My vice wont hold stuff well

[Deerhunter21]

so when i put a bow in my vice and im working on a limb the bow always pivots in the vice. is there a way to stop this?

[Handforged]

so when i put a bow in my vice and im working on a limb the bow always pivots in the vice. is there a way to stop this?

I use a big wilton steel vise with a thick piece of leather wrapped around the bow or stave. This will give you compression strength but also it will keep the jaws from marking up the bow.

[stuckinthemud]

Lining the vice in some way is a really good idea, even sandpaper works as it massively increases the friction you need so you need to close the vice with much less pressurs.  I usuallly put some wedges into the vice to keep everything aligned

[Deerhunter21]

lining the vice??

[PatM]

Pad the jaws.   You should square up the handle of your stave so that it can't pivot.

[Del the cat]

An extra moveable support held to the bench with a G clamp works really well and can be positioned to suit.
You can see mine in this pic supporting the far end of the glue up form.
Del

[osage outlaw]

Can you post a picture of how you are clamping the bow in your vise?  I have wooden pads with leather on mine. 

Look up the Stave Press.  It's a good idea but breaks easy in the clamp pivot point.  Cody Wright, aka Misslemaster, makes a similar vise out of heavy duty material and it works great.  I know he has sold them at shoots.  Maybe contact him and see if he has any available.   

[Jim Davis]

All good thoughts above.

I also have a couple of tapered blocks to make the vice hold a tapered limb. I have also put a block of soft wood in a curved section of a bow so the vice is not flexing the bow.

[dylanholderman]

Can you post a picture of how you are clamping the bow in your vise?  I have wooden pads with leather on mine. 

Look up the Stave Press.  It's a good idea but breaks easy in the clamp pivot point.  Cody Wright, aka Misslemaster, makes a similar vise out of heavy duty material and it works great.  I know he has sold them at shoots.  Maybe contact him and see if he has any available.   

i'll second this, Cody's work is great.

and just my 2 cents but i don't like using a bench vice for bow building period. a stave press type vice or a shave horse is worlds better in pretty much every way except for maybe working on the tips.

[Deerhunter21]

i used one of codys stave presses and they are awesome. i would love to try a shave horse but i unfortunatly don't have the wood and am not allowed to use the saws that my dad has.

[dylanholderman]

see if you can get your dad involved in making it with you.
there are lot's of different styles you can find plans for online, for most bow building you wont need more width than what a 2x4 will give you.
and the shave horse style i liked the most used two straps to hold stuff down rather than a block, way nicer.

[Deerhunter21]

ok, ill talk with him. untill then ill figure out the vise stuff.

[Hawkdancer]

You can get felt jaw pads fairly cheap, also make plywood pads by cutting out a square that will fit over the screw track and cover the jaw faces, very much like a rear sight notch.  There are also commercial magnetic pads that aren't real cheap, good, but not cheap!
Hawkdancer

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I just use a couple pine 1X on each side of the limb. It’s enough softer than most woods we use to not hurt the bow wood any. So you can really squeeze down with the vice and not hurt anything.
I need to get them bolted to t he jaws. I just leave them loose and slide them in.
There are times that I put my leg ended the bow limb while scraping or rasping when the limbs start to flex near weight.

Kyle

[Ricardovanleeuwen]

I use some rubber pads they normaly use between objects and lashing straps on truck cargo, i also use a support wich i can swing away when not needed.