What would be the optimal materials for making tools such as a vise? I have metal vises but some applications I’m really needing to just hold something securely but not with the force of a metal vise.
A vice is no different than any other model you need that requires strength, the question is to what degree.
Standard PLA will work fine if there isn’t a need for lots of torque.
I would strongly consider using TPU 95A for mounts on the parts that touch whatever you are holding, it will aid with grip and give a degree of tolerance from over-tightening.
You go further up the filament ladder if you need more strength.
- PETG will give you a bit more flex, which can aid in strength.
- ABS is stronger
- Add carbon fibre or glass fibre to a filament for a bit more strength.
HOW you print the model will give you a lot of control.
- Wall counts
- Surface (top/bottom) layer counts
- Infill type and percentage
What you are holding is also important.
You have traditional vice and the newer fractal style, which is designed to hold irregular shapes.
Mounting the vice is important as that can be a breaking point when pressure is applied.
In general, most materials will be fine unless you have a heavy-duty job in mind.
Purchased vices are usually made from metal, with wood commonly used where the vice meets the object it holds.
This is because they tend to cater for all use-cases.
My go to filament of choice for that purpose, and I have made many such devices, is PC. The trick its to use 100% wall thickness.
Here’s an example of a table clamp I made for a desk lamp.
I used a combination of M10 bolts and a nut embedded in the plastic and the plastic itself.
Lamp Clamp.3mf (3.2 MB)
It was for this lamp
I experimented with that, PETG and ASA. I don’t use ABS because of the fumes. However, PC performed almost like metal when made thick enough. One thing you have to abide by if you’re designing your own stuff. Leave no sharp corners where there may be stress. Fillets at the very least or chamfers are much better for relieving stress points. This will prevent the device from splitting along edge lines where the filament is weakest.
Are we talking about the same thing?
I answered for a vice, designed to hold things while someone does something to it.
These are generally larger parts where their volume holds lots of the inherent strength along with the more complex shapes.
You answered for clamps, which utilise a vice like grip to hold onto things like desks.
Traditionally these have thin sides, regular shapes and as such require more strength in smaller parts.
The principles are the same for both devices — a screw applies force to a secured object. Here’s a desk vice I printed.
Note the extra wall loops for a solid brace. It’s not unbreakable — it’s still plastic — but combining a metal bolt with the plastic worked well. I even made a TPU cushion (included in the 3MF file above) to prevent desk damage.
2inch-desktop-vise-model_files.3mf (528.0 KB)
Here’s the original model. I only adjusted print settings and used PC. PETG wasn’t strong enough.
Bottom line: PC has been the strongest material I’ve used so far, excluding ABS due to fumes. I had plans for a fume exhaust system but PC has worked so well I haven’t needed it. I still have 3/4 of a spool of “Bambu Green” ABS from two years ago.
Hint: I’ve found that clear PC is the best; colored products seem to have some kind of colorant that interferes with strength. I’ve tried three different black PCs from various sources and compared them to their clear counterparts, and the results have been consistent across brands — even though it was clear the formulas and spools were not from the same foundry, so I knew I was evaluating different recipes.
We call it soft jaws, in this case rubber soft jaws
For me, I just buy some cheap chinesium mini vise, which is much more robust than 3D printed one. Something like this
And maybe 3D printed soft jaws for it
Well, plastic one is more expensive than metal one of the same shape
The price is in AUD, btw
I call them squishy finger saving non-oopsy non-ouch-ouch bars.
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BTW: Here are some photographs of the desk clamp. Note that the cushion is made from TPU. I deliberately used a lower infill with extra walls to give the TPU an external hard shell but springing interior. I had to experiment with different combinations of wall thickness and infill percentage before I got the right mix.
You can see how the bolt was mounted inside the handle and then threaded into the spacer, this made for a very stable clamp that allowed for a lot of force, more so than the factory clamp, and it also was comfortable to torque-down with one’s hands without requiring a pair of pliers. Part of the reason I had to replace it was that not only was the metal on metal wearing out but I also bent the tommy bar on the factory screw.
Forgive the grimy TPU cover, it saw a lot of abuse.
I’ll give you an example of vise that is referred to as a Fractal Vise. The jaws have multiple pivot points to conform itself to the shape of the clamped object.
I have both a machinists style vise and a more traditional metalworkers vise. Fractal vises are more for holding an unusual shape (a Bambu Lab nozzle) to hit it with a wire wheel on a Dremel.
The question is what material would be most durable/robust?
Fractal Vise
I’m very familiar with the Fractal Vise — there are loads of videos on the topic and a couple of Printables out there. The geek part of me finds this totally intriguing, so I looked into what it would actually take to print.
Michael over at the Teaching Tech channel has a great post on Printables along with a really solid video:
That said, as much as my inner tool-geek loves the idea, once I saw that it would take a minimum of four build plates and a total print time of 49 hours and 7 minutes, I had to stop and ask myself: How many times would I realistically use it? Would it just become yet another cool tool sitting on my bench, with me trying to find a problem it could solve? Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there. 
On top of that, there’s the Bill of Materials (BOM), which is estimated at around $65 if you just look at piece cost. But in reality, if you have to buy, say, a box of 12 M3 bolts just to use two, the real acquisition cost is easily 5–10× higher than what’s listed. I’ve got most of these fasteners in my shop already, but I still had to buy bulk packs of the M3x35 and M3x20mm bolts (100 each) for another project where the “kit” boxes with their usually 10-20 samples just didn’t cut it. Not that I’m complaining — I use them all the time — but for someone without a well-stocked shop, this BOM could end up costing quite a bit more.
Nevertheless, you have to admit it is kind of cool in a mechanic-geek sort of way. 
But it takes one to know one!!! 
This was Michael at Teaching Tech’s BOM that I put into a spreadsheet and started to source what I had on hand vs what I had to buy. The lead screws and 8mm rods were arguably the most difficult to source without going onto Aliexpress or paying ~$10ea on Amazon.
| Item | Quantity | Notes | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8mm Lead Screw + Nut | 1 set | Lead screw 50mm longer than rods (e.g., 365mm) | $14 |
| 8mm Round Rod | 2 pcs | Example length: 315mm each | $12 ($6 each) |
| LM8UU Bearings | 4 pcs | 8mm ID, 15mm OD, 24mm length | $8 ($2 each) |
| 608 Bearings | 4 pcs | 8mm ID, 22mm OD, 7mm thickness | $4 ($1 each) |
| M3 Nuts | 98 pcs total | See below for breakdown | $5 |
| M3x10mm Bolts | 8 pcs | C1 to C2 joints | $2 |
| M3x12mm Bolts | 16 pcs | D halves | $4 |
| M3x14mm Bolts | 4 pcs | Collars and handle clamp to leadscrew | $1 |
| M3x20mm Bolts | 69 pcs | Various (holder to spacer, end bodies, etc.) | $17 |
| M3x35mm Bolts | 4 pcs | D1 to D2 joints | $2 |
| M3 Lock Nut | 1 pc | Handle clamp to handle | $0.50 |
BTW: If anyone builds this, please share your experience. I’m still on the fence about making one but there’s a long list of other “things I don’t need list” of items that I may print first. 
The counterpoint to your argument is that I almost always find my two flat faced vises wanting.
The machinist’s vise is annoyingly heavy so it stays in my garage. The metalworker’s vise is smaller and the one I use most often currently.
I just trashed a vise identical to one of the Amazon examples that has the suction base and ball swivel on it.
It boils down to a typical vise is meant to clamp a flat/square objects, and most of the things I find going in either of my vises are either round or irregularly shaped so even as I spin the handle on my current vises, I’m aware they are not the best tools for the job.
That Teaching Tech model is the one in my text
I feel your pain brother, believe me. In my case, I find the jaws to my bench vise never long enough, my pipe clamps are too narrow, my PCB holders never have enough stiffness or angles or light. I ended up engineering my own solutions for each of these problems. That’s why the fractal vise caught my attention. The problem is, it doesn’t solve any of the my specific use-cases.
I’m currently working on a magnetic bench vise alternative using Halbach array’s. I’ve got a number of experimental Halbach array printed matrices to hold magnets in place. The goal is to have the magnetic base hold a traditionally vice and then rotate the base so that the vise or clamp can stay in place or release with a switch. I’m basing it off of this one YouTuber who after building his version, I realized that he had the magnets incorrectly to which I built a modified prototype which is ready to be incorporated into my next step… yet another project on the list.
Halbach arrays are not as easy to understand as one might think. This is especially true with cube magnets as the north pole is not marked. So I ended up having to paint them on one side. Of course I had to design a 3d Printed jig just to get the magnets to stay in place so I could spray paint them.
Then I got sick and tired of marking the model I used to experiment with the array and finally just did the markings in CAD to help me guide the magnets in the right orientation. The thing is, if you do it correctly, the magnets want to repel each other which is why I ended up using set screws to keep it all together. Those are the holes on the bottom. But it works, the array is largely directional.
This is my latest whereby I placed them into a circular arrangement similar to the youtuber’s model and made it so it’s switchable. You can barely yank off the steel bar when the magnet is turned on.
