After dealing with a bent screw on the old Wilton in my shop I wanted to replace it but Jason’s videos made me not like what vises are available on the market especially for the prices. But also can’t spend the money on one of his vises so decided to go the route of buying his vise plans and building one out to my liking. Really the only thing it did for me was just give a list of some parts to buy and some dimensions, I needed up drawing up the designs slightly different and adding my own touches before I cut them out with my arc droid. And I like the look of enclosing the gap in between the jaws just makes it look more like a production vise. But overall the project was a little time consuming, I kept wanting to make everything perfect while trying to make things with the machines I had. Opens up safely to 14 inches wide while still having 4-5 inches still captured. I didn’t have the patience to do beveled edges on the base plates for the swivel base or have the right tools to do it conveniently so I found a spring loaded release pin and welded it in place then drilled about 20 holes roughly that I can lock the pin into wherever I needed. Also used two thrust bearings, one on the outside and same on the inside instead of the thrust needle washer bearings, and used a locking shaft collar over the double nut as well just works so much better. Tig welded probably 90% of it, and used my needle scaler over the whole thing to give it a subtle rough texture almost like how a casting finish would look. Overall it functions awesome and is really satisfying seeing it finished especially knowing I built it from scratch. Super awesome idea and awesome that Jason welcomes people to go this route instead of just trying to sell his production version. Will eventually be buying his fixture table jig to turn my table into a fixture table as well
That’s something to be proud of. Looks to nice to use. I like the idea of the pin base. It’s an easy solution to the problem.
Thank you! I know I’m worried I won’t beat on it and I’ll be too careful using it so I don’t mess it up, but in the end it’s a tool and needs to get used! Should last a lifetime
When I built mine I changed some things to make it look a little different and also to accommodate material I had. I used 3/4" plate on mine because I didn’t have any 1/2", and my jaws are just solid bar stock because I don’t have a milling machine. I made mine a little bit taller off the base and also made the rotating part much more simple. You’ll have to excuse the picture, I’m aware it’s bad (propane tank for size comparison)
I like this different style! Definitely gotta accommodate for the materials you have, the concept works with just about anything. I definitely had to change things and make things different based on the machines I have too, like the swivel base. Nothing like the original design but still allowed me to have the swivel feature. The vise is cool but honestly just building it was a ton of fun
To be honest I kinda hated building mine because the cnc plasma table I used wasnt supposed to be able to cut 3/4 inch plate so I had to do a ton of grinding. Something else i changed was the handle. Instead, I used a socket that I drilled and tapped for set screws, made a wheel that fits around the socket that I then welded to the socket so now I have the ability to use a 12 inch wheel or a 1 inch drive ratchet if I really need to break something. Overall I love it. I built it for around 400 bucks and now the big wilton on the other end of the shop just holds a table down and doesn’t get touched.
My little plasma can cut 1/2” plate really well I’ve never tried to do anything bigger. It honestly makes cleaner cuts on 1/2” than it does on 1/8” plate. Probably user error still, but I just tack welded both plates together and used my 20 inch disc sander to get all the edges flat and identical. I used a big socket with my impact while building it to thread it together quicker, and I did have the idea of using a wheel similar to what’s used on lathes but didn’t end up that route. But that’s cool someone tried it! The handle I made was the same dimensions Jason has in the plans, I cut 2 of them out of 3/8” and welded them together to make a 3/4” thick handle. But I didn’t get the tolerance super tight so it was a little wobbly and found ball detents and used two of them on the nut to keep the handle snug in place but still easy enough to remove, plus I can still throw a socket on it if I ever wanted to
Bummer yours was more of a pain to build, I honestly want to build another one just to build it or maybe to give one as a gift to my dad or something. Overall pretty cool result
Beautiful build! One comment re “too nice to use.” New car issue: afraid to drive it or get it scratched. Solution: first fender bender solves the issue!