Snowboard vise – general-purpose table vise

Description

Built to hold snowboards during tuning, this vise has become a general-purpose tool I use every other day.

Print two of these, and space them apart to accommodate variety of snowboard lengths. You can lay-em flat on surface for waxing, or on edge for tuning. I strongly recommend you to remove bindings before use, as it might damage board if you wax with bindings. 

It has survived two years of multiple snowboard edge grinding, long waxing sessions, and day-to-day abuse. The glued-on rubber pads are the only things that have come off. The vise still has plenty of life, and I’ll use it again this snow season.

The photos show the OG version. I recommend printing OG+. The Lite version is included but untested; its slicer estimate is about the same time and filament as OG+. OG+ has chamfered instead of fillet edges, which is easier for printer.

Mounting and hardware

The vise mounts over a Ø10 mm blind hole in the tabletop, up to 5 mm deep. It does not go through the table. The hardware I used is an M10 bolt, about 70 mm long under the head (76.9 mm overall), with an M10 nut and two washers and a backing washer. The bolt shank measures 9.82 mm and the head is about 8.6 mm thick. The large backing washer is about 58 mm across and 3.4 mm thick; the smaller washer is about 29.5 mm across and 2.35 mm thick. The nut measures about 16.8 mm across flats and 7.8 mm thick. The printed bolt knob is also needed.

Hardware choice is not something deliberate, it was something I had laying around in a drawer, thus I modeled vice around it. 

Mounting stack, from cap to bolt: Table: Cap → nut → washer → vise → backing washer → washer → bolt.

Add grippy rubber pads so it does not rattle and sharp snowboard edges do not scratch the plastic. I glued mine in from random scrap foam.

Drilling the table hole

Used the vise itself as an alignment jig to drill through MDF 20mm table. Put it where you want it and tape it to the table. Use the vise bore hole to align the Ø10 mm bit. Set a depth stop for the vise mount height plus no more than 5 mm into the tabletop. Tape works as a depth mark, or use a drill stop collar. Drill only a shallow blind hole; do not go through the table. Clear away the dust.

Tightening and board profile

Hand-tightening the nut is enough in this setup, if you will tighten it with a wrench/spanner - stop at first crack. A little rotational play is useful: it lets the vise settle against flat, camber, rocker, and hybrid snowboard profiles. It does not need to be locked down tight to the table by clamping force, use friction material (rubber/foam) to reduce play and wiggle.

Dimensions

The drawing gives a footprint of 239.11 × 60 mm and an overall height of 181 mm. It fits on a 260 × 260 mm build plate.

Printing

OG (as seen in photos) - was printed on Elegoo Neptune 4 MAX (using Elegoo rapid PETG) with a Bed temp 60C, nozzle 250/230C

OG+ slicer profile aiming at Creality Hi (with CR-PETG Bed temp 80C and Nozzle temp 250C):

• Material: PET

• Layer height: 0.20 mm

• Wall loops: 3

• Top/bottom shell layers: 5

• Infill: 15% Gyroid

• Build plate: smooth PEI

• Estimated print: 12 h 07 min, 423.87 g

Both use standard 0.4mm nozzle. 

You certainly may try different settings, nozzles, different materials to your own liking. It is solid (15% infill) chunk of plastic, you could make it denser or adjust the size to fit your needs.