I suppose that’s not a very interesting answer is it? A more illuminating questions might be: how is a woodworking vise different from other vises (sometimes spelled vices)?

To answer that, we must first describe a woodworking vise.

Anatomy Of A Woodworking Vise

A woodworking vise has two jaws. One jaw is stationary and is attached to the main body of the vise. The other jaw is movable and is turned via a leadscrew which is attached to a handle. Turn the handle clockwise and the moveable jaw is moved towards the stationary jaw. Turn the handle counterclockwise and the moveable jaw moves away from the stationary jaw. The handle also provides mechanical leverage allowing the user to clamp the jaws tight without excessive effort.

The vise jaws themselves are rectangular shaped, and are larger than the jaws of a metalworking vise. These larger jaws allows you to spread the clamping force out over a wider surface area, which can help prevent you from damaging the wood held in your vise. The mathematical way of describing this is pressure = force / area. Spreading the clamping force over a larger surface area reduces the pressure at any one point in the contact surface.

This is important, as woodworking vise jaws are made of metal, which is harder than wood. As a general rule in material science: hard scratches soft. As woodworkers we don’t want our jaws scuffing up the wood we clamp. Hence why woodworking vise jaws are larger than what you would find in a metalworking vise or engineers vise. Woodworking vise jaws are also smooth faced, while metalworking vise jaws are serrated. Again, this is to prevent the scuffing of the wood we are clamping.

Additionally, many woodworking vise jaws have screw holes that allow you to attach a block of wood as a sort of “pad” or cushion, this provides even more protection for the work you clamp in your vise, and it can improve the longevity of your vise jaws. I have also seen these pads applied via magnets or glue. These pads have many colloquial names and can be referred to as cheeks, jaw covers, jaw pads, etc.

Finally, we have the attachment mechanism. Woodworking vises are mounted on the side of the table, and are meant to sit flush with the table top. This varies quiet a lot from most metalworking vises, as they are usually bolted on top of the table. Table vises and hobby vises will use a c clamp to clamp the vise to the table.

Most woodworking vises will have you screw your vise to the side surface of your table, and the underside of your table.

Many vises will have “dog” holes on the moveable jaw of the vise. A dog hole is made to contain a little piece of metal called a dog that “bites” into a work piece providing additional clamping functionality. Vise dogs will often work in conjunction with bench dogs, bench dogs are just a little piece of metal that sticks up from your bench. Some vises such as a pattern maker’s vise will have vise dogs on both the stationary jaw and moveable jaw.

Finally, some woodworking vises will have a toe-in feature. A toe-in feature is when you put the top of the movable jaw at a slight inwards angle. This is to help prevent top to bottom racking in your a vise. Top to bottom racking is when the vise does not clamp evenly from top to bottom – more specifically it is usually caused when the bottom of the vise near the screw clamps more narrowly than the top of the vise which is holding your work project.

Tail Vise, End Vise

A tail vise is a vise that is inside and flush with your table top. The moveable jaw has a dog on top of it, and across from the moveable jaw will be a row of pop up bench dogs at various distances. These are slick vises as they blend right into the table.

Another variation of the tail vise is the wagon vise.

Leg Vise

A leg vise has a tall movable jaw that moves into the leg of the table for clamping. The stationary “jaw” of a leg vise is the table leg itself! The advantage of this design is it gives you a deep throat space within the vise for clamping large boards. The disadvantage is that it is prone to racking.

Shoulder Vise

A shoulder vise is a vise that is usually built into the workbench itself. These vises stick out from the bench and have a moveable jaw which clamps back INTO the table itself. These vises have the vise screw BEHIND the moveable jaw rather than in-between the stationary jaw and moveable jaw. These vises are useful when you must clamp boards vertical, as there is nothing underneath the vise jaws to get in the way of your board. These vises are often found in Scandinavian style work benches.

What is a woodworking vise used for?

As the name suggests, woodworking vises are used for all things woodworking! This can include the following:

• gluing
• sawing
• planing
• chipping
• chiseling
• engraving
• marking
• measuring

And so much more, the vise is used so often it is referred to as a “third hand”. It comes in *cough *cough handy, all the time!

What is a woodworking vise made of?

This can vary a lot between each model.

Most vises will have a main body made of either cast ductile iron, or cast gray iron. I have noticed that while metal working vises will often explicitly advertise which type of cast iron it is, woodworking vises do not. If I had to guess gray iron would be more common. If you are interested in more details on how this affects the strength and stability of your vise, I have an article on vise materials here, that goes into the specifics and the logic behind each material choice.

The lead screw will usually be made of high carbon heat treated steel. This is the ideal material for these types of screws, as low carbon steels* will be too soft and will need too much repair under heavy use. Any alloy with a higher carbon content will be too brittle and will fracture under heavy loads.

*Remember that heat treatments require a certain amount of carbon, so you can’t just harden a low carbon steel the same way you can a high carbon steel.

The material of the handle used to open and close your vise can vary a lot. A lot of times it’s just cheap aluminum, although some more expensive models will use steel. Some manufactures purposely build handles that will bend under loads higher than what the vise was designed for, so keep an eye out for this if you are not interested in this “feature”.

Material composition is not as important for woodworking vises as it is metalworking vises. Woodworkers are not generally interested in having as much clamping power as metal workers. This is because wood is so soft and really cranking your vise is a good way to scuff/mark up your work piece. In fact, some vises are made almost entirely of wood…

Scandinavian style workbenches

Scandinavian style workbenches will have a end vise and shoulder vise built into the table that are made entirely of wood – including the vise screw!

Conclusion

I provided a lot of details about wood vises in this article, but the wood vise is a very simple tool. It is used to clamp things in place while you work on them. That’s really all there is to it. If you are looking to buy a bench vise, you should check out my guide to the best bench vises; it is more focused on metalworking vises, but I will have a woodworking oriented one coming soon!

Credit for the title photo goes to nick fullerton on flickr.

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Luckily, swapping out your old jaws with new ones is super simple. Most metalworking vises (like my yost 750-DI) have jaws that are held on by two little screws.

Turn those screws counter clockwise until they come out. Pull the jaws off your vise. Put your new jaw pads on, and re-screw the two screws by turning them clockwise.

Viola, that’s it! Just make sure to choose jaws that are the appropriate jaw width for your vise.

How to make your vise jaws last longer

As I said earlier, hard scratches soft. Having jaws that are made of a harder material than your work projects will help your jaws last longer. The downside is that having harder jaws increases your chances of marring your work project.

Another thing you can do is avoid clamping with excessive force. This will make every part of your vise last longer, not just your jaws.

When to replace your vise jaws

Replace your jaws when they become uneven, or the serrated edges become smooth. If it feels like it’s getting harder to clamp objects down, it’s time to replace them.

The post How to replace the jaws on a metalworking vise appeared first on Gallivanting Craftsman.

The first step to mounting a metalworking vise (sometimes spelled vice) is to pick the right table to mount it on. A good mid range vise will weigh up to 50 or 60 pounds, with more expensive models weighing even more. You will want a heavy table with a wide sturdy base. You also want table legs that end in wide feet. Avoid narrow and light tables; these tables run the risk of tipping over or breaking under heavy workloads.

Position of vise on shop table

Once you have selected the proper shop table, it’s time to to pick the spot where you will place your vise. Conventional wisdom dictates that right handed people should place their vise on the left corner of your shop table. Left handed people should do the opposite, and place their vise on the right hand side of the table. Make sure to place your vise close enough to the edge that all handles, rotating jaws/heads, and swivel bases are free to move without impediment. It’s very easy to test this before bolting your vise by actually moving the different vise pieces around and ensuring that no piece bonks into the table. I also recommend placing a LONG piece of stock into the vise jaws to make sure that it can clear the table when placed vertically.

People with multiple vises in their shop will sometimes place the extra vise in the middle of their table along the edge. This is fine if you have vises to spare, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this for your first vise. A vise that is not placed on the corner will have limited mobility if it has rotating heads and swivel bases. It will also be more awkward placing some work pieces in a vise that is not on the corner.

Some people will install an additional piece of wood or metal underneath the table to beef up flimsier tables. My yost 750-di instruction manual recommends a 18″x18″x2″ piece of wood or 18″x18″x1/4″ metal plate for this task.

Once you have the vise in a working position, mark your table through the vise boltholes for drilling.

Drill Bolt Holes

Drill the bolt holes where you marked them. Place your vise over the drilled holes and put your bolt through the vise bolt holes. Lock the bolts by placing a lock washer on the underside of the bolt and sealing it into place with a fastening nut. U

And viola, you are done. The actual installing of the bolts isn’t too bad, but it is important to get the placement correct so that you are not drilling holes all over your table.

Another recommendation I have is to use the bolts recommended by the manufacturer. For example: my yost 750-di is supposed to use grade 5 hex bolts that are at least 2″ longer than the table thickness.

Mounting a Portable Vise

There are different types of mounts on portable vises. The most common is basically just a C clamp. To use it, turn the clamp handle counter clockwise to open the clamp. Place the clamp on a smooth flat part of your workbench, and the turn the handle clockwise to tighten the clamp. The only real gotcha here is that many work surfaces will have ridges on the underside of the table, these can compromise the clamping ability of your vise if you do not account for them.

It’s not a bad idea to test the sturdiness of your clamp job with a little shake. You don’t want the vise falling off the table when it is burdened with your work piece.

Smaller vises will sometimes have a vacuum clamp. These are generally not intended for metalworking, and I don’t recommend using them.

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Clamp the vise to the Table

Most models of table vise will have a c clamp on the underside of the vise. Turn the clamp screw counter clockwise until the clamp opening is slightly larger than the surface you will clamp it to. Take this time to make sure there is no debris or dirt on either end of the clamp pad as this may affect how well your vise clamps to the table. Once the clamp is open and free of debris, clamp it to the work table by turning the screw counterclockwise. C clamps work best on a surface that is flat and smooth. A surprising number of tables have ridges on the underside of the table or awkwardly placed brackets, so make sure to check where these are before clamping.

Open Vise Jaws

Once your table vise is properly clamped to the table, check the vise leadscrew and make sure there is no debris stuck in the screw. Dirt,grime, and shavings of any kind will greatly increase the wear and tear of your vise screw. This is less of an issue on vise models where the leadscrew is hidden inside a slide or a case.

Once you have determined your vise is clean, open the jaws by turning the handle counter clockwise.

Close Vise Jaws

Once the vise jaws are open, place your work piece inside the vise jaws and turn the lead screw clockwise. Turn the vise handle until the jaws are clamping your work piece firmly enough that it won’t move around, but don’t overdo it. If you clamp your vise too tightly, you run the risk of ruining either your work piece or your vise.

Ball Joint Vises

Many table vises have a ball join at the base of the vise that allows you to swivel the vise in nearly any direction. Locking and unlocking this vise is as simple as turning the handle attached near the ball joint. Most vises will come with a set of instruction that will clearly indicate which handle to turn.

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Weight

Table vises are small tools, they must be in order to be portable. It’s not good having to lug around a 50lb vise. As such, most table vises weight between 2lb and 8lb. That’s roughly 1kg to 4kg in the metric system.

In contrast, most metal working vises are between 20lb and 50lb (9kg to 23kg), with some going up to 200lbs!

Jaw Width

The jaw width is a measure of how wide the jaws are along the horizontal axis. It measured by taking the length between the top of one side of the jaw, to the otherside of the same jaw.

Again, table vises come in smaller sizes than other vise varieties, with sizes ranging between 1.5″ and 3″ (roughly 40mm to 75mm).

Jaw Opening

The jaw opening measurement measures how wide a pair of jaws can be opened.

The smallest table vises will have jaw opening of around 1″, with larger vises having 4″. That’s roughly 30mm to 100m in the metric system.

Throat Depth

The throat depth measures how much space is between the top of the jaw pad and the top of the screw/slide. It is a good measure to see how big of a work pieces you can fit in between the jaw pads. Most table vises come within 1 inch of 1 inch (roughly 30mm).

Clamp Opening

This measures how big the c clamp screw is, and determines what surfaces you can attach your table vise to.

The clamp opening can vary from 1″ to 3″ (roughly 20-30mm).

How To Choose A Table Vise

Without knowing your intended purpose, it’s hard for me to give a specific and helpful answer to this question. But I will try anyways.

The number one mistake I see new vise owners make is they don’t pay enough attention to throat depth when buying a vise. Vise sellers love to promote the jaw width of a vise (which is important), but they tend to undersell the throat depth for whatever reason and bury it in the middle of their sales copy. Throat depth can be a huge limiter in what size of work pieces you can clamp in your vise, make sure to pay close attention to it.

Another mistake I see is people make is that they over-optimize on price and buy a vise just big enough for their intended purpose. What ends up happening is they eventually go on to buy 5 vises over time, as they always bought the smallest vise possible and kept having to buy bigger vises as their needs grew.

It’s generally a good idea to buy a vise 1.5x bigger than your current intended use. It’s much easier to put a small work piece in a bigger vise than it is to put a big work piece in a small vise.

But I understand no one has unlimited funds, and smaller vises are generally cheaper.

Another thing to consider is whether you should buy a table vise at all. If you don’t need the portability that the c clamp of a table vise provides, you may be better off just buying a bigger stationary engineers vise or metalworking vise. I have a guide where I go into details into what you should look for when purchasing one of the larger vises.

The post What table vice sizes are available? appeared first on Gallivanting Craftsman.

As such, it’s not possible for me to give super definitive answers as to what the different types of table vise are, I will instead do my best to generalize the vise market as I personally see it. You will find exceptions to all the rules I write below.

That may seem a bit pedantic, but I think it’s important to remember this lack of centralized standards. A quick look at vises being sold on amazon will show you just how much variation there is in the naming of vises.

With that vise naming got’cha out of the way, let’s take a quick peek at some of the different types of table vises.

Hobby Vise

A hobby vise is an ideal vise for small arts and crafts. You will commonly find hobby vises used in:

• Jewelry making
• Model making
• Sculpting
• Gluing operations
• Soldering
• Electronics

A hobby vise will be lighter and smaller than an engineers vise. A hobby vise will usually be made out of aluminum and will have a soft material for the vise jaws – at least compared to the serrated hardened steel jaws you will find on a lot of metal working vises.

Smaller and softer? That doesn’t sound like a good thing! Well these design choices make a hobby vise A LOT cheaper than a solid metal working vise. If you know you will only ever work with small arts and crafts, a hobby vise will get the job done and save you a lot of money.

Jeweler’s Vise

As the name suggests, a jeweler’s vise is specifically aimed at the making of jewelry. There is a lot of overlap between a jeweler’s vise and a hobby vise. Most jeweler’s vises are small and made of aluminum – although I do occasionally see cast iron jeweler’s vises that are selling well. Most jeweler’s vises on the market at the time of writing have a C-clamp for table attachment, and quite a few models have a swivel ball joint at the base.

Multi-Angled Vise

A multi angled vise is usually just a vise with a ball joint. As I mentioned earlier in the article, both hobby vises and jewelers vises can have a ball joint as well. A vise labeled as a multi-angled vise is just making this feature it’s primary selling point.

Because remember, there are no standards for vise naming.

This ball joint make it easy to move the vise to accommodating positions for unusually shaped work pieces. It’s also useful for making angled cuts and detail work, as you can position the vise in such a way as to maximize your own comfort.

All of these table vises are on the smaller side, and are not meant for heavy work such as working with steel. If you are looking for something a bit beefier, check out my guide to the 3 best bench vises.

The post What are the different types of table vise? appeared first on Gallivanting Craftsman.

With that being said, I will try and generalize what I NORMALLY see, but you will find exceptions to all the generalizations I write below.

That may seem a bit nit-picky, but a quick glance at table vises on amazon will illustrate just how much variation in naming there is.

With that necessary pedantry about naming out of the way, let’s get down to it : ).

What is a table vise? A table vise is generally a small portable device that fits neatly onto a table. These vises usually have a c clamp underneath them that allows you to quickly attach and detach the vise to the table. This stands in contrast to mounted or bolted vises, which need to be permanently bolted onto a work station. Bolted vises tend to be larger than vises with c clamps. There is also a third base type, known as a vacuum base. These act like a giant suction cup that sticks your vise to the table. You engage the suction action through a handle. In my personal experience, these vacuum vises are unreliable, but I’m sure there are high quality vacuum base vises out there.

Like all vises, a table vise will have a movable jaw and a stationary jaw. The movable jaw is moved towards and away from the stationary jaw via a lead screw. The lead screw is turned by a handle.

Attached to the two vise jaws will be serrated jaw pads made out of hardened steel. These are the vise jaws you most commonly see on metalworking vises. I occasionally find vises labeled as “table vises” with the broad woodworking jaw pad, but this is less common.

The problem with serrated pads made out of steel is that they will often scratch or mar the work pieces placed within them, especially if you clamp the jaws too tightly. This is because hard materials tend to scratch soft materials. To get around this you can purchase jaw covers made out of rubber,plastic,leather, aluminum, and other softer materials that won’t scratch your work as badly. These jaw covers are also easy to replace as they wear out.

What is the body of a table vise made out of?

Most heavier vises are made out of cast ductile iron or cast gray iron. You will occasionally find smaller vises made out of aluminum, and larger vises made out of forged steel, but the vast majority of vises are ductile or gray iron. Ductile iron is usually the best material for the price (in my opinion), but if you want more details, I wrote a whole article on the different materials a vise body can be made out of.

What are table vise lead screws made out of? What about the handle?

The lead screws are usually made out of hardened high carbon steel. This is ideal as you need a material that is hard enough to resist the wear and tear that a lead screw will endure, but it must not be so brittle that it will completely snap under high clamping loads. Lower carbon steels are too soft and need constant repair. High carbon cast irons are too brittle and will fracture too quickly.

The handle can be steel or a softer material like aluminum. Some manufacturers actually design their handle to bend under high clamping loads to try and discourage you from clamping things too tightly and breaking your vise. Whether you actually want this feature or not is up to you.

A table vise can come with a number of optional features such as:

• swivel base
• pipe jaws
• anvil
• tilting mechanism
• quick release
• ball and socket swivel

What is a table vise used for?

A table vise can be used for a number of things such as:

• glueing
• filing
• sawing
• holding steel rods and bars
• holding lumber
• holding pipes
• drilling
• screwing
• buffing
• grinding

Just remember that a table vise is generally smaller in stature. If you plan on subjecting your vise to heavy workloads, you may have better luck searching for “engineers vise” or “metalworking vise”. I review some on my article on bench vises for sale.

The post What is a table vise? appeared first on Gallivanting Craftsman.

Release the screw

To start, rotate the handle locking your slide in place counterclockwise until it is no longer locked.

Remove The Jaw

Once the slide is unlocked, remove the movable jaw and slide from the base of the vise.

Rotate the vise

Rotate the vise 180 Degrees and get it ready to reinsert on the other side of the vise body.

Insert slide

Insert the slide back into the vise body from the opposite direction that you started.

Re-lock the screw.

Turn the handle you turned at the beggining of this article clockwise to lock the jaw and slide in place.

Clamp Workpiece

Place your work piece within the vise jaws and clamp it tightly by turning the lead screw handle clockwise.

The post How to reverse the jaws on a reversible vise appeared first on Gallivanting Craftsman.

Some vises, like my yost750-di vise, have a pin that you pull to unlock the heads rotation abilities. After pulling the pin, push the vise head to the angle you want. Once you have the vise head at the angle you want, simply let go of the pin and it will re-lock once it finds a preset position. It is important to make sure that your vise is locked in place, you don’t want it to wiggle around once you start working on your work piece as this could be dangerous for both you and your equipment. It usually makes a large clicking sound when the pin slides into place and locks the vise head.

Other vises have a handle you that pull to unlock and lock the vise head.

It’s honestly pretty straight forward, most vises will come with an instruction manual when purchased new that will give more details. It’s hard for me to provide specifics when there are so many different models of rotating vises.

If you are buying used, you can usually find the owner’s manual or additional materials such as an isometric view that will help you figure out how to rotate the jaws on your vise.

If you are looking to purchase a rotating vise, make sure to check out my review of the yost 750-DI, and my review of the best 3 work benches.

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Mounting your vise

The first step is to mount your vise to a table or workstations. It’s considered best practice to bolt your vise to the corner of your table. Mounting it in the middle of your table can be done, but it does cause a number of problems such as:

• Not being able to work ergonomically as the table is in the way
• Not being able to fit your work piece into the vise as it will bump into the table
• Vises that have rotating heads (which are quite tall) may bump into the table if there is not enough room

That being said, don’t make this a bigger deal than it is. I know of several people that have 3+ vises and they will often have one on each corner, and one in the middle. The middle one works just fine.

Most right handers will mount their vise on the left hand corner, with left handed people mounting their vise on the right hand corner. I must confess I don’t know why this is. I once heard it’s a tradition from woodworking as it’s easier to plane boards by moving the planer towards the vise. Most vise instruction manuals will recommend this configuration as well.

Again, just do what makes most sense for your shop and setup.

Open Vise Jaws

This part is easy. To open your vise jaws, rotate the handle counter clockwise to open the jaws. Open the jaws until they are wide enough to hold your work piece.

Place Vise Jaw Pads (If Needed)

If you are working with softer materials like wood, brass, or aluminum, it may be worthwhile to place a vise jaw pad on your vise to prevent the vise from scratching or marring your work. As a simple rule: hard scratches soft. A vise jaw cover made of softer materials can help protect your work.

Clamp Your Vise Jaws

To close your jaws around your workpiece, turn the vise handle clockwise. Make sure your vise is clamping down firmly enough to prevent the work-piece from wiggling around, but don’t overdo it. Clamping with excessive pressure will scratch your work piece and will increase the wear and tear on your vise.

If the piece you are clamping is long or unwieldy, make sure to support it with an adjustable stand or table at the far end of the piece. This takes strain of your vise making it last longer, and provides additional support to whatever you are clamping.

Rotating the vise head on multi jaw vises

Many multi-purpose vises will have two different jaw heads on the vise. To rotate the vise in order to access the other head is straight forward. Pull the pin that locks the head in place (the exact location of this can vary by vise), and then push your vise until it begins to rotate.

And that’s it! Make sure to enjoy your new piece of equipment. If you don’t have a vise yet, and are just doing research, make sure to check out my guide.

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