Skordog
Member
Hi All,
I am pretty new to this forum but thought I would add my 2 cents worth and show you what I came up with for a pen vise. I started out using a hinged block like I had seen in Bill Baumbeck's video but it just didn't work for me. And I couldn't see spending $50 - $100 for a commercial pen vise. So being an amateur woodworker with some decent equipment I set about building my own version out of things I had in the shop.
Basically it is a piece of plywood with two T-Tracks glued down inside of it. Then there is a large solid block of wood glued to the back end and another block that slides along the tracks using T-Bolts and some knobs. The familiar triangle cuts hold the pen blank as shown in the next picture.
It is very quick to tighten and untighten and works well for me.
The final problem I had to overcome was how to prevent blowout along the bottom of the blank. To take care of this I simply cut scrap hardboard into small squares which I place under the blank before tightening down the vise. I keep a stock of them in a cup on the drill press. I cut a small rabbet along the bottom edge of the movable block so the hardboard pieces would not interfere with clamping.
After drilling it's a simple matter of tipping the vise over into the trash to get rid of the shavings and drilled out hardboard piece. And it's ready for the next blank.
I am pretty new to this forum but thought I would add my 2 cents worth and show you what I came up with for a pen vise. I started out using a hinged block like I had seen in Bill Baumbeck's video but it just didn't work for me. And I couldn't see spending $50 - $100 for a commercial pen vise. So being an amateur woodworker with some decent equipment I set about building my own version out of things I had in the shop.
Basically it is a piece of plywood with two T-Tracks glued down inside of it. Then there is a large solid block of wood glued to the back end and another block that slides along the tracks using T-Bolts and some knobs. The familiar triangle cuts hold the pen blank as shown in the next picture.
It is very quick to tighten and untighten and works well for me.
The final problem I had to overcome was how to prevent blowout along the bottom of the blank. To take care of this I simply cut scrap hardboard into small squares which I place under the blank before tightening down the vise. I keep a stock of them in a cup on the drill press. I cut a small rabbet along the bottom edge of the movable block so the hardboard pieces would not interfere with clamping.
After drilling it's a simple matter of tipping the vise over into the trash to get rid of the shavings and drilled out hardboard piece. And it's ready for the next blank.
