pcbvise

PCB VISE

A Homemade PCB Vise For Building Electronic Circuits

Over the years I have tried many ways to hold Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) while working on them. This included several commercial PCB holding devices, spring clamps, locking pliers, double-sided tape, etc. but nothing worked well for all sized boards. When Doug KI6DS started marketing his PCB vise, I liked what I saw, but his uses a metallic jaw and soft nylon screws to clamp the PC board. Deciding that I could do better, I designed and built my own PCB vise. It looks a little like Doug's, but mine has very solid plastic jaws and strong 1/4 inch diameter clamping screws. This lets it really grab onto the edge of a PC board and it won't short things out if the board is powered for circuit testing.

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A second copy of my PCB Vise has now been built to prove that the design is reproducible. Pictures at the bottom of the next column show this new vise.

This second PCB Vise will be sent to Ian K3IMW for his evaluation and use.

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Those 3/8 inch thick Delrin(R) plastic jaws grip the PCB hard enough that it cannot be pulled from them without breaking the PCB. The jaws will not short out delicate circuits because they are non-conductive plastic.

Conventional off-the-shelf hardware was used to build this design, with only a small amount of welding where the legs and vertical support meet. Holes were drilled with an inexpensive drill press.

The lower plastic jaw is drilled and tapped for the 1/4 X 20 threaded axle rod that goes through a hole in the vertical support.

With a little ingenuity it should be possible for those without access to a welder to build this vise as a totally bolt-together unit.

The base is welded up from 1/2 inch square steel tubing. The jaws are 3/8 inch thick plastic with 1/4 inch diameter bolts to clamp the PCB edge.

A second copy of the PCB Vise has now been built, to prove that the design is reproducible. This one was sent to Ian K3IMW for his use and evaluation. Pictures of this second copy are below:

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21 April 2008

And yet another PCB Vise has been constructed. This one for Hans - G0UPL is a bit smaller than previous units (Hans is a QRP builder) with a more robust clamping head (thicker bottom jaw).

At this point, the design has been refined to use mostly off-the-shelf hardware, with exception of a small bit of welding for the 1/2 inch square tube-steel base.

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