Clever, simple idea for a workholder that grabs automatically when you push a board into it, and releases automatically when you pull it out. From medicinal chemist and woodworker Brian Grella. From where I sit, it looks like you might only need to make one of these rotating cams, and the other side of the clamp could be a fixed, flat fence. [via Instructables]
18 thoughts on “How-To: Rotary Bench Cams”
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With a fixed fence, it might be hard to remove the piece being held because it could get jammed.
That’s an old trick from centuries ago. My grandfather had that on his woodworking bench. Good to see old ideas coming to light again so that others can use them.
Thanks for the post Sean. Filed a provisional patent and I’m looking to sell this to a manufacturer.
Video here:
http://www.garagewoodworks.com/video.php?video=v39
As others have already said, I think the prior art is going to clobber your patent if it gets a competent review. Besides being known from woodshop folklore, this same concept has already been sold commercially. See, for example, the Meyer-Vise, originally announced in the October 1983 issue of Popular Science (page image here). You can see pictures of one of the kits they marketed at this auction site. The currently manufactured Veritas bench blade is also quite similar in concept.
That doesn’t mean you can’t sell it, of course, just that you’re not going to have anything approaching a monopoly on the idea.
Crap! Thanks for that. $120 bucks down the drain.
how can you file a patent on something that has been in use for more then 100 years?
Ask Micehelin or GoodYear.
Here’s a patent for it. You don’t even need to write it yourself! :-)
http://www.google.com/patents/US603970.pdf
Dang it!! :^)