The Last Moxon Dovetail Vise

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Many of my projects involve bow fronts, which result in compound angle dovetails ...

I do enjoy building furniture with dovetailing challenges.

Between furniture pieces, I find time to build a new tool. This time it is the Moxon dovetail vise I have been promising myself for a while. My first and only one was built in early 2011, after Chris Schwarz helped put it on the map. I immediately modified this design, and have been making modifications since. (Link: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTo ... lVise.html). This new Moxon incorporates the best ideas.

Ironically, this design is not geared for compound angles. I decided to heed my own advice and keep it as simple as possible, and cater for the 90% of the dovetailing that is likely to be done.

The width of the vise is narrower than my previous one, but capable of 450mm (17 3/4")between the screws. Most cases I built are between 350 - 450mm deep. My previous Moxon could do 560mm (22") between the screws. This is unnecessary, and just makes for a very large fixture.

Where the old Moxon used wooden screws, which I turned, this uses steel Acme screws and iron wheels ala BenchCrafted ... except that these came via Tom Bussey (thanks Tom), which amounted to a large savings. The wheels are 5" in diameter on a 3/4" screw.

The front chop is 5 1/2" high, and the Moxon is built in Jarrah ... what else do you expect! I went a little OTT in this build, but it was fun, and I admit I did become a little carried away

Brass inlay ...

The chop runs on bronze bushings ...

Lining the inside of the vise is rubberised cork. This makes a great non-slip (not my idea - this comes from BenchCrafted, who call it "crubber". Simply search eBay for "cork rubber").

This vise is a good height for sawing ...

There are a few innovations. The rear of the vise ...

This is a spacer, and it can be locked into the up position ...

The spacer has two functions. The first is setting the pin board (10mm) above the chop to prevent scoring the chop when transferring tails to pins with a knife (this is more of a danger with through dovetails). Also, by lifting the work, there will be light behind the pin board, and this makes it easier to align the edges.

The crubber makes a great non-slip.

The spacer may be dropped out of the way, once the height is set ...

The second use of the spacer is that it has a sliding dovetail at the top, and this allows for the use of MicroJig clamps. This would be especially useful for holding wide boards, or tail board which have developed a slight bow ...

I have used this on other fixtures, such as a morticing jig.

For aligning the tail- and pin boards, I prefer a simple wide square I made from wood ...

The spacer needs to be dropped out of the way for this ...

Once transfer is made, reverse the board and saw the pins. This is where you will recognise that the cove is not simply decoration, but allows the saw to angle and get closer to the work piece. The lower the work piece in the vise, the less vibration when sawing ...

And thats it ... the last moxon dovetail vise ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[foxbat]

Brilliant!

 

[Trevanion]

That's a lovely piece of equipment, some very clever ideas with the micro jig clamps, cove in the front chop, etc too! Built to last ad infinitum, so long as you don't get any new ideas!

But as we all know from the resident dovetailing expert all you need is a bean can filled with lead hanging off a piece o' string on a lever which is engaged with a little offcut for clamping dovetails :wink:

 

[Dovetaildave]

Hi Derek,
I'd love to see the photos but only the first one of a small chest shows, all the rest not.

I made a moxon using a few butchered G-cramps.

Am I the only one who cant see your photos?

Regards,
Dave

 

[AndyT]

Hi Derek,
I'd love to see the photos but only the first one of a small chest shows, all the rest not.

I made a moxon using a few butchered G-cramps.

Am I the only one who cant see your photos?

Regards,
Dave

They all show up for me.
But it's often a problem with some third party image hosts. I find that if I am reading on my phone, making the browser fetch the desktop site rather than the mobile one fixes it, even if I immediately switch back to the mobile version.
It's a magnificent beast, well worth a look!

 

[CHJ]

…….
Am I the only one who cant see your photos?

…...

The images are hosted on Derek's own web site, don't think there is a current direct link to this project yet though, only the previous versions.

Can you see the rest of Derek's site ?

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/index.html

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Derek,
I'd love to see the photos but only the first one of a small chest shows, all the rest not.

I made a moxon using a few butchered G-cramps.

Am I the only one who cant see your photos?

Regards,
Dave

Dave, the photos I posted were to this forum. However, I have now uploaded the article to my website:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTo ... Moxon.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[AndyT]

Among many interesting details on this vice, I'm intrigued by the cove and the corner details.
The long , deep cove moulding at the front looks as if it must have been done with a spindle moulder or (more likely?) a powered router. The clue is in the way that the whole shape enters and leaves the arris - easily done by moving the wood into or away from the spinning cutter, almost impossible to carve by hand. So I think I know how that bit was done.

But then I look at the upper corners of the front vertical pieces and I see a quarter round with two re-entrant square corners. That could be hand work. Sawn stop cuts at the corners, with paring cuts from a chisel or gouge, probably followed by careful rasping. Is that right?

Or did you stack several pieces together between some sacrificial blocks and run an ovolo moulding bit along the stack?

Awesome work whichever way.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Andy, the stopped cove was done partly with a router, and then scraped. All the other moldings were done with saw, chisel and rasp/file.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Dovetaildave]

Thanks for hosting it, can see everything on your website just fine, but still not on forum (Win7 and chrome).

Wow that's a very very hansom "Moxon " you have designed and made Derek.

The "crubber" looks like a better material than leather, especially useful for the rests, do you have it under the separated rest also to stop sliding around the bench?

Love the flip up spacer and also the brass thumbscrew, to me the brass fittings (can't put my finger on them...sash window or mirror fittings?) gives it the Regency look, solid, sturdy, safe and dependable !

The F cramp looks like it could reach further than any of the little toggle clamps could, and easily swap-able for the larger sizes, nice. Is there any brass fitting that could replace it, like a giant brass Noris cap or butcher that copingsaw frame in the background maybe ?

The wooden square looks like it does the job just fine, but me being me, I'd probably loose it, and a chain might make it look a bit shabby (rock n roll..... chic ?). Do I remember seeing Frank Clause using a little flip up piece at end of his bench as a saw stop, far prettier than a T-track and sliding right-angle for sure. Is there some way of incorporating the square in with the slot for the F-Cramp, or adding something to the F-cramp itself for squaring up whilst tightening?

Do you find the overall weight dampens most vibrations for stopped DT's, have you had to clamp to either of the sliding deadmen? (another lovely feature I don't have).

Thanks for sharing, hope you have many years of enjoyment from it.