Logan Cabinet Shoppe

The built-in doors are done and I ordered the hinges so I've had some free shop time recently. So I've been cleaning up the shop and making a lot of small tools and items for the shop while I wait for the hinges for the built-in doors to be delivered. After putting up some items for sale last week, I was a little surprised that the cast iron saw vise sold as quickly as it did (thanks Dave!). I have had a wooden saw vise on my list of shop projects to build for awhile now. Selling my old iron saw vise caused that project to move up to the top of the priority list so this weekend I cobbled one together.

The entire vise, with the exception of the screw is made from red oak from the B.O.R.G. The top jaw is about 18" wide, twice as wide as the iron vise. This will allow me to file all of my backsaws without constantly repositioning them in the vise. The tops of the jaws stand about 15" above the bench top when clamped in the bench vise. This gets the saw up to a comfortable height for filing while standing up. The vertical member of the front jaw is about 12" long. The vertical member of the rear jaw is about 18" long. This allows the saw to be removed from the saw vise without removing the saw vise from the bench vise (the saw vise is held in the bench vise by the rear jaw only). The vertical member is tenoned and drawbored into the upper jaw with 3/8" oak pegs.

Here you can see how the back vertical is about 6" longer than the front. The front vertical member has a 1-1/2" through hole bored in it and the rear vertical member has a 1-3/8" hole bored and tapped for a 1-1/2" wooden screw. The head of the wooden screw is made from a piece of an old maple hand screw clamp that stripped out. The screw itself is made from a 5" long section of 1-1/2" birch dowel that had threads cut with the 1-1/2" woodthreading kit from Woodcraft. I then added glue to the screw head and screwed the screw into the head. After the glue dried, I drilled a 1/2" through hole through the head and screw for the 1/2" oak dowel handle. After the hole for the handle was bored, I cut the screw head to an octagon shape and filed and sanded it. I bored a 5/8" hole in the bottom of the rear vertical member so the vise can be hung on the wall on a peg when not being used.

With the vise disassembled you can see how the clamping forces work. There is a 1/4" thick piece glued and nailed to the inside bottom of the short vertical member and also to the corresponding location on the long vertical member. I only glued these pieces at the center nail location to allow for wood movement. It's hard to see in these pictures but there is also a 1/4" thick strip glued to the top inside of each jaw. This piece is beveled from top to bottom so that all the clamping pressure is exerted at the very top edge of the jaw. This piece is also planed slightly hollow at the middle so that the outside edges contact the saw plate first and then the compression during tightening of the screw ensures that the saw plate is held securely along its entire length. I finished the entire thing with a coat of Minwax Puritan Pine stain (because I had it from a project from several years ago) to give it a slightly aged look. I may put on some linseed oil tomorrow, however, if I do I will not oil the inside of the top jaw to keep saws from slipping. Mark another one of the round tuit list!

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