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New Source for Wooden Vise Screws
Posted 3/17/2008 in All Weblog Posts | Workbenches

One of my favorite things about the Holtzapffel Workbench I built for Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine is the monster twin-screw vise with wooden vise screws. The wooden screws move the vise's chop quickly, engage the work firmly and are quite durable.

Plus, they're wood. And I like wood.

Now there's a new source of wooden vise screws that I can heartily recommend after inspecting the finished product this weekend. Woodworker Joe Comunale of Romeo, Mich., has started a new business called BigWoodVise.com to sell vise screws, nuts and handles for woodworking benches.

While I was teaching a couple classes at the Sterling Heights, Mich., Woodcraft, Joe stopped by the store to show me the screws, which he has been selling for some time to friends and fellow woodworkers in the Detroit area.

The screws are as nice as I have seen on any bench. The threads are crisp, with no visible chipping or tear-out along their entire lengths. The hub, which is the large end piece on the end of the screw, is finished as well as any piece of furniture. One style of hub that Joe makes, which he calls the "Classic" style, has crisp black lines burned into the hub.

The screws he sells come with the matching nut, the handle and round ball-shaped caps for the ends of the handle. The two nuts I tried moved smoothly and rapidly on the screws and showed very little slop in the mechanism. Joe says he wants to tighten up the fit of the nuts on the thread, but I think they're great as-is.

His vise screws attach to your vise's wooden chop with a garter system. Garter systems confuse many woodworkers who have never seen them, but they are really quite simple. The job of the garter is to secure the chop to the screw so that the chop will move out when you retract the screws.

The garter itself is a small piece of wood that is mortised into the chop of your vise and held in place with friction. One end of the garter nests into a groove in the screw.

The 2"-diameter, 2 threads-per-inch screws from BigWoodVise.com are made from ash. The handles I inspected were made from maple.

Joe has just launched his web site recently and is having a "March Madness" sale that ends March 31. So if you are in the market for vise screws, you might want to place your order soon. The "Classic" vise screw, nut and handle are on sale for $99 for each set this month – the regular price is $150 for each set.

This business is a side job for Joe, who is a mechanical engineer, but he plans to keep several screws in stock and promises (at most) a four-week delivery time. He also is happy to do custom work if you have something special in mind. Contact Joe at joe@BigWoodVise.com for details.

So if you're tired of getting grease marks on your work from your metal-screw vise, or you are building a bench with an old-school look, then definitely check out these screws from BigWoodVise.com. I don't have any plans for building another bench (where would I put it?), but if I do, I'm definitely going to buy a set of these screws myself.

— Christopher Schwarz

  Comments [19]
3/17/2008 12:12:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
(where would I put it?)

My garage? :)
Bruce Jackson |library_garden_garageAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com
3/17/2008 12:35:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Chris, I am reading your book on bench construction and looking forward to building my own. With that in mind i have two questions for you about the wooden vice screws.

1. Is the Ash that the vice screws are made of stand a good chance of the threads holding up over time or would you recomend having some made out of a wood with interlocking grain such as Elm (If you can find it)?

2. I live in Florida and my shop (metal shed) is not air conditioned. Humidity is pretty much a constant down here. Is there anything special to think about when the vice screws will be installed in such a humid area? I am concerned that they may be made in a pretty low humid area and then when I install them they will swell and lock-up. Maybe I would order them with a little more slop in them and let them tighten up. What do you think?
Larry Chenoweth |larryAT NOSPAMsigoldmanco dot com
3/17/2008 12:44:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Larry,

Ash and maple are very common woods (historically) for vise screws. I've never seen them in other species, such as elm. I've seen maple screws that are a couple hundred years old and work fine. So I wouldn't stress about that.

As to humidity changes, I suppose this could be a problem if the tolerances were tight and the change in relative humidity were high during the year. Cincinnati (a river city) is quite humid, and I haven't had problems with any screws we've brought in to our shop from other parts of the U.S.

I'm sure that Joe could make you a screw and nut that would work for you. Plus, it takes only a little sandpaper to loosen up a too-tight thread.

Chris
Christopher Schwarz |chris dot schwarzAT NOSPAMfwpubs dot com
3/17/2008 2:33:29 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Chris,

I also live in Florida. I wonder if maybe using some kind of carnauba wax polish to lubricate and seal the wood screw may help to alleviate the humidity concern.

I moved here to SW Florida almost a dozen years ago - from Michigan. I thought Michigan had humidity, but boy did I learn different! At least in Michigan, you would have some break from mold, mildew, and fungus. Not here! That's how really humid it is here. Consequently, that's why shellac, paint, and varnish are pretty much the finishes of choice down here. Which is why I'm wondering about some carnauba (Mexican as in Yucatan Peninsula) wax for our beloved Florida weather.
Bruce Jackson |library_garden_garageAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com
3/17/2008 2:40:01 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
I wish I would have this chance to purchase last summer after I met Chris at the tool show last June in Edwardsburg , Michigan. I was inspired by his enthusiam and knowledge of woodworking. I found a Roy Underhill book that showed how to cut my own wooden threads. I cut two 2 1/4" inch threads out of white oak and also cut inside threads in the red oak face of the bench I am building. It was a lot of work, which I learned a lot from, but I would have taken advatage of this offer. Chris inspire's me and I check this sight everday looking forward to new entrys.
Aaron Hoyle |diverAT NOSPAMinsightbb dot com
3/17/2008 6:38:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
His prices seem pretty high to me... you can get a kit for less that contains the jig and bit to cut these threads yourself with your router. Search for Beall tool threader. The big threader kit cuts the 2inc threads.

I have the kit for the smaller threads and it works great.

Hmmm... maybe time for me to go into business... ;-]
Charles |woodzealotAT NOSPAMgmail dot com
3/17/2008 7:11:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Correction to my comment... the Beall threader only cuts up to 1.5 inches. Probably still provides more than adequate clamping pressure.
Charles |woodzealotAT NOSPAMgmail dot com
3/17/2008 8:59:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
I'm in the beginning stages of building the Ruobo bench, thanks to Chris' Workbenches book. (Great book, by the way!)

I'm making the leg vise, but my problem with using one of these wonderful wooden screws is drilling the 2" hole. My largest bit for my brace is 20/16.

I'm also curious how you would mount such a screw and nut into the Ruobo leg vise should you have a 32/16 bit. Would the garter go into the vise face? Would you embed the nut into the laminated leg?

I am interested in making a dovetailing vise like the one on page 134 of Landis' The Workbench Book. Those 3/4" screws would be perfect made in wood. I've thought about making them myself, but don't have the ability to turn the handles. I've asked Joe for a quote. We'll see.

AAAndrew
AAAndrew |amidkiffAT NOSPAMgmail dot com
3/17/2008 9:39:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

AAAndrew,

To make the hole, you can buy an expansion bit (they are very common at flea markets or from Walt Quadrato at Brass City Records and Tools). And they work in any brace.

Barring that, buy an inexpensive Saw-tooth Forstner (a 2" bit is $11 at Lee Valley, but I'd get the 2-1/8" for a couple bucks more so you can give youself a little clearance).

The garter indeed goes into the chop with a mortise. The nut can be bolted behind the leg, which is the simplest solution. Or you can cut the nut into a sliding dovetail shape and integrate it into the leg with a sliding dovetail joint.

Hope this helps.

Chris
Christopher Schwarz |chris dot schwarzAT NOSPAMfwpubs dot com
3/18/2008 6:02:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Thanks, Chris.

I had forgotten expansion bits. I have a couple laying around, I'll have to hunt them up to see if they're up to the job. I don't use them very often as I rarely need anything larger than the 1.25" that I can get from my full set of Jennings bits.

I'm making the leg vise along the dimensions in your book and at first that seemed like it would be a rather deep mortise and garter, but then I realize it would only be about 3" deep or so, as I just need to come to the edge of the 2 1/8" hole. It's not much deeper than the pins for holding the parallel guide.

Speaking of the leg vise, I had a question I wanted to ask you. It was about the spacing of the screw of the vise. My bench will be 32" tall but I'm still using your dimensions of the top of the leg vise as I suspect the placement, within limits is not so finely balanced as all that. Correct? In other words, by keeping the screw of the vise at 10" while making my bench 1.5" shorter won't violate any ancient rules for balance or fulcrumicity, right?

AAAndrew
AAAndrew |amidkiffAT NOSPAMgmail dot com
3/18/2008 9:03:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Andrew,

The position of your screw will be fine. We've tried it at a variety of places and there isn't much appreciable difference (from a practical standpoint).

So carry on!

Chris
Christopher Schwarz |chris dot schwarzAT NOSPAMfwpubs dot com
3/18/2008 1:44:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
I've just finished perusing Joe's site, and his product looks very nice indeed. Though he's not exactly making a mint with these, and the price to the end user is quite cheap considering the labor and materials that go into it, I suspect a few of us will resort to metal vise screws because they're made with slave labor in a foreign country and are thus sold for far below what they're worth.

I've a solution to the lubricant oil in a metal vise screw marking your work - don't use any. I cleaned mine with laquer thinner to remove the factory supplied grease, then lubricated the vice screw with wax (beeswax). So far, no issues with metal on metal wear, and the beeswax doesn't seem to transfer to my work. I wouldn't recommend wax as a lubricant on high-speed parts (such as machine bearings or spindle shafts), but it works quite well with manually operated items like vice screws.

David in Raleigh NC
David |stikslapAT NOSPAMbellsouth dot net
3/18/2008 2:16:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
The beeswax is a good idea. And hopefully it will work to seal his metal vise against airborne moisture, probably like the carnauba wax used in places south of the Rio.
Bruce Jackson |library_garden_garageAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com
3/18/2008 5:45:39 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Hi Chris and others,

I was wondering how do you fix such a vise screw to your workbench???

With 2 lag bolt through the block of wood (nut?)

CWR
Charles W Roy |cwroyAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com
3/19/2008 9:33:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Charles,

You can bolt them on. Or you can cut the blocks into a dovetail shape and slide them into a matching socket. I'm sure there are other ways as well, but those are the two I'm most familiar with.

Chris
Christopher Schwarz |chris dot schwarzAT NOSPAMfwpubs dot com
3/19/2008 11:39:05 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Was ash commonly used for these screws historically? I would think ash to coarse grained to hold the threads without chipping. I would think something tighter grained like birch or maple would be much better.
Bob Rozaieski |robert_rozaieskiAT NOSPAMmerck dot com
3/19/2008 11:46:04 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Bob,

I've seen these screws on old benches in ash, oak, maple, birch and other unidentified species. And they all were working fine.

My suspicion is that it's not a big deal. Time will tell.

Chris
Christopher Schwarz |chris dot schwarzAT NOSPAMfwpubs dot com
3/20/2008 11:21:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Chris,
I am a beginner and will be taking your "Build a Workbench" class at Kelly Mehler's School in September. Is there a specific screw type that will be best for the workbench we'll be building then. Really looking forward to your class. Thanks.
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas |kv1014AT NOSPAMsbcglobal dot net
3/21/2008 6:32:02 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Kevin,

Kelly Mehler has already placed an order for screws with Joe on behalf of the entire class. So you're covered!

It's going to be a fun class. I am greatly looking forward to it.

Chris
Christopher Schwarz |chris dot schwarzAT NOSPAMfwpubs dot com
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