Sliding leg vise with X cross

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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
This photo shows the first leg vise that I made (in 2010) and the latest one. I considered a sliding leg vise when I made the bench (2010) but dropped the notion because the parallel guide would have interfered with storage. The X cross mechanism doesn't protrude under the bench solving that problem.
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I made this latest vise as a proof of concept out of stuff that I had and plan on making a nicer one after a test period.
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After sizing the chop and leg, the first step is mortises:
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Then 1/8" aluminum bearing strips.
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Drilling the X arms in a stack before cutting to shape.
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X arm subassemblies.
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Nut and load-bearing washer.
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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
Nice! where did you get the hardware? Thanks.

Remember, this was stuff that I had and adapted the design to suit.

3/4“-5 Acme screw and brass nut from McMaster-Carr

3/4“ self-aligning bearing, R-12 and three R-6 radial bearings from The Big Bearing store

Tommy bar tee is ordinary 1/2” x 3/4” x 3/4“ iron pipe tee with threads drilled out

One X arm made from 5/32“ x 1-1/2“ mild steel and two arms from 1/4“x 1-1/2“ 6061 aluminum

1/4” brass rod, 3/8” Al rod, spring pin, and screws are hardware store items
 
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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
Thanks! Clever. I like your pragmatic, repurpose, and McGyver approach.

Ingrained, I’ll guess. As the oldest of 7 kids growing up on a small family farm in rural NY one learned to make do with whatever you had.
 

jlimey

Jeff
Corporate Member
There goes Mike showing off his vise building ability again! :) Very nice.

Well, maybe we can have another workshop someday - though I have yet to incorporate my leg vise into a bench.
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Nice design. Thanks for sharing. I plan to make a sliding deadman for my bench, but after seeing this I may turn it into a sliding leg vise instead.
 

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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
Nice design. Thanks for sharing. I plan to make a sliding deadman for my bench, but after seeing this I may turn it into a sliding leg vise instead.

The washer stack that I used to axially locate the cross was a major PITA. Today I replaced them with 3/4" wooden bushings (aka dowel with a drilled hole). This allows centering the cross arms before the glue sets.
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In the pic above the bushings have not been trimmed flush.
 
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creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Thanks! The JPEG works for me since it includes all the dimensions. I'm old school, so this is way more than I usually have to go with. I'll build a prototype out of 1/8" MDF or something similar for my own understanding, then go from there.
 

Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
They might be a bit smaller but I've found fidget spinners usually have 4 ball bearings in each one that could possibly be incorporated into this. I found a shopping cart full of them some time back at Ollie's for <$1 each.
 

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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
They might be a bit smaller but I've found fidget spinners usually have 4 ball bearings in each one that could possibly be incorporated into this. I found a shopping cart full of them some time back at Ollie's for <$1 each.

Using ball bearings is not an absolute requirement. Commercial X cross products like Benchcrafted are steel/iron sliding on steel. This design reflects my personal vise design preferences and this tommy bar can easily be spun with one finger at the tee.

The SB204-12 self-aligning bearing in the chop is a press fit into a curved recess which transmits the screw force into the chop to clamp the work. Its inner race is set-screwed to the Acme screw which provides the garter function to open the chop when the screw is retracted.
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The Acme screw slides inside the R12 bearing in the leg to stabilize the screw and reduce rattle (I detest vises that rattle).
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The three R6 bearings in the cross reduce friction and contribute to overall smoothness.

These five bearings currently cost less than $12 sans tax and postage.
 
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mbromley

New User
Bromley
Great design! I've been kicking ideas around to build one myself for a while because I can't stomach the benchcrafted prices.
 

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Man with many vises
Corporate Member
Great design! I've been kicking ideas around to build one myself for a while because I can't stomach the benchcrafted prices.

A couple of years back I built a portable vise using just the small Benchcrafted criss-cross. This link may give you an idea or two.

 

NOTW

Notw
Senior User
I am curious if there is a benefit in using the (3) plates as you have for the criss cross portion as opposed to using only (2) ?
 

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