Spiffied Up the Moxon Vise

[BaileyNo5]

I was recently using my Moxon vise and wasn't very happy with how it was handling short boards. I was getting some top-to-bottom racking, as the board didn't go all the way through the vise. It was because I had tried making wooden screws, those didn't work, and I ended up putting shoulder vise screws in oversize holes. The right side was good, but the left would jump around as I tightened it, and probably also caused the racking. So I did a little overhaul, including:

1) Getting rid of the ugly green paint on the shoulder vise screws. Sorry Marv. It's ugly.
2) Lining the jaws with cork.
3) Doing a little rasp work on the left shoulder vise screw hole, and inserting a UHMW plastic bushing.
4) Bevelling the edges.

Happy to report all racking is gone, it grips well, and the action is smooth. And that naked cast iron looks MUCH better.

Here's a before pic.




And after:






Here's the UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic bushing, and the UHMW plate that I put on the back face.




Beveling the edges with the trusty ol' #6.

[Gregory of Sherwood Forest]

Ooooh. Spiffy indeed! Now when you are standing next to it and drinking coffee, you'll have to make sure you do the "pinkie's up" pose.

Looks great. There's no reason a great tool can't look the part. Well done!

[WoodTinker]

Very spiff! Nice contrasting wood colors.

I Like the shortness of the handles.

I really like the bushings on the front.

[Admiral]

BaileyNo5 said:

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Beveling the edges with the trusty ol' #6.

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Don'tcha love a #6. Very under appreciated bench plane.

[Phil S.]

I was truing up some rough cut spruce with my #5 and it was taking forever. Got out the #6 type 8 I got from my dad and had it finished up in no time.

[bennybmn]

I really like the top AND bottom bevels on the front, nice touch!

[AndyM]

That looks extremely nice my friend and I'll bet it works very well. These vises are excellent.

[BaileyNo5]

Hi Andy! Thank you and nice to hear from you, it's been a while. I've been watching your chair blog, that looks like quite the project. Good luck with it.

[Window Guy]

Nice job, looks great. I tried cork and found it gets brittle so I went to leather on my vice's. I am a fan of the #6 as well.



Steve

[BaileyNo5]

Window Guy said:

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..... I tried cork and found it gets brittle.....Steve

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Yeah, I'm have some concern about that as well, I've seen a little crumbling around the edges. Should be good for a while tho.