As part of the Display Case work station, I’m building in a Moxen vice for dovetailing and other light clamping operations. I thought I was making this out of oak to match the rest of the work station, but as soon as I started cleaning up the board with a scrub plane I realized this is most likely soft maple.
I didn’t take a ton of pictures, but essentially I needed this square acme nut to sit inside the back of my vice so the threads line up with the round hole. The front of the vice then screws into these nuts.
I started with measuring and marking everything. I’m using 3/4″ acme rod, so I started by drilling my 3/4″ holes for the rod through both pieces of the vice, then marking where the mortise should go.
I drilled out a majority of the material with the drill press. I had a couple of young volunteers help me chisel out the sides of the mortise….their side fits a bit looser than mine :0). Since the depth was what was critical on this job it didn’t matter too much.
Once the nut slid into place and lined up correctly I cut a piece of wood to fit in the mortise hole. This was pretty easy, I just used the nut to set my dimensions on the table saw and cut a stick that would give me enough length for both sides.
My kids helped with this side, so it’s a tad loose in places ;0)
Once the pieces were cut to length, I clamped them in so I could drill a hole for the peg. This was done on the back side to hide the mechanics from the front. Not that it mattered in the end…I ended up drilling holes for bolts through the face. I’ll probably try to plug them so at least the obvious circles are wooden and flush :0)
There is no glue, just pegs holding these in. If the nuts wear out this will make it easier to exchange them in the future. I precut my peg lengths, then pounded them in and this little project was done!
You can see the whole working vise here (when I get the post written up)
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