# Moxon Vise



## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

After years of having put up with just having a single 6" vise w/8" oak jaws in my shop as my primary means for clamping, I decided it was time for a change. I"ve been eyeballing a Moxon vise for quite a while as an option. I like the simplicity as well as the potential versatility the design offers. Construction of the vise is a straight forward process with very little to screw ya up as you go along. The primary hardware for one of these a couple of #8 ACME threaded rods and a couple of hand wheels. The threaded rod as well as the hand wheels can be substituted with numerous options. All depends on what suites your fancy and your budget.
Wood for the build comes down to whatcha got and whatcha want. I had some very old hard maple that I picked up as part of a Wormy Chestnut buy several years ago. Wasn't much to look at, but I held onto it none the less, now I"m glad I did. A nice 1" walnut board was used as much for decoration as anything else. The jaws are made up of some really sweet 2" hard maple and the legs/supports are made of some equally nice 2" walnut. Lumber for the bench portion was milled up to just under 2"s. 2 halfves were glued up separately, ran thru the planer and the bench dog holes were drilled. The two halves were subsequently glued together, hand planed perfectly flat and sanded. End thickness of the bench is just over 1 7/8's. Final dimensions are 24 1/2 long by 23 wide. A small Veritas insert vise was added for some of the smaller things I like to play around with. Namely inlay work. 
The vise jaws themselves are made up of a pair of matched 2" thick hard maple boards. Holes were drilled with 18" centers which should accommodate just about anything I'm liable to come up with. Leaving almost 6"s of either side of the rods for boards that would be difficult to slip into the jaws. Holes for the front jaw were elongated to avoid racking as the board is positioned for clamping.
The walnut was used for the legs/supports. Typically a Moxon vise alone only requires a single support for clamping. Since I went with the attached benchtop a second support was needed. A pair of 2" x 5 x 28"
blocks were milled up and cut leaving a foot on either end to support a clamp. A 3/8" hole was drilled in each foot so as to accommodate mechancial anchoring to the bench top. 

All in all I think it turned out pretty nice. Looks good to me and the clamping capabilities of the vise is quite impressive. I plan on padding the jaws since the clamping pressure is such that it will leave marks on the wood being clamped if not careful. Remove the hand wheels and front vise and the thing is still heavy, but quite manageable if relocation is required. 
Finish was nothing ore than a couple of coats of tung oil I had sitting around and wanted to use up. use of the tung oil will also most any touch ups quite and painless.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Very nice job Bill. About the only difference I see between that and the LV twin screw is that it has a sprocket on each screw and chain to connect them so that they turn in unison. How hard would it be to add that feature do you think?


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

ya finally made one...
and is it ever finely crafted....

.


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

Real nice Bill


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Very nice Bill looks impressive.


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

Gorgeous


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

Very nice build, Bill. A lot of work, but something you'll get a lot of use out of.


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## old coasty (Aug 15, 2014)

Great job Bill


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## MikeMa (Jul 27, 2006)

Well done! I built a moxon vise a couple years ago (splurged and got the Bench Crafted hardware), and absolutely love it. The holding force of this vice is amazing.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Very nice job Bill. About the only difference I see between that and the LV twin screw is that it has a sprocket on each screw and chain to connect them so that they turn in unison. How hard would it be to add that feature do you think?



Thanks Chuck...
someone with a couple of sprockets and a good welder could pretty much duplicate a LV Twin. In fact I would not be surprised that the LV Twin wasn't inspired by something similar to this. It's an OLD design thats proven its value in many a shop.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Stick486 said:


> ya finally made one...
> and is it ever finely crafted....
> 
> .


Thank you Stick.......

This is exactly why its very unlikely I'll ever build a full size 'custom' bench....I just can't see me beating the snot out of something that turns out so pretty :x


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Semipro said:


> Real nice Bill


Thank you John!!


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

old55 said:


> Very nice Bill looks impressive.


Thanks Ross!! 

Actually not all that impressive, pretty maybe. The build itself is very straight forward. Nuttin fancy about this one.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

dovetail_65 said:


> Gorgeous



Thank you Nick!!!


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

chessnut2 said:


> Very nice build, Bill. A lot of work, but something you'll get a lot of use out of.


Thanks Jim... Most of the work involved making the time to actually get at and finally build it 

I certainly do hope to get alot of use out of it!


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

old coasty said:


> Great job Bill



Thank you Bob!!!


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

MikeMa said:


> Well done! I built a moxon vise a couple years ago (splurged and got the Bench Crafted hardware), and absolutely love it. The holding force of this vice is amazing.


 @MikeMa 
I damn near pulled the trigger on the BenchCrafter hardware, I don't know how many times. But always thought that cobbling together the hardware would be just as good. Welp. NOPE...there is a big difference in the action IMHO. The BenchCrafted hand wheel and threaded rod are superior by far in terms of machined tolerances. They are machined to work together whereas my hardware I believe is just more of a general product. The really big difference is when you 'spin' the wheels. BenchCrafted wheels just seem to ride on the threads smooth as butta..... mine ride relatively smoothly, but still want to chatter from time to time..Not a deal breaker by any means, but something you can't help but notice between the two. 

Absolutely agree on the holding force, WOW...is about all I could say. This son of gun clamps down like nobodies business.. so much so that I'm going to round over the inside edges of the jaws slightly. The sugar maple is so hard that the edges might want to leave creases in the project.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Thanks guys,,, I appreciate the kind words...

Havn't had much of a chance to use the thing yet. Letting final coats of tung oil cure for a week before using. A couple of other things are planned for it. One is to cut off the business end of my work bench, make a platform for the Moxon Vise to mount to then a removable top that will be flush with the rest of the workbench. As an assembly this thing is rather heavy. Nothing I can't move around myself, but for the average Joe,,might just be to big/to heavy. The beauty of this design is that there is no real set
size for it. IN fact, I like t his so much, I might very well build a small brother to throw up on my countertop when needed. 
I want to round over the edges of the jaws and install some of BenchCrafted "Grubber" product on the inside of the jaws. That stuff should arrive today according to UPS. Maybe a little edge work around the perimeter of the bench as well just for cosmetics. Since the bench dogs and accessories will be specific to this portion of my shop, I think I will add a drawer under the bench to store the accessories. Leaving a gap between the top of the drawer and the bottom of the bench top. About the only thing I wouldn't be able to use is a hold-fast and similar devices. However, should the need arise, the drawer will be able to be removed completely.


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## MikeMa (Jul 27, 2006)

TwoSkies57 said:


> @MikeMa
> I damn near pulled the trigger on the BenchCrafter hardware, I don't know how many times. But always thought that cobbling together the hardware would be just as good. Welp. NOPE...there is a big difference in the action IMHO. The BenchCrafted hand wheel and threaded rod are superior by far in terms of machined tolerances. They are machined to work together whereas my hardware I believe is just more of a general product. The really big difference is when you 'spin' the wheels. BenchCrafted wheels just seem to ride on the threads smooth as butta..... mine ride relatively smoothly, but still want to chatter from time to time..Not a deal breaker by any means, but something you can't help but notice between the two.
> 
> Absolutely agree on the holding force, WOW...is about all I could say. This son of gun clamps down like nobodies business.. so much so that I'm going to round over the inside edges of the jaws slightly. The sugar maple is so hard that the edges might want to leave creases in the project.


You described the exact reason why I went with the Benchcrafted hardware. I will say it does need to be broken in a little bit to get to that point, but even that didn't take long. A quick flick of the wheel is usually enough to get a strong hold on a work piece. Its great!


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

TwoSkies57 said:


> After years of having put up with just having a single 6" vise w/8" oak jaws in my shop as my primary means for clamping, I decided it was time for a change. I"ve been eyeballing a Moxon vise for quite a while as an option. I like the simplicity as well as the potential versatility the design offers. Construction of the vise is a straight forward process with very little to screw ya up as you go along. The primary hardware for one of these a couple of #8 ACME threaded rods and a couple of hand wheels. The threaded rod as well as the hand wheels can be substituted with numerous options. All depends on what suites your fancy and your budget.
> Wood for the build comes down to whatcha got and whatcha want. I had some very old hard maple that I picked up as part of a Wormy Chestnut buy several years ago. Wasn't much to look at, but I held onto it none the less, now I"m glad I did. A nice 1" walnut board was used as much for decoration as anything else. The jaws are made up of some really sweet 2" hard maple and the legs/supports are made of some equally nice 2" walnut. Lumber for the bench portion was milled up to just under 2"s. 2 halfves were glued up separately, ran thru the planer and the bench dog holes were drilled. The two halves were subsequently glued together, hand planed perfectly flat and sanded. End thickness of the bench is just over 1 7/8's. Final dimensions are 24 1/2 long by 23 wide. A small Veritas insert vise was added for some of the smaller things I like to play around with. Namely inlay work.
> The vise jaws themselves are made up of a pair of matched 2" thick hard maple boards. Holes were drilled with 18" centers which should accommodate just about anything I'm liable to come up with. Leaving almost 6"s of either side of the rods for boards that would be difficult to slip into the jaws. Holes for the front jaw were elongated to avoid racking as the board is positioned for clamping.
> The walnut was used for the legs/supports. Typically a Moxon vise alone only requires a single support for clamping. Since I went with the attached benchtop a second support was needed. A pair of 2" x 5 x 28"
> ...


Bill that is one heck of a vice. You could clamp almost anything in it, even "Stick" I mean a stick. >


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

hawkeye10 said:


> Bill that is one heck of a vice. You could clamp almost anything in it, even "Stick" I mean a stick. >


he does that and I'm going home w/ it...


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

hawkeye10 said:


> Bill that is one heck of a vice. You could clamp almost anything in it, even "Stick" I mean a stick. >


Thank you Don..... yep, she's a beastie alright! I'm hoping it proves to be extremely versatile.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Stick486 said:


> he does that and I'm going home w/ it...



certainly wouldn't be the worst thing that might happen to it...................:smile:


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## Shop guy (Nov 22, 2012)

Very nice! I been thinking about one forever and a week or two but just don't get around to it. Hope yours inspires me to get it done.


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## denniswoody (Dec 11, 2011)

I built a Moxon a while ago and I guarantee you will love yours. I put a T-track in the inside jaw instead of dogs. I made stop blocks to fit in the track. With the stops in place I can insert a piece of wood in the vise flush with the top and use it to cut to rout mortises. The width of the vise and piece of wood makes a very stable base. I bet you could come up with a similar set-up using your dogs.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Shop guy said:


> Very nice! I been thinking about one forever and a week or two but just don't get around to it. Hope yours inspires me to get it done.



Thank you Richard..

To quote a modern day sage... 

"Get'r Done" 

I'm just starting to kick myself for not having done this a long time ago, and wishing I had gotten the
real deal BenchCrafted hardware. What I may do is eventually swap out this hardware for use in a much smaller bench top version and get the BC hardware.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

denniswoody said:


> I built a Moxon a while ago and I guarantee you will love yours. I put a T-track in the inside jaw instead of dogs. I made stop blocks to fit in the track. With the stops in place I can insert a piece of wood in the vise flush with the top and use it to cut to rout mortises. The width of the vise and piece of wood makes a very stable base. I bet you could come up with a similar set-up using your dogs.



Ohhh yeah, thanks, just what I needed, more ideas :surprise::smile::smile::grin: I'm actually working on an idea for dogging irregular shaped edges over a span......


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

Just one thing to say... Wow!


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## bryansong (Mar 4, 2015)

Oh wow Bill, I just now saw this thread thanks to TenGee's.

That is one fantastic vise! Nice work and vision.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

bryansong said:


> Oh wow Bill, I just now saw this thread thanks to TenGee's.
> 
> That is one fantastic vise! Nice work and vision.


Thank ya Bryan....

the longer I have it, the more I regret not having built it a long time ago...The thing is extraordinarily versatile.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

TenGees said:


> Just one thing to say... Wow!


"WOW"...kinda what I keep saying:smile:

Thanks Paul


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