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Hello, what is the best timber to use for woodworking vice jaws? Hardwood or softwood?
To be used for a Moxon vice for doing dovetails on drawers, and is designed to hold boards 330mm wide. What would be the recommended thickness of the timber for the jaws?
Hardwood covered in a layer of rawhide leather . This provides maximum grip with minimal pressure.
When the leather gets manky you replace it.
Search for "Cork Rubber". BenchCrfafted term it "Crubber". I purchased the generic stuff on eBay. It is fantastic at gripping - better than leather (I had suede previously). It seems to have a memory, so dents restore themselves.
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...ml_cb3928f.jpghttp://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...l_m4daff2b.png
Regards from Perth
Derek
Many thanks for your posts, BobL and Derek. Great photo, Derek. What are the vertical slots for, with the magnet at the bottom of one side of them? Love the jarrah !!
Thanks for the lead Derek,Quote:
Originally Posted by derekcohen
I followed it up and not only does it grip well but
That means I can service chainsaws :oo: on my bench and it won't upset the vice jaws.Quote:
It has excellent resistance to fuels and oils and many other chemicals,
Dengy, it is a mod I recently made to the Moxon. The article is here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...MoxonMods.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by Dengue
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad..._m3a427689.jpg
It is for aligning boards when transfering marks.
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...l_4cce6a45.jpg
Regards from Perth
Derek
Hi Dengue, I posted the description of a dovetailing (aka Moxon) jig from Robert Wearing's book on the earlier thread, which includes his suggested dimensions. Derek describes his variation for an alignment angle that is held in place by the magnets there. A bit of the description for a separate Wearing designed alignment jig is also showing on the scanned pages, which he called an 'Angle Bracket'.
I've used 24mm (what I believe is) spotted gum as my latest front vice jaw and so far it seems adequate. The spotted gum doesn't seem to flex much. The rear jaw was some unknown dark red hardwood that seemed to flex more than the spotted gum. If I had used that as the front jaw I think it would have needed to be more like the suggested 35mm thickness, but my new jaws are wide enough to hold over 600mm widths.
Cheers,
OK, I'm on the other side of the world and don't do a lot of dovetails.
I bought a piece of maple and ran it through the thicknesser to insure that's it was parallel. Then I cut it to fit the vise AND not protrude above the top of the bench. The bench is also used as a support for the left side of the saw. It comes in handy when ripping up sheet goods.
I figured it was time to replace the rawhide leather faces on my main vice so I thought I would give Crubber a go.
Here's what the old rawhide leather faces looked like.
As you can see pretty beat up with lots of oil stains and dings etc mainly from holding chainsaw parts etc
Attachment 457813
Before I removed the leather faces I thought I would measure the holding torque of the leather, and then when I replaced the leather, measure the holding torque of the Crubber.
The Photo below shows the setup.
Attachment 457814
Basically I removed the vice handle and replaced it with a 20mm thick ~900 mm long dowel with knobbed ends to which was applied a known load (lead discs of known weights)
Into one side of the vice I inserted a length of 90 x 25 mm DAR pine beam so that the unsupported end just proud of the level of the bench
At the 1.2 m mark along that beam I then added lead weights until the weights just touched the bench.
I repeated this for several different applied loads
I then calculated the torques (horizontal distance x load) resulting from the applied and supporting loads.
I did this for both the old leather faces and the new Crubber faces.
The supported torque divided by the applied torque for the leather and the same for the Crubber should give a measure of the holding power of these materialsr
The average "Supported load" torque divided by the "Applied load" torque for the Crubber was 3.5, while for the leather it was 4.0 (no units because its a ratio)
The Crubber was slightly (~15%) better at higher loads, while the leather was better (30%) at lower loads.
When I factor in all the variables I would say that overall there's not much in it.
But perhaps the crubber will stand up to your tender mercies a bit better, Bob?... :DQuote:
Originally Posted by BobL
With good thick leather becoming expensive, this is a timely thread for me - looks like my next jaw liner replacement might be with this stuff..
Cheers,
Chemically resistant wise I agree, but the leather has still done a fair job in this regard.Quote:
Originally Posted by IanW
As well as coming into short term contact with various two stroke mixes and mineral oils the darker of the leather pieces has been(accidentally, overnight) completely saturated in Auto Transmission fluid. I stuffed folded wads of toilet paper between the vice faces and closed up the vice to draw out the oil. I did this about 2 dozen times with ever increasing jaw pressure till there was no more oil coming out of the leather face. I thought under this exposure the leather would then rot and fall part but it hasn't and also not lost its grip as witnessed by the experiment above. In fact if anything clean rawhide leather would grip even better than the old stuff I was testing.
Physically I think the rawhide leather is tougher and would better withstand cuts and nicks than Crubber. I certainly won't be throwing the old leather vice faces away
I agree. The 1200 x 500 mm x 2mm piece of Crubber from ebay cost $34 and being chemically tough will also double as useful gasket material.Quote:
With good thick leather becoming expensive, this is a timely thread for me - looks like my next jaw liner replacement might be with this stuff,
Before I threw out my leather or paper lounge I cut some from the back of the lounge to keep.
Because i am cheap so I glued a piece to my vise, seems to work ok but i haven't use the vise in anger yet :)
Hi DerekQuote:
Originally Posted by derekcohen
How thick is the crubber that you use? Do you use contact adhesive to attach it?
Thanks
HPF, it is 2mm thick. I use hide glue, but most glues should work.
Regards from Perth
Derek