Official Luthiers Forum!

https://youtu.be/f_jAqtayulQ

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I like your adaptor idea

What is the white material that is against the top, and back? Thanks, Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

I used foam poster board. I'd rather use leather but I had the poster board.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Cool low cost design. I like your add-ons to make it guitar safe. Clamping it to the work table makes it portable and easily stowed out of the way. Perfect for a small shop with limited space.

I just figured out a real easy way release the clamps. I stuck pencils in them after squeezing. Worked great.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Nice! I'm not sure I understand the hinged part? IS that so that the board comes up and hits the release clips on the clamps?

That was fun. I NEED ONE!
Nice video, thanks.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Yes, the intention is to squeeze the release tabs both at the same time. After seeing how easy it is to wedge them with pencils, I'm not sure I'll bother with that.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Terry--

I'm going to make a suggestion, and I make it with the intent to help you avoid a really bad day.

When making these vises that hold acoustic guitar bodies, you can go three ways:

1. Face the jaws with several inches of really soft foam. This conforms to the shape of the guitar when a guitar is in there, but it is otherwise flat. Trojis tend to have this.

2. Use a very, very flexible set of jaws that will conform to the curve of the guitar. These wind up acting like straps.

3. Use firmer boards or foam (or both), and make sure those boards or foam are curved to a tighter radius than the radii used for the top and back.

You look to be using firmer boards with cork, but you are leaving them flat. My concern is that the cork is not going to compress enough, and the outer board is not going to bend enough, to avoid having a force applied to the center of an acoustic top/back that makes something snap. My suggestion is that you cut the boards or the cork or both such that the jaws only grab the edges of a guitar body, not the top or back.

Same basic thing but with some twists.

- 1/4" flexible plywood covered with cork is used to hold the instrument.

- You can's see the holes drilled in the pipe with movable pins to allow adjustment of instrument depth if needed.

- The 1/2" pipe flanges are spaced so that a OOO or larger size guitar can't fall through the vise.

- The vise is anchored to the bench with two clamps. If you turn the vise upside down and re-anchor with clamps it looks and works in the identical fashion except that it will raise or lower the vise's height to accommodate various height needs as noted in the picture.

It can be removed and hung up for storage in a few seconds so it's not always taking up work space area.

I like your idea of the flexible inserts to make your vice dual purpose.


The one I made uses the same type of pipe clamps as you used, but I went the flexible jaw route since I knew I would only be using it for guitar bodies and I wanted to be able take it down easily and have it take up little space when stored away because of space limitations.

On mine, the pipes are threaded on both ends and I mounted two threaded pipe flanges on the side of the bench frame. The pipe clamps screw into the flanges so they are quick to put on and take off. When I'm done using the vise, the pipe clamps go on a shelf and the boards go against the wall behind the jointer. One other plus of mounting this way is that the vise doesn't take up any space on the bench top, which is an important consideration for my work space.

The clamp boards are scrap 1/4" plywood with 1/4" thick cork. They are flexible enough that they conform nicely to the curvature of the guitar top and back.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Thanks Don, I'll be sure to include your suggestion if I ever decide to take this one apart and make some modifications. In the mean time, I'll pull the pictures to prevent anyone from destroying one of their guitars due to my vice design. Now, that would be a bad day in my book.

Mine is like Jay's and I used big rubber bands made from an inner tube looped around the pipes to support narrower bodies so they won't drop through to the floor.

For clamping guitar bodies that are relatively light weight I'm thinking you could use "F" body clamps in place of the pipe clamps. That would give you the release pawls and clamping screws on the outboard side of the vise. Maybe I will try it with a couple of those cheap plastic much maligned HF ratcheting clamps.

I'm not sure what advantage F-clamps would give over pipe clamps. The big crank handles on pipe clamps are easy and fast to use so repositioning the guitar in the vise is a quick operation. On my setup, I don't use the release pawls because the cranks are easier and less fiddly to use. The cranks also apply and release the pressure in a gradual controlled manner which to me means that the guitar is less likely to be dropped out of the vise.

If you try the F-clamps and they work well, could you post a photo? I would be curious to see the set up.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Hi Jay,
After I posted I decided I would do a quick and dirty project to see what the pitfalls might be. I'm sure it could use some refinement (not sure if it will ever get it) but it worked surprisingly well. The cheap ratchet clamps can be slid in place and tightened with a couple of squeezes of the lever and when ready to release do so with the press of a button. I added a wooden spacer to keep the clamp from cocking the vise jaw and causing it to bind. The other thing I did was drill and screw the clamp jaw to the stationary vise jaw. I will make some improvements to the foam, but as a quick proof of concept I used what was on hand.

I made a few minor improvements to my vise. I removed the roll pin that keeps the head of the clamp from allowing the rod to slide through the head and then drilled a hole for the thumb screw to secure the head part way down the rod. This reduces the maximum opening of the vise but also reduces the amount of rod that gets in the way at the front of the vise. It can be switched back quickly when a wider opening is desired.
Another "add on" was an old drawer head that I cut a couple of dados in to drop over the clamp rods to prevent accidental drops of guitar bodies.
I made a couple of foam pads, one type inspired by Hutch's design - a full length padding that slips over the vise bars. Another type just drops over the jaws and can be positioned just on the edges of the guitar body. Both types can be quickly put in place or removed.
One failing of these HF clamps is that they used plastic "nibs" in the housing to provide the pivot point for the "trigger". If you try to clamp too tightly the nibs break. On both of these clamps I drilled them out and replaced them with a metal bolt. This does make a stronger clamp, but still - it is just a light duty plastic clamp.

Wow, I haven't been back in a while, forgot to subscribe to my own thread. I like the F-clamps a lot more than the pipes. As for my setup, I don't believe there's very much pressure in the middle of the guitar. I've had my guitar clamped in it for a week now, I probably shouldn't do that.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Well, I finally gave in an ordered a vacuum clamp... bye bye vice. It got me through the first couple years, but it's time to move on. I'm also transitioning from a traditional buffing machine to a hand-held buffer with sponge pads and buffing compound. That kinda sealed the deal on the new clamping strategy.

Wish me luck.

Good luck. I may try the vacuum someday. I sold my big buffer a long time ago.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I believe vacuum is the way to go, at least for a lot of operations. There are still places where I use mechanical clamping fixtures, but by and large I've replaced them with vacuum clamps. I already had a pump since I've vacuum bagged laminations for a long time, but I actually picked up another pump at a good deal and leave it set up at my CNC machine.

Dave

Someone gave me an old airbrush compressor with a very large motor. I'm considering turning it into a vacuum pump someday. Where is a good place to get the clamps?

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I can't speak from experience, but I noticed the LMI sells a kit to convert a compressor line to a vacuum. Again, I'm completely out of my lane, but just in case you didn't see it...