Making my own vice (for grins & giggles)

Starting new thread.


I'm a come back member....Looks like the last time I was on here was in 2016... Since then I have retired....now trying out getting into some tying. Crappie jigs or Bream, mostly. Not very good at fishing for them, yet, so the idea of tying my own jigs came to mind to have something different the Crappie might hit.

I bought a Super II vice....it'll work for a while.

Ive got in mind to get or make a true rotary one. My past experience isn't in using fancy lathes and such tools... I'm more a lawnmower mechanic.... so I've been looking over the production rotary vices. Some are real eye candy and expensive. Some are under a $100, and some around $50.... I could do them as far as cost.

I'm a beginner....at tying. That's not necessarily at building something like a rotary from scratch. Just for grins and giggles, and after researching what production rotaries look like, and their features, I've concluded what I like or dislike about them. That's from watching videos demonstrating the features. I'm not trying to be better than them. I just want to see if I could put one together using basic parts from my background of being a lawnmower mechanic. You'd be surprised what can be found in a hardware store. I've started on my drawn plan. I have the rotary part about half finished. The angle of the main rotary shaft on the bearings mounted in the head. The vice part, is bigger than most I've observed. That's because the one thing about the cheap Super II that I bought is its length of the vice. I have pretty good size hands. I'm building this one so I have room to have my hands doing the tiny work, with the vice and head to rest my wrist on. Maybe it won't be a total waste of time and money. I'm not trying to re-invent the rotary vice. This is more an effort to see whether I can make a useful vice for my pleasure of saying I built it myself.Attachment 364614Attachment 364615Attachment 364616Attachment 364621Attachment 364622

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Wow, go for it.

I do not think building the vice will be the problem however the jaws need to be made from very good quality steel. I have had several vices and the jaws are usually the problem with the cheaper models. Either the steel is too soft or can be too brittle and chip. Good luck and I hope this helps.

You are correct.... I'm aware the the jaw needs to be hardened. Ordinarily, it needs to be heat treated then quenched in oil, then tempered. My steel is from a piece of 3/8"x3" angle from a building being erected.... I admit it could be soft. It doesn't act like it when I've been grinding and sanding on the pieces. I'm going to use it as is, and then check for deformation. I'm only planning on a range of 2/0 - 6 hooks... And probably never use bigger than size 1 hooks.

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Originally Posted by addictedangler

I do not think building the vice will be the problem however the jaws need to be made from very good quality steel. I have had several vices and the jaws are usually the problem with the cheaper models. Either the steel is too soft or can be too brittle and chip. Good luck and I hope this helps.

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I’ll enjoy following, keep it up!


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Looks good. Nice project and the satisfaction of a custom build to boot.

What an awesome project. Very interested in this thread. Amazing talent and skills people have. One thing I noticed though isn't the jig suppose to be inline with the main shaft so when spinning stays level? Otherwise your hook will go up and down. Might not be an issue if not really using this function.

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Originally Posted by SuperDave336

One thing I noticed though isn't the jig suppose to be inline with the main shaft so when spinning stays level? Otherwise your hook will go up and down. Might not be an issue if not really using this function.

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Yep, it is off. My drawing was showing it would be aligned. But the original jaws that I had made were like those in the drawing. Then I changed them to be smaller, and that changed the jaw position. Now I'm changing the bend in the main shaft to become a pivoted one. Or I strongly want to change it. If I were to go teeny sized hook sizes is why I changed to the smaller jaws. If I tie bigger hooks I need the jaws to be adjustable to the axis of the main shaft.. I wanted something that would be strong for that bend. I've been looking for a strong way to do that.. and I believe I got a solution. I haven't been able to work on it, since last week...but I'll work on it asap.

I finally got a chance to work on the vise today. I ground the nose to roughly what I want. I installed the hand screws for adjustment of hook clamping.

More later...Attachment 365385

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Wow, nice work.......following