While fumbling around filing a small piece the other day I thought it would be nice to have a small vise to mount on my desk to hold small parts for filing, measuring or whatever, just another hand if you will.



That vise needed to have hard smooth jaws that would not mar the finish on work pieces with a horizontal and a vertical V-groove in the rear jaw for holding round work, the jaws are 2.250 wide with an opening of 5.000, I was thinking about putting a step in the top of the jaws but sometimes I need to clamp something really close to the top of the jaws therefore I decided against that, so after a couple of days on the computer I came up with this new tool I call the Tool Makers Bench Vise.



This vise is very rigid in construction and is machined to very close tolerances (like a tool makers vise) with just enough clearance for the moving parts to slide without binding; the sliding jaw of the vise is advanced by a custom made 303 Stainless Steel acme threaded shaft with a hexagonal hole in the center for an allen wrench, the entire vise was made from 1018 steel except for the jaws which was made from O-1 steel hardened and ground.



The vise has four holes in the base for mounting to any surface; the vise is ground flat and square in relation to any surface or edge so it can be used on the milling machine, surface grinder or drill press, but its main purpose is to be mounted on my desk to hold work for filing,



The vise was built with the assistance of two tools I previously made and posted to the Home Made Tools Forum, my Universal Grinding Fixture and Rotary Broach, without those two tools the steps they performed would have been difficult to achieve.