Another Moxon Vice Build

[turnamere]

I have done a fair amount of power tool based woodwork since buying my first (and current) house about twenty years ago. Recently I have become interested in improving my hand tool skills with the aim of producing some quality pieces for the house and indeed as an enjoyable pastime. I was keen to build a decent hand tool bench but had to concede that I just don’t have the space in my garage, which in addition to being my wood work space also houses my 14 year old Lotus Elise and is the workshop for spanner work on the above (full suspension rebuild and engine build and transplant being the last 2 car based projects). About 2 years ago I built my variation on the Ron Paulk Ultimate Workbench http://youtu.be/sJoGTf6KL8s, since I wanted the stored bench to take up the minimum of space in my garage my finished bench is 2,000mm x 1,200mm and stores on end in the corner of my garage taking up only about 2SqFt of floor. I used the remainder of the ply to make an extension table to allow me to fully support a full sheet of ply etc, in conjunction with my TS55 it has proved to be superb for recent projects. Workholding on the top is pretty good, I have made half dozen dogs using 19mm dowel with angled faces cut and a Veritas Wonder Pup works well in the holes, but holding pieces on the face for planning and sawing using clamps is OK but fiddly and time consuming.
Enter the Moxon, I’ve followed a few builds on here and concluded that a hybrid Moxon with small solid bench top for chisel work might just be what I needed. After some Googling I found a hardware kit from independentwoodwork.com, after a couple of message exchanges with Howard my kit arrived and I’m very happy with the quality.

2x300mm rolled acme threaded bars
2xCast Iron machined hand wheels – pretty weighty
2xround nuts, 2xhex nuts, 2xwashers
I drew up a rough plan in sketchup to work out how much timber I would need and then popped down to Woodstock in Falmouth and bought a length of beech about 7”x2” and 10’ (ish) long. This had a bit of twist and cup along its length so I worked out the best cutting strategy, rough cut to length and then set about the preparation. Initially I intended to do as much with hand tools as I could but I quickly admitted defeat (Paul Sellers and Tom Fidgen make it look so easy) and pulled out my T11, Wealdon flat bottom bit and planning jig. This got things pretty close pretty quickly and hand planes did the finishing touch.

I considered a number of options for the joinery but decided to keep it simple to start with and get some practice in with creating rebates etc with hand tools. Top and base offered up to the face and rebates marked out with a knife, a veritas wheel marking gauge took care of the depth.

Next task was chopping out the rebates, this was quite a bit more work than I anticipated but I am pretty happy with the result, the joint line is on the whole pretty tight.

Getting a flat and consistent base level was challenging and since I don’t have a router plane I tried the Paul Sellers alternative; this worked well with the grain but was a bit grabby when working across.

I then used a combination of chisel and saw to cut the rebates for the support blocks that would fit between the top and base.

The holes for the screw hardware were drilled with 40mm and 18mm Forstner bits and my old drill stand.

The hardware was then fitted to the face and chop to check operation, the threaded portion can be set as far into or out of the face as the task permits to avoid snagging hazards and the hand wheels spin freely which makes taking up the slack to clamp work quick and easy. The holes in the chop are slightly elongated to allow for some skew for awkward pieces.

I have glued all the components together and have applied 2 coats of Hard Wax Oil, one more and it should be ready to put to work. The base is sized to allow me to clamp the vice to the bench using Festool Rail Clamps from below with the face co planar with the bench front.

Thanks for looking.

 

[turnamere]

I don’t have any fancy planes yet so to give the chop a pleasing profile I clamped a straight edge to it and used my small shoulder plane to make a small rebate and then planed a round edge, pretty happy with the result.

 

[marcros]

the website link is http://www.independentwoodworking.co.uk ... ron-250mm/

they seem very well priced.

very nice build.

 

[turnamere]

the website link is http://www.independentwoodworking.co.uk ... ron-250mm/

they seem very well priced.

very nice build.

Thanks, just been down to garage for second coat of wax oil on inside face of chop and base of vise, looking forward to putting it to work.

I liked the look of the Benchcrafted but this is good and quite a bit cheaper, particularly with the vaguaries of import duty.

 

[marcros]

is there a plan, or is it 2 boards with a couple of holes in etc?

 

[marcros]

i say "just" as in a table is "just" 4 legs and a top, i dont mean to sound dismissive of it at all.

 

[turnamere]

is there a plan, or is it 2 boards with a couple of holes in etc?

I did a rough plan but rather than dimension my stock to the plan I dimensioned each board to the maximum size I could having got it flat and square and then used relative dimensions for the joinery.

It's standing on a couple of scraps whilst I apply the finish.

You can see the construction in this shot ^^, all rebated by hand, the vertical blocks link the top and base solidly providing a slightly less springy work area for chopping. Once the third coat is finished I'll assemble it and post a phot of it in use.

 

[Noggsy]

It looks really good, but I'm struggling to understand the reasons for the joinery? Your work looks to be excellent, but the Moxon I built is just two pieces (well, slabs really) of beech with a strip of oak along the rear face to clamp it to the bench. I'm not saying yours isn't miles better, I just don't get it and I hate not understanding things

Maybe more pictures from the back side would help.

Cheers.

Noggsy

 

[marcros]

i would assume that the pictures are showing a wide top, to allow for clamping and marking out the dovetails onto the second piece, and a piece below it to hold it to the bench. whilst it would work using 2 boards and a strip, i think that the one pictured has a number of advantages in use.

 

[MickCheese]

That looks really good and thanks for the link to the Acme screws as that was the hardest bit for me to find at a reasonable price when I made one.

Mick

 

[turnamere]

It looks really good, but I'm struggling to understand the reasons for the joinery? Your work looks to be excellent, but the Moxon I built is just two pieces (well, slabs really) of beech with a strip of oak along the rear face to clamp it to the bench. I'm not saying yours isn't miles better, I just don't get it and I hate not understanding things

Maybe more pictures from the back side would help.

Cheers.

Noggsy

Hi Noggsy,

Front and rear slabs with a strip on the rear would work fine, but since I don't have a decent hand tool bench (and don't have space for one either) my hope is that the top will help in laying out dovetails and provide a nice solid area for chisel work - current top is 1/2" ply and has some spring to it. A bench on a bench if you like. Just need a coat of finish and then I can assemble it and demonstrate clamping and work holding options available. Of course being a Mk 1 I'll almost certainly stumble across improvements as soon as I put it to work.

I'll post some more pics once it's done. I've already checked the clamping arrangement and that works well.

 

[Noggsy]

Looks excellent mate and thanks for the explanation. Look forward to the pics.

 

[turnamere]

3 coats of Osmo Hard Wax Oil and it was time to assemble the finished article, and I have to say that I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Here you can see it clamped to my bench with the rear face co planar with the front of the bench:

One of the Festool clamps on top for visualisation, the remainder are applied from under the workbench top for minimal obstruction.

Here it is holding a 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of Douglas Fir for marking out the Roubo inspired joinery for a coffee table project that I've got in mind:

The top section provides a nicely elevated work area for marking out:

Threaded rods retracted for small work pieces, such as this scrap of oak:

This piece was very short and resulted in some racking of the vice so I clamped a similar sized piece in the bottom to provide a fulcrum.

Cutting the shoulder:

Chopping the waste:

Laying out the pins using my old plane as support:

Pins cut:

My first ever dovetails, clearly I need to practice some more and maybe starting on wood as unforgiving as oak was a bad idea:

Still, practice makes perfect, my first attempt at hovering a helicopter utilised most of the airfield, now I do it day and night on cliffs and over boats.

The hand wheels spin very smoothly and for most work holding I just need to hold the chop against the piece and spin the hand wheels, their inertia providing enough bite. A quick tweak to really lock solid.

 

[turnamere]

And finally, here is the Moxon's 'Party Piece', you can see from the photo in he first thread that I didn't elongate the holes in the chop that far but it still has a remarkable amount of skew - couldn't lay my hands on anything suitable to pose in the vice I'm afraid.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Noggsy]

Excellent and I can now see why your design is an improvement over the original.