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I then drilled holes for two
screws in the nut and installed it on the back of the back piece
of the vise.
The original workbench did not have
any kind of tail vise. For me a tail vise is something a bench
has to have. One thing about these vises I have realized is it
does not take much pressure to hold the work in most cases.
I
had an idea for a simple wagon vise mechanism using threaded rod
and wooden bearings. I made one and mounted it to a mock up
bench top to see how it would work. It did work except for one
little glitch; it worked backwards. This would probably be fine
for most folks but righty losey lefty tighty confused the peanut
I use for a brain.
Another problem with the threaded rod was
that I figured the threads would wear quickly. What is usually
used in vises is what’s called acme thread screws, they are
tougher and have more robust threads.
After some searching I
found several places to purchase the acme threaded screws even
in left hand thread which is what I needed for this application. I ordered the screw and nuts from Roton Products.
The only
problem is most of the companies that sell this kind of thing
have a minimum order amount. I had to order more than what I
needed, this drives up the cost.
The first screw assembly I made
with regular threaded rod cost about $15. The second one with
the acme screw was close to $90. Anyway, here is what I came up
with.
In trying to stay in the original
dimensions of the bench I only had about 12 ½ inches of overhang
on either end of the bench. This is not much room for a tail
vise.
This little vise is very simple, the screw moves the dog
back and forth. Plus it supports the dog, the slot in the bench
is the guide. For that reason this design probably needs to have
a fairly short travel or it could bend the screw (or you could
use a larger screw for a longer application).
This one has 8
inches of travel which seems to be plenty. I started by cutting
a piece of the 5/8 diameter screw to 14 in long. Then I welded
the piece of 3/4 steel pipe the dog goes in to the two guide
nuts.
This has to be done with the nuts on the rod to be sure
they are aliened. Next I cut two pieces of ½ in steel pipe 1 ¼
in long. One is welded to the very end of the screw, the other
is welded about 12 inches away with a 5/8 in washer welded to
the end toward the dog.
To cut the slot in the bench top
for the dog I laid it out with a mortise gauge on top and bottom
set to 1 1/16th inches about 2 inches in from the edge of the
bench top. I then used an auger to remove most of the waste
working halfway from either side, then squared it up with a
chisel.
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