In my work, I often need to secure oddly shaped pieces in my bench vise. To do the job, I devised a pair of auxiliary cauls that attach via rods to thick wooden pads on my vise jaws. One of the auxiliary jaws is fixed, while the other one can swivel to accommodate pieces with non-parallel sides.
I began by making a 1"-thick hardwood facing block for each jaw, boring three equidistant 1/2"-dia. holes through the edge of each block to accept the rods. (Through-holes prevent clogging from detritus.) I screwed the blocks to the jaws, aligning their top edges with my workbench surface. Next, I used dowel centers to transfer the hole locations to the underside of each caul. The swiveling caul needs only one hole in the center, while its mate is drilled to match only the two outer holes, all 3 of which I then drilled 3/4" deep using the drill press. To finish up, I glued 2-1/2"-long, 1/2"-dia. steel rods into the cauls, and faced the caul’s bearing surfaces with cork to aid gripping. When I need to hold curves and odd shaped pieces, I attach a suitably shaped block to one or both of the cauls with double-faced tape.
—Bill Mitchell, Hellertown, Pennsylvania
