Making a Lathe Vise

by Phil Colson
Woodturner

In my shop every bit of horizontal space is filled and overflowing. When I need to hold a bowl, a spoon, or a hollow form for carving or texturing, I find it difficult at best and not very safe to hold it with one hand and carve or texture with the other.

Not anymore! I used two 6" Faceplates that came with my lathes. I resawed a piece of cherry and mounted them on the faceplates. I turned each one and put a flat face on them.

Next, I took a piece of router mat, some spray adhesive and went outside on the driveway. I sprayed the cherry and one side of the router mat.

Now comes the hardest part of the process: waiting for the adhesive to dry enough to make a permanent bond. Once bonded, I put them on the lathe and used a skew to cut the router mat. A #2MT Chuck Holder mounts one of the faceplates on the tail stock. The other faceplate goes onto the headstock and the indexing pin is screwed in to keep the headstock spindle from rotating.

Now I have a lathe vise. Makes life in the shop a lot better.

It works for me!

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Phil can be reached directly via email at woodturnerphil@gmail.com.


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