Ideas for a very small bench screw?

[AAAndrew]

I've started making a small work bench for my GIT (Galoot in Training) and it's going to be a very basic Roubo style bench made out of 2x construction lumber. I'd like to make a little leg vise as one of his favorite things to do is clamp up stuff, but I can't use any of the bench screws you find out there as they're too long. I need something no longer than 9"

Lee Valley has one the right size http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31138&cat=1,43838,43845 but it has no way of affixing it to the chop (the moving board) of the vise. That part is called a garter and I'm not sure how to make a garter for that kind of vise screw.

Any ideas on a source or how to make a garter for a screw like that one from Lee Valley? If money was no object, I'd have the guy who makes beautiful wooden screws make a custom one, but money is an object, so that's off the table.

Thanks!

 

[Mike Davis]

You could buy or borrow a screw box and make a wood screw the length you need.

 

[Jim M.]

What about this? LINK Jim

 

[PeteM]

Here's one way to make a garter.:
http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/A+Garter+For+A+Curvy+Leg.aspx

You can make your own screws with one of these:

http://japanwoodworker.com/product....HTJI36D09WGOINPK&pf_id=99.500.6&dept_id=12827

pete

 

[froglips]

I hate to break things, so these ideas are kind of sloppy.

How about looking for 4 nuts. Put two on the outside and two on the inside of the face of the leg vise. Cinch the nuts together to lock them in place, maybe even loktite them so they are locked.

You might add some big fender washers between the nuts and the faces.

View image in gallery​

At least, if I understand these things of course.... which is always doubtful...

Jim

 

[NCTurner]

This months Wood mag has a great plan for an effective down and dirty clamp setup. Using handscrew clamps and T track.

 

[Len]

My dad did something similar when I was a kid. He used a long 1/2in or 9/16in bolt for the screw. Epoxied a nut to the back side of the bench leg, and a old box end wrench to the bolt head for a handle. Actually, I may be misremembering and he had a friend tack weld the wrench to the bolt. Either way, it worked.

Then he drilled out a slot in the moving part of the "vise" for the bolt to move in, put a fender washer on the bolt, and fed it through and into the nut. He just used an old hinge he had laying around to secure the moving piece to the leg.

My brothers and I were the envy of every kid in the neighborhood, because we had a "real" work bench.

Len