Camlock Leg Vice/Vise Part 1. Simple, Powerful. No Metal Parts Woodworking Vice! Prototype Build.
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Whats Happening Everyone! In this video I show a prototype leg vise I'm working on. Its simple to make has a powerful clamping force and requires no metal parts. It should eb a great option for woodworkers and hobbyists alike.
One thing to note here is that I am retro fitting this to my existing bench and the leg tenons are in the way, if a bench was built with this vise in mind it would work even better.
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Brilliant, a design as simple as this is years overdue and I can see it becoming a standard piece of kit in every wood workers workshop. Great video and a great result 👍
Glad you like it!
I really like that it can be built without any metal parts. Looking forward to the hardwood version.
For clamping thicker boards.
Maybe make the standard opening 20mm wider than now and when needed to clamp thin stock, you have a hook (u-shaped) piece of wood you put over the top of the leg vise
17 people that can’t make it guessing above. Great idea and love your videos😊👍
Thanks 👍
Alternative to the rebar - create a square-edged Cam to go behind the leg. This could give you 4 resting points, with e.g. 1 inch increments (total range: 3 inches). When you want to change it, just reach behind the leg and twist the bolt around to the appropriate face. Square edge keeps it consistent, and prevents it shifting under pressure.
Offset the holes, high and low, in a sign zag pattern.
I love it! Well Done Sir! Thinking outside of the box is the way forward! You are forwarding thinking and merciful to us who are on budgets!!!
Thank you greatly!!!
I love the *McGrath vise* ......This is what it shall be called from now on! We all took a vote and the vote was unanimous, so the motion has been carried! :) :)
Many of the ideas for the adjustability are really good, but something I did not see mentioned is 'dog holes'...
I see that the top of the moving jaw is set flush with the top of the bench now, but what if it was raised a bit, say 1 inch or so and then there could be some dog holes drilled into the top of the bench at intervals which would allow for clamping a very wide board to the top of the bench, or a narrow one for that matter. Clamping pressure would be applied between the peg inserted into a dog and the jaw face...🤔
Makin' Sawdust very good idea indeed.
I like that vice. Going to try this myself.
Brilliant idea John 👍 I was just surfing the net looking at vices when I noticed your video. No need to search anymore buddy, I know what I'll be building now. Loving the Paul Sellers bench by the way. I met the man himself a couple of years ago when I attended one of his workshops and I've never met a nicer man. His work is absolutely beautiful 👌
Separate comment - from what I've seen, many people use either a tapered or 'stepped' kicker for the bottom stop... open the vice, kick the 'kicker' in to the appropriate depth to match your apron offset + thickness of the wood being clamped, and you're good to go.
A pair of sliding wedges would keep the faces parallel
Put large saw tooth looking notches on the bottom of the tenon board that hook to the backside of the mortise. Then you can adjust the opening.
Good for you. I always enjoy seeing people’s creative ideas. Easy to build and cost effective.
Great idea mate...what about cutting a hand hold in the bottom of the lever...something shaped like a knuckle duster or a pistol grip with finger grooves
I'd be fun to make it so the cam leaver rotated, and the whole thing looked like a giant set of toenail clippers.
Pretty awesome idea. I wonder if a saw tooth shape on the top of the "tenon board" and some slop or a teeter point in the slot that would allow you to disengage the teeth on underside and slide it in/out.
That could work 🤔
I was thinking the same thing, except instead of moving the tenon board to engage the saw teeth, a moveable pin. But that would require reaching under the bench, maybe the idea of the tenon board moving up and down is better, making it adjustable from the front. But I would put the saw teeth on the bottom of the tenon board and the pin under the bench would be fixed. Lift the board, push it in, and engage the clamp. There are several ways to adjust the foot.
I love it. Simple and strong
Lovely work john
hello James!!!
Why hasn't this design made you a wealthy man? John this is brilliant, honestly mate good job. You ever need a mechanical engineer to put his two or three cents into things please send me a message.
Hi John, am new to your channel have been watching a load of your vids last few days and as a hobby wood worker and Irish (Galway) I love what you do and hope you grow to success. Its refreshing to see an honest guy who will show his mistakes, and a "real workshop". I wish you happiness success and stay safe and vigilant.
D.Quinn.
Cheers Dave very kind of you! Stay safe man.
Love it!!! Will build one for my work bench!!!
Excellent! Thanks for sharing.
This is a super idea. It shows what a thinking woodworker can do when constrained (no metal, fast build). Thank you for sharing your idea.
Looks great, going to try to copy and build it. Thanks.
Maybe move the holes in the back further from the front, then make drop over ( horse shoe like ) shims that go over the straight tenon piece between the cam and the vise leg. Different shims of different thicknesses for more range and few adjustments under the workbench. Shims could easily be hung up and replaced as they wear.
Once in a while something new comes along that's simple to build and a great new idea! I can't wait to try it. Thank you.
Glad you like it!
How about using a car or farm tractor trailer hitch pin with a handle instead of rebar? Quick change and already smooth.
Brilliant idea, John! Beautiful job! 😃
Looks great and works nicely!
Stay safe there! 🖖😊
Could be on to something here, with a few more adjustments and pieces it could be a cracking vise. It will have to be called the McGrath Vise lol.
why not, McGrath designed, built and so named.
Fantastic idea, for the dowels, why not used some 32mm plastic conduit and insert a wooden dowel inside it?
yeah could be great would reduce friction too!
I love the concept. I would like to see the cam lever more hand friendly at the lower end. Your certainly on to a winner there.
Very good ang clever system
Fantastic design!
great work John, your banging out the jigs, keep going like this and you'll have made more than Izzy Swan the jig master
i like your thinking on this one, intresting idea for sure. it might work to replace the block on the bottom with another tennon but with the pin on the other side. so it pushes up against the outside of the leg.( the side with the vise) you can drill a few holes to allow for the range of motion.
Class design John
Try combining your brilliant idea with the wedge idea for the foot space. Nice job sir.
Thanks 👍
Great design never saw a vice like this but is probably the best one ever
I'd submit a patent if I were you. Genius.
Great video John McGrath making these long days shorter. Keep up the great work another norm abram
This is genius, off to watch part 2.
You keep referring to the tree boards, technically they’re all tree boards aren’t they? 😂
I think this is the absolute best leg vice build I’ve seen! I have watched so many that say they are simple but they all require welding or spending more time on the screw than the whole vise. If it’s not welding it’s thread chasing on the lathe or buying thread cutting tools which I would never use after making the single screw. Seriously this is a super impressive build. Eager to see whether you are going to use rebar on the smaller holes to extend or using an offset square to adjust the depth of your vice. Nice work, very quickly becoming my favorite channel!
Also if you would throw together a set of plans or something I’d love to support the channel and buy those for sure!
Really great video and as a genius idea. I'm in the midst of building my first workbench and been watching loads of 'How to' You Tube videos on workbenches. This is the best idea I've seen for a home made vice. I'm already having ideas for how this could be adapted for a moxon vice :-)
I've been subscribed to your channel for several months and you have some great ideas.
I think it could be adapted for a moxon vise too
Outstanding. Thanks mate!
Glad you liked it!
Very nice. Ill give it a go soon.
This was brilliant John! Thanks so much for sharing! - I've also been thinking of how to make one just out of timber as I don't know how to weld and all the mechanisms you can buy are expensive! - I just never thought of a cam lock! Brilliant!
Glad you liked it!
@@JohnMcGrathManInShed thanks John, PS, was that a jack plane or a smoothing plane u used? I have neither and I'm trying to figure out which one best to get? Also, no.4 or no.5 or whatever all the variations?! Thanks mate
brilliant build. I love it.
Fantastic application John, When I get my bench cleared off I'm going to add one of these. Your floor block could be formed with three different widths, depending on how you rotated it.
Thanks Paul, there is a final version with no block required!
Mainly upvoted for the accent.
Possible solutions to potential problems.
I would constantly be snacking my knee against this as I walk around the table. The clamping pressure comes from the cam radial difference of the offset circle around the dowel. This same difference can be achieved from a much smaller offset circle. You can reduce the outward profile. A smaller cam circle will require less force so the lever can be smaller as well.
Regarding the wear of the cam lever against the leg: brass looks nicer but isn't free. You can use aluminum or tin from soda or canned food. In addition to decking the leg you can deck the cam as well.
To vary the thickness of what is held additional holes in the tenon can be added in two rows such that the center of the holes are across the top and bottom.
Love this design and intend to build it with a more shallow profile. I like my knees.
go for it
Great idea and video! Subscribed and gave this one a thumbs up. Keep 'em coming John!
Glad you liked it
Great design! As long as you have it optimized for you most-used thickness, it should be perfect!
Like the design, the simplicity !! Thanks for sharing!!
No problem!
well done keep it up 👍🌺🛫
Brilliant. Big fan of cam pressure. Use it myself with great success
Brilliant John!
Great idea, thanks.
Well done
For the block at the bottom of the leg, it would be a good idea to use a tapers block. check out rex krueger's video on his leg vise. it's easily adjustable and works great
This is a fantastic design. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you like it!
Brilliant idea fella.
I couldn’t live with the lack of adjustment.
You could run a parallel adjustable tenoned rail towards the bottom of the leg as per “normal” leg vices.
But that means moving two sets of pegs when yah need to adjust the vice for width.
Brilliant idea. Here in Panama I'm struggling to find a woodworking vise. When my tools finally manage to get here from the UK I will be building a workbench. If I don't find a vise here, there is a good chance that The McGrath vise or something like it will be finding it's way onto my bench. Thank you.
@John McGrath @Geoff Willingham
An idea for the tenon bar. Rather than drill a series of holes and move a dowel each time you want to clamp, you could drill one large hole (like you have) and add a spiral conch shell-shaped disc. It would gradually have a larger radius as it wound around the center hole increasing by say 3 inches if the disc was large enough. Then you could simply turn it in the rear disc to gradually open or close the clamping distance. This is very similar to the camlock mechanism on the other side of the tenon board. This would also be a simpler and perhaps more elegant solution than drilling many holes. It would also allow an infinite amount of adjustment. Just a thought.
Rather than having multiple pin positions for variable jaw gaps, I had another idea someone may have mentioned already. You could put the pin in what would have become the widest jaw position and simply add spacers, when necessary, between the pin and bench leg.
Really looking forward to the final product, John.
Nice one 👍😁😁
Brilliant
That's a clever vise john.well impressed and great use of basic bits and pieces to make something so good.greetings from the Yorkshire dales.Well Wexford really👍
Great idea but register the design otherwise before you know it Kreg will have it on Amazon at $250 !
Awesome leg vise! I think I know what I'll be building soon!!!
Great thought process, this is the simplest design I have seen. Well thought out. Enjoyed the accent, hello from Maine USA.
Thank you and Hello from Ireland.
Brilliant vice mate defo on to something good, even some cowhide leather instead of the brass strips maybe, told u this would be a great time for the channel your getting your rewards you put in for all your efforts, keep them coming bud n stay safe 👏
Never used one John but this seems a very good idea will love to see the finished prototype
Very neat idea Why not try Put in Springs at either side of the pin with a series of holes so that you can pull the pin in and out to give you more room as needed. Well done it a good job 👍🏽
If you need to clamp different width workpieces, you could just make a few different lengthed peg-tenons, one for each common board width. You'll probably only need 2 or 3. That would be cheap and you probably have lots of plywood left in the sheet that you used to build your vise. Maybe use shims to accommodate irregular width workpieces. For pegs, maybe some polished pipe, or dowel in pipe... nice project and video, thanks!
I already commented but another idea would be to put your peg at the end of the tenon board and then have u shaped shims that slide over the top of it on the backside of the mortise hole. You can adjust the opening size that way as well.
Awesome leg vise bud, excellent design. Keep the videos coming.
Earl
Connecticut, USA
You could get pins in your local hardware that are for agriculture use . Tractor pins come in different sizes and are super strong 👍
Love it
Great idea💪🏼 a Darwins with some meassures could be Nice.
Hate autocorrect, a drawing, not Darwins 😖
What a great idea John! Good design so far, always room for upgrades when you get to using it.
I don’t know would it work but u could drill a straight line and chisel it out then put big washers and u can bolts it were ever u want to make it as big as u want
Currently have limited thickness to clamp. The challenge is, the other end (at the back) should be adjustable to a variable length, I think wedge mortise can be a good starting point, although the wedge is low angle and youll have a very limited adjustable length as well, making the wedge high angle will just pop the wedge out (I guess).
Another adjustment I could think of is making the camlock not locked only at one point, bear with me here, the problem with camlock is for it to lock, the other end should have a precise position which is difficult to achieve using simple design and materials (which is what you are aiming I believe). Imagine if the camlock is like a hex nut, only it is shaped like a snail shell (dunno how wear resistant this could be), the other end then can be adjusted to preset location (like the bar clamp)
what about making the leg side pin in the manner of a pair of channel locks
Incredibly simple and effective! Good work. A deadly project...(how’s my Irish slang?)😆
Perfect!
Genius! What a cracking idea.
👏👏👏
Glad you liked it!
At 5:30, you can add a pair of tri-angled shims that are mated on their sloped faces (take a rectangular board, and cut through the center at an angle), located inbetween the large pin and the table frame. As you push them towards their centers, they get wider. The one on the bottom can be permanently fixed to the table frame, and the upper one can slide up and down to become wider or narrower (or vice-versa).
I would think that a quick release mechanism could get you the quick adjustment you're looking for. Not too sure how to do that with wood, but might be something to ponder on.
Really nice prototype. Can the cam be shortened without causing undo difficulty in closing it down? What about another hole or two in the cam part of the tensioner board? It would be easier access than the underside of the bench. Another thought, attach a runner from the bottom of your apron to the floor, thus making the vise flush with your bench...? So many options, a great idea....
There are follow up videos improving the design
Awesome
Thanks!
Did you really hammer out the pin with the vise engaged? Wouldn't that have been easier with it "relaxed"? Comments from the peanut gallery. Anyway, great idea.
Good thinking Floyd
Great idea! Fair play!
G'day,,Nice idea,,,,Adjustment,,Move ya peg hole back and have a wedge,,as you need more width move wedge out,,need less move wedge in,,have a couple of peg hole and you have a fully adjustable vice,and use wedge for fine adjustment,,could even have notches in you wedge to stop wedge form falling out,,,
just a thought,,Hope this helps,,
Cool
To gain some usable range in the cam vise make some sort of an offset pin (cam if you will.) The tenon would have the 1-1/2" hole in it while the cam clamp would have say a 1" hole in it. The pin would be 1-1/2" in the middle and 1" on the two ends. (Could be as simple as making a crescent shaped cam by drilling a 1"hole then a 1-1/2' hole around it with both holes tangent to one side. Then attach the cam to the pin permanently. Do this to each pin and you gain a full inch in extra usable range by simply twisting each pin.
Really clever job John well done mate👍
Thanks 👍
Great idea John. It looks and works great, don't know if you could use some kind of stepped shim that drops between your cam and tapered board. Using gravity to take up any slack before you push your lever down. 👍
Great idea
A really slick idea. How about a fixed pin under the bench and a “sawtooth” shaped board through the leg? Might allow for a quicker adjustment to account for different thicknesses of wood. Truly enjoy your site.
I like it!
I wonder if this can be built out of metal tubing
You could also offset multiple overlapping larger holes above and below the centerline to give you a tighter range of adjustment. ---%%%----