Three Bench Vice Stops

Projects, Techniques, Tools, Woodworking Crafts

Charles Mak shares a few ideas for preventing an angled jaw, which can cause your work to slide or vibrate

Table of Contents

Magnetic Vice Rack Wedge (Not to scale)
Adjustable vice rack stop
Magnetic vice rack wedge
Sliding vice rack wedge
Further reading

In almost every furniture project I undertake, my bench vice is used for one reason or another. Like many other vice users, I am concerned about vice racking which could potentially cause damage to the vice. Side-to-side vice racking happens when a workpiece is clamped on only one side of the vice. The work will tend to slip when there is uneven clamping in the vice.

The common cure is to place a piece of scrap wood of the same thickness as the work on the opposite side of the vice to balance the clamping pressure. Unfortunately, as Murphy’s Law has it, your scrap wood bin likely does not have the proper size scrap when you need it! Motivated by this frustration, I began to explore and make devices that are always on-hand to deal with any vice racking. Here are the favourite ones that I have made and employ in my work.

Magnetic Vice Rack Wedge (Not to scale)

Adjustable vice rack stop

My first device is a simple spacer stack, which is adjustable for its thickness to match the workpiece’s. This rack stop is easy and costless to make.

1. It is made of a stack of old plastic cards held together with a bolt and wing nut

2. Start by stacking the cards together and marking on the top card the centre point for a hole near the top edge

3. Drill the hole and bolt the whole stack together to complete the device. You can also use other similar materials such as laminate or Formica samples to make this type of rack stop

4. There are two techniques you can use to set the stack to the thickness of the workpiece. In the first method, slide out enough cards from the stack to match the work’s thickness, and then place the spacer block in the opposite side of the jaws

5. The second way, which I prefer, is to clamp the work in the vice on one side with slight pressure. Then place the rack stop over to the other side and press down as many cards as can fit between the jaws. Lastly, tighten the vice home to secure the work

6. Let’s start with the wedge. Find a scrap block that’s large enough, and lay out a line to form a wedge

7. Saw the block to shape on the waste side of the line

8. Lubricate the saw blade as necessary as you work

9. Remove the saw mark on the bevel side…

10. … then lay out the centre points for the blind holes on both pieces

11. Drill the holes to depth, and glue the magnets in place – in their proper orientation so they attract

Magnetic vice rack wedge

Instead of a rectangular block, my second rack device comes in the form of a wedge which is attached to a top by way of magnets (see diagram above left). The wedge-shaped block provides varying thicknesses to match the workpiece’s, while the top keeps the wedge from falling as the sliding jaw is adjusted.

12. I marked the glue side of the magnets with a cross, and protected the clamp pads with wax paper

13. Using the rack wedge is similar to using the rack stop. Begin with the workpiece slightly clamped on one side of the jaws, then slide the wedge (with its top attached) into the other side until the wedge locks in

15. The top will keep the wedge from falling when the vice is loosened and the work retrieved

Sliding vice rack wedge

The last fixture can be viewed as a hand-cut joinery version of the magnetic rack wedge. Here, the top and the wedge are held together using a sliding dado joint. It is also one of the projects participants complete in a hand-tool class I teach. If you are a hand-tool enthusiast, get your plane, handsaw and chisels ready.