A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
The two budget Moxons – one with hardware the author made, and one with hardware she purchased.
Within the hand-tool woodworking community, there has been all kinds of buzz recently about Moxon vises.
So a few months ago, I decided to build one and see what all the fuss was about. I have a smallish shop
and since I am just over 5’3” tall, my bench, designed for hand planing, is somewhat akin to something you
might expect Tiny Tim to own. Practicing dovetailing and other detail tasks bent over my end vise for many
hours causes even my young back to ache. The Moxon promised two big solutions for my shop: flexibility
with regard to bench position, and the ability to raise my work up off my bench 8” or more.
For people starting out in hand-tool woodwork, this is an easy project that can be completed in an afternoon.
And if you don’t have a workbench, it can be clamped to the edge of just about any table or flat surface.
Voila! You have a solid woodworking vise!
I’ve seen, used and lusted after all the new fancy Moxon hardware out there, but to be perfectly honest,
it was cost prohibitive. Something you should probably know is that I may just be one of the cheapest
people alive. I say that as encouragement for those like me. I can’t tell you how many times I hear people
talking about how expensive woodworking is and how they would love to get into it but just can’t afford to.
It totally can be. There is a fancy, shiny toy to do every woodworking job you can possibly dream up. One
could spend tens of thousands of dollars in an afternoon at a woodworking-supply store. But I have set
out to prove that it doesn’t have to be like that. A few well-chosen quality tools can accomplish most major
woodworking tasks. Sticking to hand tools minimizes your costs even more. Shown below is every tool and
supply you will need to build your own budget Moxon.
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
The only tools you’ll need to build your own budget Moxons
My friend Jason at Texas Heritage Woodworks came up with the great idea to build a budget Moxon. He
generously shared his process with me, so that I could make my own hardware. We also worked out a trade
for some of his hardware, so that I could compare and contrast it with mine.
Considering myself an expert welder after having recently taken a one-day welding class, I was confident I
would be able to replicate (at least in form and function) Jason’s hardware. I bought 2’ of threaded rod and
two nuts ($17), found a few pieces of scrap steel rod in my shop, and got to work welding together some
giant wing nuts. I stopped by a construction site on my way home from the hardware store and asked for a
couple of nice thick alder cut-offs, which the crew generously gave me.
I made a wooden jig of sorts to hold the steel rods where I wanted them in relation to the nuts, so that I
could weld the wing nuts together at consistent angles. My first wing nut went together very nicely, but then
promptly snapped apart because, apparently, steel rod cannot be welded to zinc-plated nuts. So I set about
grinding the zinc plating off with my angle grinder and tried again. At this point my wooden jig caught on
fire and, laziness ruling, I decided not to make another one but rather just to try to hold the steel rod at the
proper angle and weld it that way. That worked okay, and I ended up with some (barely) acceptable looking
wing nuts.
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
One of the author’s handmade wing nuts
Jason bakes his metal components with several coats of flax oil, which darkens the metal, protects it, repels
dust and even assists with lubrication a bit when moving the vise face in and out. I rubbed some flax oil onto
my now completed components and put them in the oven. I ended up with a sticky film caked very unevenly
all over my components. It looked horrible, and I couldn’t get it off by any means until I resorted to the wire
brush on my grinder. As it turns out, the components need to be uniformly rubbed with an incredibly thin
layer of the oil. There can be no thick spots, or a sticky mess will result.
I used the free alder and $17 homemade hardware to build my first vise. I used a piece of curly cherry given
to me by a friend to build the vise using Jason’s hardware. I chose two different designs and sizes for the
two vises so I could compare and contrast them, but used the same basic concepts and same toolkit to
build both.
First I cut the pieces to size. Then I used a jack plane to prepare the front and back vise pieces, so that
they mated together perfectly on what would become the inside of the vise. When dealing with rough-sawn
lumber, I find it helpful to cut the pieces to rough size and then plane them flat and square. For me, it’s
easier to pinpoint problem areas on smaller boards.
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
Cutting the rough-sawn lumber down to size
The next step was to cut the holes for the hardware. By planing the vises down to their exact size before
doing this, I was able to skip a lot of opportunity for error in this step. I tightly taped the two faces together,
then carefully marked on the front face exactly where I wanted to drill the two holes. I clamped the two
pieces in my vise, set my square up as a guide to help me drill straight and got cranking. Just after the lead
screw at the tip of the drill bit broke through on the back face of the vise, I stopped, removed my bit from
the hole and drilled the second hole, again stopping right when the lead screw of the bit poked through the
back of the vise. I used these two small holes as guides when I was ready to drill the larger hole on the back
of the vise to contain the nut on the Moxon hardware.
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
Drilling a guide hole for one of the nuts
The guide hole used to center the larger hole that contains the nut
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
I used a larger bit to hog out the waste from the mortise where the back nut would be seated, then cut the
sides straight using a chisel.
Cutting the sides of the hole straight using a chisel
Once the two back nuts were seated, I had a Moxon vise! The only thing left to do was to make it pretty.
The completed Moxon vise made with the hardware that was purchased.
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
The vise had to somehow clamp to the bench. I cut away the sides on the back of the vise so I could use
my clamps or my holdfasts to secure it to the bench (or table or other flat surface). I also wanted to add a
lamb’s tongue detail to the top of the front face of the vise to add clearance for my saw in case I was ever
sawing down at an angle when using my vise.
Adding the lamb’s tongue detail to the top of the front face
I drew freehand something that I thought looked nice, then tried to replicate it on both sides. I used my
coping saw to remove as much of the waste as possible, then used a rasp and sandpaper to finish it off.
Using a coping saw to remove as much waste as possible
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
I wanted to add the leather strip to the front of the vise, so I measured it, cut it to size and drilled two holes
in it for the hardware. I used hide glue heated up with my hair dryer to affix it to the front of the vise. I shut
the vise tightly and left it to dry for 24 hours.
Adding the leather strip to the front of the vise.
The leather strip affixed and left to dry for 24 hours
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A Tale of Two Budget Moxons
Woodworking Newsletter
Vol. 9, Issue 2 - November 2014
I rubbed beeswax onto the hardware and melted it using my hair dryer to help lubricate the hardware. Then
I was done.
The author’s two Moxons, both made for a nice price!
So at the end of the day, I had two budget Moxons – one totally handmade by yours truly with a total
investment of $17, and one I built using Jason’s hardware. My homemade Moxon is ugly and the hardware
is barely functional, but I will keep it around as encouragement. If I can make a Moxon for $17, so can you.
It will also be useful for dovetailing larger boards and for making my other Moxon look great.
Text and photos by Anne Briggs Bohnett
Anne is a young woodworker based out of Seattle, Washington. She is passionate about learning and
preserving traditional methods of woodworking and farming. She loves learning to play new instruments,
cooking and studying Chinese. Her website is www.anneofalltrades.com.
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