Nice
I’m getting my shop back up and running one piece at a time. This is my new end vise.
I’m using as much stuff I already have as possible. The jaws are made from Baltic birch plywood. It has 15 plies of birch and makes a very strong a stable vise. There are 3 layers of the plywood in each jaw.
The vise screw was full of rust from sitting on a shelf for a few decades. Fortunately, it was just surface rust and it came off easily. The runner/stabilizers are 1 1/4" maple dowels from my wood stack. They are really straight and it was great to just go grab them.
The handle is a new 1" dowel that is a softer wood, maybe poplar. It’s hard to find high-quality dowels at a local hardward store. This softer wood is just fine for handle as it will get a lot of use and will be easy to replace.
The caps on the ends of the handle are from the honey locust tree that used to be in our front yard. Most of the tree became firewood but I saved a few pieces that looked interesting.
The little blue plastic things are bench dogs. I added a series of holes in the top of my workbench and the dogs allow a flat piece to be held securely. These vises are sometimes called a cabinet maker’s vise and are very versatile.
The shop almost feels usable now. Almost…
-Eric
Eric J. Knapp 