Thread: Wood Vice jaw - can I do this?

Supposedly, the strength to weight ratio of Spruce approaches that of steel. It was the preferred material for the wing spars of wooden aircraft.

Agree with the boss - seems like a bit of a waste of such a nice chunk of wood, but if the price is ok.....

I like softer woods for vice jaws, myself - they hang on better and don't mark the work.

Cheers,

Thanks for the reply Ian.

The price is about $31 for the plank.

The other material that I would have to lamite vertical would have been about $80 and the nara hardwood (good stuff) was goint to run about $180 for the two jaws.

I think for $31 I will give it a go.

Rob

Takamatsu. Over the water from Kobe.

If it's old growth spruce, then it might be hard enough, and should be strong enough. I know that using a softwood for jaw linings (not the jaws themselves) is supposed to give a better grip.

Sugi is cedar BTW, and waaaay too soft for anything useful.

A good option is Tamo, AKA Japanese ash. Hard, tough and usually cheap enough. If you have a 'Joy' home centre (there's a whole gang of them with Joy in the name somewhere) then I'd suspect they would carry something useful. My local just got upgraded a little bit (read as: too big) and they carry a heap of hardwood slabs (megabucks), and a few smaller bits, mostly acacia and teak. They also have dressed tamo, but it's too rich for me.

They also have a tropical wood that's diabolically tough and heavy, not too expensive either. Used for decking mostly, but I sure as shoot wouldn't want ot use it since a small deck would get very exxy very quickly.


If you find yourself on this side of the sea, let me know and I'll scratch up something that you might
find useful.

I was in Carba-Tec the other day and noticed that the cabinet makers benches they sell have laminated vice jaws. You can just make it out in this picture. The front jaw is made up of a "stack" of four boards laminated together.

Thanks for the low down on the sugi schtoo.
I am not that knowledgable about all the wood species (just what I have used myself ) and then trying to get the Japanese names of the woods worked out makes it more difficult.

You wouldn't happen to have a list of the Japanese woods and there English name or equivalent western wood species. I got to buy the wood in Japanese but all the research about the wood properties and useage etc are in English so it is difficult sometimes.


"JOY" - they don't have them around here. Mainly "Conan" and "Kainz" . neither has much in the way of hard woods except for few large slabs that rub into megbucks. There was a place that had more but they went broke so I cannot use them anymore.

JUST remembered your reminded me that there is a stack of old deck planks out back under the tarp - recycled. 125x24mm urin (which is "iron wood" (ulin)) it has screw holes through it and most has a bit of cup in it. But I suppose I could plane them down to about 20mm. I'd have to edge joint and laminate them together.

That would be a lot of work -- I use only hand planes and it is as hard as nails. SE Asian tropical like the deck wood you were talking about. I'd be sharpen the blade every few strokes.

Also planing this really hard stuff really requires a good solid bench-which is what I am building...ie. I don't have a bench to do the jointing on. The spruce would plane very nicely using my "plank-on-saw horses" bench that I use now.

My only concern would be glue up and bond strength. Most of these tropicals like ipe and urin have natural oils - and that is why they are good for decks- which make glue up difficult. They may just spring all apart when loaded up as a vise jaw. ?????

How would i glue them up if I used them? What is the recommended method? I have some titebond III but don't really want to use it as it is limited supply, very expensive here and I got it for exterior furniture. And then just the Japanese regular wood glues.

HUMMMMMM.....Or should I just use the spruce plank?

Rob

Still reckon use ply, dont waste $$$$ wood.
The ply will be stronger and can handle the stress's placed on it better than normal wood, because the grain runs in several directions.
60mm of laminated ply should hold several ton's of pressure with ease, they use it on bridges instead of 100mm+ thick hardwood.
I have 24mm of ply on my vice its holding up very well, unlike the hardwood I had on it before.(kept snapping along the grain)