How-To: Rotary Bench Cams

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By Sean Michael Ragan
Posted 2012/03/05 @ 9:00 am
Category Tools, Woodworking, Workshop

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]

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9 Responses to How-To: Rotary Bench Cams

Mark on March 5th, 2012 at 9:19 am said:

With a fixed fence, it might be hard to remove the piece being held because it could get jammed.

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Timothy Gray on March 5th, 2012 at 9:22 am said:

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.

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Brian Grella on March 5th, 2012 at 9:57 am said:

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

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- Alan Dove on March 5th, 2012 at 1:26 pm said:
  
  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.
  
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  Brian Grella on March 5th, 2012 at 2:04 pm said:
  
  Crap! Thanks for that. $120 bucks down the drain.
  
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Peter on March 5th, 2012 at 1:04 pm said:

how can you file a patent on something that has been in use for more then 100 years?

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- Brian Grella on March 5th, 2012 at 1:23 pm said:
  
  Ask Micehelin or GoodYear.
  
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trkemp on March 5th, 2012 at 1:46 pm said:

Here’s a patent for it. You don’t even need to write it yourself!

http://www.google.com/patents/US603970.pdf

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- Brian Grella on March 5th, 2012 at 2:09 pm said:
  
  Dang it!! :^)
  
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