Engraving positioning fixture.

Attached are some photos of an engraving fixture I just made. It allows me to easily reposition the work ( or in this case this Smith and Wesson frame that I am about to start engraving) any place that I want in relation to the center of my ball vise. I made this out of scrap wood and is similar in design to the GRS positioning vise. There are three pieces of ¼ inch board that are sandwitched together and bond together with a ¼ inch bolt. The hole in the center of the middle piece of ¼ inch board is about 4 inches in diameter and is about 6 inches on the out side diameter. The other two pieces of ¼ inch board are about 5 inches in diameter, and there is a piece of ¾ X 1 ½ piece of pine glued to the bottom layer of ¼ inch board. The top section of the fixture ¾ X 4 inch x 6 inch piece of pine is screwed to two blocks of wood that are glued to the middle ¼ inch board which has the 4 inch hole cut out of its center. So, by loosening the wing nut on the bottom of the fixture I can move the upper part of the fixture on the Y axis 4 inches. And by loosening my ball vise I can move the fixture 6 inches on the X axis. The GRS thermalock that I used to mount the S & W frame to the top of the fixture is the most important ingredient with out thermalock this fixture wood never have happened. I hope that you can use this idea. It is my gift to the engraving community. I hope to give it to GRS after I finish this job and hopefully they will make some improvements and mass produce a fixture that we can all buy for a reasonable price.

Not bad but I have this type of fixture for about 6 years now. I think Steve Lindsay has something just about like this. It works great. Jack

A low profile vise on a turntable does the same thing a whole easier and a whole lot more efficiently.

Hi Ed,
I would have to agree that a turntable allows you to the same thing but with a turntable you can move the item "on the fly" and not have to stop and loosen anything. You can use a turntable with the vise you have as well.

Hello Scott, Jack and Rex, thanks for commenting. You all are right the turntable is pretty sweet and I do use mine especially when using my microscope, but I prefer using my optiviser and I think there are plenty of times when trying to hold a paciular item that this type of fixture would be especially good. When I engraved with hammer and chisel this would have been pretty sweet. But I would have made most of this fixture out of steel or aliuminum.

Thanks again

Ed DeLorge