Saturday, January 29, 2011

A Pin Vise

This is not a tool that I have a great deal of use for, but it's occasionally handy to have.

There's not much to making one. Turn a hardwood handle with a hole bored in one end to accept a 3/8" - 24 stud. The hole should be a little undersize so that the stud needs to be 'threaded' in. Install the stud with epoxy. Finish with polyurethane. Here's a view with the chuck removed.

The handle's major diameter is 1 1/4". Length not including the stud is 3".

An example of an application is here.

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011

Addendum -- This Thing is Making a Liar Out of Me

In the opening sentence of this post I said that this pin vise is "not a tool that I have a great deal of use for." Lately I've been finding more uses for the thing.

When you just need to chase a small diameter thread with a tap, the pin vise is a much nicer 'tap wrench' than is the conventional sort of tap wrench.

For cutting an external thread on small diameter rod, as in the following photograph, the pin vise lets you 'invert' the orthodox pratice to very good effect. The method pictured is much better than the orthodox method of turning the thread-cutting die on stationary work.


And for 'reaming' out a small hole in easily worked material to a slightly larger diameter, it's all the 'drill' that's needed.

I'm going to have to make the thing a tool-board hanger where it's right at hand, instead of in the cabinet it's been residing in so far.

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An Improvement: A Keyless Chuck Version -- THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

A reader, Josue Bernal of Denver, Colorado, kindly shared some photos with me of his version of a similar pin vise. Here's an overall view.

Displaying IMG_1582.JPG

He uses it as a deburring tool for stainless steel tubing -- an ideal application, and the keyless chuck no doubt speeds up cutter changes.

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