SnapCam Vise – Push. Flip. Clamped. (quick-action, no hardware)

A quick-action bench vise that prints in 7 parts and uses zero hardware. No screws, no springs, no threaded rod, no metal at all. Push the moving jaw against your part, flip the lever half a turn, and it is clamped. It takes about two seconds and needs only one hand.

Why you will like it

• Fast. No spinning a lead screw from 60 mm down to 5 mm. Slide the jaw in, flip the lever, done.

• One hand. Hold the part with one hand, push and flip with the other.

• Self-locking cam. The lever stays put under load. No detent, no friction screw.

• 100 % printed. 7 printed parts plus optional TPU feet. Nothing to buy.

• Swappable jaws. Dovetail jaw pads slide in from the top: V-groove (rods and tubes, vertical and horizontal), PCB (1.9 mm and 2.7 mm slots), and soft TPU for delicate parts.

• Support-free. Every part prints without supports. No bridge is longer than 12 mm.

• Built-in scale. Opening scale on the side of the base, with a tick every 5 mm.

• Bench or free-standing. Four countersunk holes for screws, or press-in TPU feet for desk use.

• Looks like a tool. Cast-style drafted walls, one consistent edge radius, a character line that runs across both jaws, and a nameplate.

How it works

1. PUSH – Slide the moving jaw against the workpiece. Two flexure pawls printed into the jaw click along racks inside the rail and stop it from backing off.

2. FLIP – Turn the orange lever 180°. An eccentric cam in the fixed jaw drives the jaw face forward by 5 mm and holds it there by itself.

3. RELEASE – Flip the lever back, pinch the two ears behind the moving jaw together (like a buckle) and slide the jaw away.

Why it holds

• Cam stroke > rack pitch. The cam moves the jaw 5 mm, while the rack pitch is 3 mm. Wherever the pawls drop in, the cam closes the remaining gap and still clamps.

• Self-locking by geometry. The cam is a scotch-yoke. The back-driving torque on the lever is at most e·F = 2.5 mm·F, while friction at the journals and the lobe is about 4 mm·F (μ ≈ 0.25). The lever cannot be pushed back by the workpiece.

• Pawls in tension. The pawls are anchored at the back and carry their teeth at the front, so clamping load pulls on them and they cannot buckle. The tooth faces have a 5° undercut that pulls the pawls deeper into the rack under load.

• Over-pinch stop. A center rib stops the pawls after 2.2 mm of travel (2.0 mm releases them), which keeps flexure strain below 0.7 %.

Specifications

Parts

Ready-made plates: SnapCam_rigid_parts.3mf (all rigid parts, fits a 250 × 210 mm bed) and SnapCam_TPU_parts.3mf.

Print settings

General (PLA / PETG)

• Layer height: 0.2 mm (0.15 mm for the jaw pads gives crisper serrations)

• Perimeters: 4

• Top / bottom layers: 5 / 4

• Infill: 25 % gyroid (pusher and stop pin: 40 %)

• Supports: none

• Brim: not needed. Use one on the moving jaw if your bed adhesion is marginal.

• Elephant foot compensation: on (about 0.15 mm). The sliding parts depend on it.

Moving jaw (02)

• PETG is recommended because the pawls are flexures. PLA works, but it may take a set after months of storage under preload.

• Keep 4 perimeters. The pawls are 1.6 mm thick, so they print as solid walls.

TPU parts (07, 09)

• TPU 95A, 0.2 mm, 3 perimeters, 20 % infill, slow (about 25 mm/s).

Time and material (estimate, 0.2 mm, Prusa MK4 / Core One class)

• Base about 110 g, moving jaw about 54 g, pusher about 27 g, lever about 13 g, two jaw pads about 20 g.

• Core set about 225 g and roughly 9–12 h in total. Check your slicer for exact numbers.

Assembly (no tools, about 2 minutes)

1. Pusher. Slide the pusher (03) into the pocket of the fixed jaw from the front.

2. Cam lever. Drop the cam lever (04) through the top hole so the lobe passes through the slot in the pusher. The lower journal seats in the base.

3. Fixed jaw pad. Slide a jaw pad (05) into the dovetail on the pusher from above.

4. Moving jaw. Slide the second pad into the moving jaw (02). Pinch the two ears together and slide the jaw onto the rail from the back end.

5. Stop pin. Press the stop pin (08) into the hole at the end of the rail. It limits the opening to 65 mm.

6. Feet or screws. Press the TPU feet (09) into the recesses on the underside (a drop of CA glue helps), or screw the base to your bench through the countersunk holes.

Tips and tuning

• Don't grease the cam. It relies on friction to stay locked. A little dry PTFE on the rail is fine.

• Jaw slides stiffly: sand the top and dovetail faces of the rail lightly, or print the moving jaw with elephant-foot compensation turned on.

• Pawls don't click clearly: print the moving jaw in PETG and check that the first layer isn't squished. The pawls need their full 1.6 mm thickness.

• Lever feels loose: that's expected in the open position. It tightens as the jaw meets the part.

• Swapping jaws: lift the pad straight up out of its dovetail.

Design notes

The body is styled like a small cast machine vise, but every detail is chosen for FDM printing:

• One edge radius (R3) on every top edge, so all the parts look like one product.

• 3° draft on the side walls, narrowing toward the top. It looks cast and adds no overhang.

• Both jaws stand on a slightly wider plinth and blend into it with an R4 fillet, which also stiffens the wall roots.

• The moving jaw flows into its body through an R6 fillet. A finger well opens that fillet only where you pinch the release ears.

• A character line at 44 mm wraps the fixed jaw and continues on the moving jaw. The two lines meet when the vise is closed.

• Bed edges get 45° chamfers instead of fillets: no droop and no elephant foot.

• A recessed nameplate with raised lettering sits on the largest flat face.

• Ceilings that would need long bridges (the cam pocket, the rail channel inside the jaw) use 45° V-ribs instead.