Work-holding for small pieces, no vise?
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- This topic has 8 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 2 months ago by kevinjames.
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I am getting stuck on a very small project as I take a break from workbench construction. The project is to make 1.5″ diameter buttons out of a mulberry offcut. It’s beautiful, pale gold wood but proving awkward to work.
My problem is that I am attempting to plane a piece of wood measuring about 5″x1.75″x0.75″ with no vise. It’s smol wood and the plane is a #4 Bailey pattern. If I clamp the wood to the benchtop, I can’t plane all the way across. This results in a warped surface. I have tried holding the piece in a clamp’s jaws as if it were a vise and then clamp the clamp to the benchtop. However, this results in too much wobble and vibratiom which is causing ugly tear-out.
Any suggestions, beside hurry up and finish the bench?
How do y’all plane itty bitty bits of wood?
14 January 2018 at 7:28 am #438150debra
i suggest getting 2 strips of wood thinner than you intend to plane the material for the buttons and clamp them down in an L shape at 90 degrees to each other with the claps outside the planing area. Then rest the piece in the L with grain in the right direction and plane
best of luck
Phil5″ and 3/4″ thick? That seems like a very reasonably sized piece of wood, there should be many options.
You could abut your piece against any bench dog which stands less than 3/4″ proud of the bench (or if your vise has the steel dog, raise it less than 3/4″, or clamp a piece of wood in your vise less than that height and plane against it. As mentioned above, clamp any piece of wood shorter than 3/4 onto your benchtop, and plane against that.
If you have the same setup as Matt Kinney, you can hold the piece in a handscrew clamp by the end where you’ll start planing, and then put the screw clamp in the vise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOBcHoae-0Y
If you’re going to do this repetitively, you can make a jig…much like what Paul made for tapering chair legs identically, but you obv needn’t concern yourself with the tapering bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbedWFrnZxs&t=92s
Paul did a video on a thicknessing jig that sounds ideal if you’re going to do small parts occasionally. You could add a bottom plate to the jig that would be easy to clamp to the bench top or a table top and still be out of the way of the plane.
maybe that’s adaptable to your needs?
- This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Greg M.
Thicknesskng jig works great and is quick and easy to make. I use one extensively for the chess board project and it works quite well. Using a small screw behind the wor” as Paul demonstrates makes it work even quicker because the wood stays put and doesn’t slip.
Surprisingly, masking tape worked just fine. I stuck a little bit between the mulberry and work surface. It held well enough to plane with a sharp No. 4. After a minute the tape would slip, but I just put down a fresh strip. I will keep this in mind next time I need to work on small things.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.20 February 2018 at 3:22 am #477813I’ve used a few finishing nails as stops in the top of my bench. You can hammer them as low as you like, as long as you can get them back out to discard them later. You can also use what I believe is called a palm. Its a thin piece of wood with a V cut out of it. Your piece goes into the V as its being planed. Christopher Schwartz details it on his site. That works well too. Also look up a doe’s foot.
Kevin
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