The Moxon Vice
An incredibly handy tool for the workshop. It’s a twin screw vise that mounts on your existing workbench. This has several advantages. If, like me, your back has seen better days, it raises your work up. This makes certain tasks far more comfortable. Dovetailing is probably the application the Moxon is best known for. I also use mine as a giant clamp, and a handy tool for clamping tapered work pieces. Once you are done and want to get back to planing, the Moxon is quickly and easily removed.
Its fair to say that Chris Schwarz popularized the Moxon Vice back in 2010. He named it after spotting it in an illustration in Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises”. Phil Smith suggested, and I agree, it would be better named “The Schwarz Vice”.
Construction can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Two boards held together and down with clamps can do the job, even if it will be a little awkward in use. At the far end of the scale, hand made wooden screws and wings or a rear batten for holdfasts or clamps to pin it down. In the middle you have the metal screwed versions manufactured by a variety of manufacturers. At the high end you have the gorgeous hardware made by benchcrafted.
A common feature is to make the front jaw slightly taller than the rear jaw, with the extra height protruding from the bottom, this makes it easier to align the vice with the front of your bench. I kept my jaws the same height as I use the vice all over the bench and did not want it tilted as a result. I have not had trouble aligning my vice.
A lot of metal screw designs have the metal screws protruding quite some distance from the front of the vice when its closed on narrow stock. I have a fairly compact workshop, and would not like to be dodging around them, so went with a wood screw design. Figuring out making your own wooden screws with a threadbox can be a long and frustrating process. Modern thread boxes are either of variable quality or eye wateringly expensive. For a single vice, you are probably better off just buying your screws and nuts. I may dive intro thread boxes for a future diversion.
A picture tells a thousand words. Check out the photographs below for a bunch of design ideas and a sample of the Moxon vices built by the vintage tool patch members.
First, Some useful links
Hardware sources
Fine Tools https://www.fine-tools.com/moxon.html
Workshop Heaven https://www.workshopheaven.com/york-moxon-wood-vice.html
Benchcrafted https://www.benchcrafted.com/moxon
Lake Erie Toolworks https://www.lakeerietoolworks.com/collections/moxon-vise-screw-kit-1
Chris Schwarz’s articles (Sadly popular woodworking has done a poor job of maintaining the blog, a lot of images are missing).
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/moxon-ingenious-bench-vise/
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/workbenches/schwarz-workbenches/joseph-moxons-double-screw-vise/
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/video-build-a-moxon-double-screw-vise/
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/small-changes-to-my-moxon-vises/
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/questions-moxon-vise/
Schwarz’s Plans for the Moxon can be found in the December 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine.
In the Woodshop’s wonderful example
https://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/MoxonDovetailVise.html
Some great videos:
Mitch Peacocks Moxon Build https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMCpnzYpmaI&t=2s
Dustin Penners metal screw vice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFCfJoQ6Jg
Wood By Wrights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJAdfhJg_qg
Jonathan Katz-Moses build https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMpqhpgxzPE
Mitch Peacock built this lovely specimen and holds that it is more correctly called a twin screw vice 🙂 I hold that if its not removable, its not a Moxon. Lined with leather to protect work and give terrific holding power with minimal pressure. You can watch Mitch’s build here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMCpnzYpmaI
Ian Murdock Built this lovely example, and here it is doing what Moxons do best, gang cutting dovetails! Note the curved wings on the rear jaw. These provide an attachment point for holdfasts or clamps.
Phil Smith made this wonderful example from beech and walnut and created his own traditional wooden screws. Note how the front jaw is beveled. This servers two purposes, the upper bevel allows an angled saw cut to progress further without cutting into the vice. All of the bevels reduce weight on the front jaw, making the vice rear heavy and less likely to topple off the bench while attaching it. As clamping force radiates at about 45 degrees the bevels have no effect on strength or clamping force.
Like me, Phil had to make do without a lathe when making his octagonal handles. Drilling out stock and gluing and pinning the wider section works great!
A late model Schwarz vice with the same style of beveling. Chris lines his vice with a cork/rubber mix called “Crubber” sold by benchcrafted. I found automotive cork gasket material works just as well and is readily available. I bought a large sheet here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233283908190 and have lined all of my vices and the tips of my holdfasts.
My own Walnut & Maple Moxon.
Like Schwarz, I use a batten at the rear to attach to the bench instead of wings. The scrap on top of the batten is just because I have cabinets under the bench, and cannot clamp that low with these holdfasts otherwise.
If you make your screw holes in the front jaw oval (wider than the screw, not taller) your moxon will quite comfortably clamp tapered work.
Jonathan Katz-Moses Made this sublime example in Cherry and Maple. Some makers integrate a rear table to the rear jaw to help support workpieces when transferring tails/pins. Some take it even further adding dogholes and other accessories and transforming the vice into a mini bench. You can view his build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMpqhpgxzPE
