet ?
But that's some other magazine, not FHB
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Ron, I haven't managed to oil the last project you gave me.
You've got paper down and what looks like baseboard.
Old picture?
Time for another post in "This One Is Mine?"
Cool jig BTW
How far back from the edge of the board do you mount it normally, and what size pieces do you normally work in it?
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
hey .... that before and after is two different set ups!
U can't fool me ...
the wedge is a wonderful tool.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Gentlemen,
I don't claim credit for inventing the wedge. I'm not really that old, no matter what I feel like at the end of a day's work. And few of you would believe me if I did, I calculate.
I saw this setup used by an old carpenter 30 or so years ago. He arrived for work wearing overalls, a tweed jacket, vest, white shirt and tie. He didn't want me aound but I watched him when I could get away with it.
My improvement to his setup was to add a little nose to the sliding wedge to make the thing self-tightening.
For heavier work, make the wedge angle steeper to keep it from locking up so tight.
These pictures weren't taken in my house, but in another ICF house we have been building since approximately forever. And I'm off to start another foundation for an addition this morning.
The electrician and plumber are working in my own house. I have to get someone in there this week to do the ventilation and vac and then it's drywall.
Ron
My thanks too - I'll have a use for this. Would you mind explaining the "little nose thing that makes it self tightening"? I notice the little block on the inside small end of the wedge. Does the thing "rack" and become like a "keyless chuck" on a drill due to the "racking"?
Fonzie,
I don't know about racking but the wedge has a projection on its end which engages with the workpiece. You don't have to tighten the wedge, you just push on your workpiece and that pushes the sliding wedge into the fixed wedge.
Ron
I see what you mean - thanks!
Ron, Back in about '76 or so I couldn't afford even pipe clamps. So, i took that idea there ONE step forward. I attached the locking wedge ( one half) to a 6' pc. of 5/4 x 3" Poplar.
I then drilled 1/2" holes about every 6" on center the length of the sticks ( I made 3 I think)...and made a 2x4 block about 6" long with a dowel glued in the center of the face.
Lay all three clamps on a bench, lay on the soon to be table top..set the tail block close to where ya want it to be, glue the boards edges, add shims as needed, inesert the wedges that are free..tap em on home.
I used them for yrs. even after I had a full supply of bar clamps. Ya can't have TOO many clamps. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
I kidnapped the runaway bride..her eyse weren't like that in the before pics.
Sphere
I remember doing something similar when I had a lot of stuff to laminate - all to the same width. I bolted a pair of blocks to each of a bunch of 2 x 4's at the width I needed plus a bit, laid up all the stock to be glued and then clamped it by shoving one end of the 2x4's sideways off square.
Just last week I was gluing a nosing on something and didn't have enough bar clamps so I put on a C-clamp tight on the stock and clamped the nosing with wedges between the back of the C-clamp and the nosing.
There's no such thing as too many clamps.
Ron
Man Have I done that...c's and wedges. Or F clamps, slipping and marring the face while edging..
I really, really am hooked on vacuum clamping...long story, lotsa weather stripping and heavy , old pump..but..the old methods sometimes are the best.
Thanks for shareing that bench dog type of one of the few ( five I think) "simple machines"
Lets see
lever, inclined plane, wheel, and ( doh..I ferget the Archimedian tools..)..I am sooo fired. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
lever, inclined plane, wheel, and ( doh..I ferget the Archimedian tools..)..I am sooo fired.
er...6, actually - -
lever
inclined plane
wheel (and axle)
screw
wedge
pulley
I believe that all mechanics can be described using one or more of the 'simple' machines - - tho things being what they are these days, that may be outdated - certainly on the quantum level things are different...."there's enough for everyone"
David...IIRC , the screw IS an inclined plane, as is the wedge, and wheel and pulley is also the same..wanna try again?
Just curious..cuz I hate it when God FU's and should duplicate hissen/herren zelf.
Archmedies was... Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
David...IIRC , the screw IS an inclined plane, as is the wedge, and wheel and pulley is also the same..wanna try again?
IIRC there are two 'groups' of simple machines -
1. inclined planes, represented by the 'ramp', 'wedge', and 'screw' -
2. levers, represented by (ta-da) 'lever', 'wheel&axle', and 'pulley'
"there's enough for everyone"
Ok..sorry..this is earth aftr all. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
nuthin to be sorry about - - and are you sure this is earth? sometimes I wonder - - but - if I had a lever long enough and place on which to rest it, I could move the earth....
doin' OK? - - are you on the roof tomorrow? - gotta be brutal down there, it's bad here - - closing the strawberries after tomorrow, dry is bad, but no mosquitoes - fireflies breeding like crazy on the basswood tree - hang in there, friend - -
"there's enough for everyone"
Not Ok...I saw a thumb almost off.
20 odd yrs in ww'ing..the worst I ever saw.
I was really ...brought to a new respect.
" saw" I guess, was the operative word...hmmmm was and saw..?
I hate when that happens..
BTW, the saturn is all fixd..oil pan. airbag. left side axel.
urummph. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
Your thumb sawed or just one you saw?you still wearing it or waving it goodbye?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
It just happened to be MY saw, tha ate HIS thumb...grissly,just grissly. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
It just happened to be MY saw, tha ate HIS thumb...grissly,just grissly.
sad - bad - but not your fault, right? - even tho if you knew then what you know now you could have intervened? or wished you'd checked him out on the machine better? - - dealing with a language barrier, perhaps? - - a one second f-up - -
dunno - easy from this distance - I think on all the times I shoulda been mangled/died - - why him?
be in good condition before you power tool tomorrow -
"there's enough for everyone"
Aas Chileo would say.."jess" I m safe. It hurt me to see it happen..
I could write a book about why, and how..bottom line...he wore it..sorry for the attitude..I am older and hopefully wiser..but any thing can bite you..if you ...if you... Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
You're right:A wedge is just a ramp in motion. And a screw is just a ramp or wedge wrapped around a cyliner or cone.The wheel and axle is just an infinite number of radial levers and the pulley is a variant of the wheel and axle.It is amazing to think that all of our tools and machines are wedges or levers or a combination of their variants.
Edited 6/26/2005 9:24 pm ET by basswood
That sounds a lot like the clamps I made while in collitch.
No money for clamps. But 1x4's and dowels were cheap.
View Image
I glued and srewed the two long boards together, with the short chunk sammiched in betwixt at the bottom.
When you want to glue a couple of pieces together, you lay them inside here. Put a dowel through the nearest hole, and drive the wedge in betwixt the dowel and the workpiece to clamp it down.
An added benefit is that it also keeps them from bowing sideways.
To keep from glueing your work to the clamps, wrap the "clamp legs" in saran wrap before you begin.
Oh, and I got the idea from a tip in FWW.
=0)
Are we there yet ?
Close...yer HOW old these days?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
I went to college in my thirties.=0)
Are we there yet ?
I can't reply to you any more. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
Why ?
Are we there yet ?
for the mass's of adroite workers... Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
LOLCan I have that in english ?
Are we there yet ?
lemme add an "e" Alex/
Masses..sorta like the stephen stills song with out the CIA or the n's. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
Sphere,Ya know we otta start a thread of things we did when we couldn't afford that tool like your example - not to hijack the thread, but I hear ya-
Fonzie..i don't have to.
Try a spanish windlass as start.
Hint: it takes wegdges and twine.. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Viva!!! Chileo" !!!! The man with a golden heart. And a Thumbs up attitude.
EZ Smart & Simple.
Nice.
Thanks for the bench-top clamping idea.
And here I thought I was so clever....I'd clamp two Jorgensen clamps on the edge of the workbench and for hand planing, put my work on edge into the clamp jaws and tighten.
BruceM