Moxon Double Screw - Take 2

So the story continues. It's a little bit discouraging that it's taking me so long to get a functional double-screw vise constructed. Two flat boards, four holes, two tapped, a couple threaded rods and a pair of handles. It should be an afternoon project but it hasn't been.

My octagonal handles had a couple issues. The hole wasn't bored parallel to the handle, so the threaded rod comes out a bit skewed. I was willing to live with the minor ergonomic inconvenience, but after a few trials on the vise, the handles also turned out to be too large. At that point I decided to rework the handles, of course this also meant I could address the lack of parallelism.

Aside from the handles, another issue arose. The screw wouldn't thread all the way through the board, again. After some inspection and fiddling with the screws, I determined the threaded hole wasn't threaded completely perpendicular to the face of the vise. This results in the rod entering at a slight skew, which causes it to bind as it works it's way through the board. The effort required to get everything parallel and perpendicular is not insignificant. My solution here was to run the tap through from the opposite face. The result is a slightly sloppy fit between the screw and the hole, but in the end it shouldn't affect the efficacy of the clamp.

So I've reset a bit, tweaked things a bit and have my pieces. I've run out of time tonight, so boring out the handles and assembly will have to wait until tomorrow.

Beall, Router Tables, etc.

Few things. The thread type in cut by the generic thread box is not the same as the thread cut by the Beall. This results in my Moxon Double-Screw being a bit shorter than specified in Popular Woodworking. The pitch on the Beall is a bit larger than with the thread box. I tried to re-tap the holes on the vise but it was only partly successful. I could thread the screw most of the way through, but by the far side of the vise, pitch was out enough to begin shearing the threads off the screw.

I cut a pair of handles for the screws out of some hard maple scraps. This would be my first attempt at gluing up anything beyond screw covers. To say it turned into a horrendous mess would be an understatement. Thankfully the blocks were oversized enough to accept another round of milling to remove all the squeeze out. I bored out the handles on the drill press to accept the unthreaded dowel, but the new dowel from Beall was a bit smaller than the 1 1/2" hole, so i press fit the screw cut from my previous dowel, and screwed it in place. The boring operation was a bit off vertical for one of the handles for reason as yet undetermined. I checked the alignment of the table to the bit and it seems ok.

After all the fussing with the thread box, it was a pleasure to use the Beall threading system. I know it's not supposed to be mounted to a router table, but I don't have a standalone router. It looks a bit odd, but it works great. Well, except for the dust collection. The chips are all rejected out the bottom (normally the top) of the Beall thread box, so the dust collection hood on the router table is pretty ineffective.

Enough Messing Around

The thread box will be relegated to the scrap heap shortly. The order for a Beall Threading Kit has been issued, because the extra money is better spent than extra time. Maybe I can recoup some of the cost by selling wood screws to the seeming hordes looking to build Moxon Double Screw vises. Then again, maybe not. Although good on the one guy who's started selling the vises on eBay for $149.