Centerlock Self-Centering Vise | Printed Screw, Swap Jaws, Tilt Clamp | No Hardware

Centerlock is a small bench / desk vise built around one idea: self-centering. A printed double-ended screw (right-hand thread on one half, left-hand on the other) drives two half-nut carriages in opposite directions, so both jaws always close on the same centre line. Round rods, tubes, PCBs and blocks sit dead-centre without nudging them. The thread is a 2-start, 8 mm lead per jaw: 16 mm of opening per handwheel turn, so you can go from fully open to clamped in under 5 turns. The jaws are swap-in dovetail plates (flat with TPU pad, 90° V-groove for round stock, PCB slots) that drop in from the top. The screw and carriages also drop in from the top (no sliding assembly), and the whole thing is held together by geometry only: no screws, no magnets, no springs, no glue. An optional desk clamp with a printed ball head lets you tilt and swivel the vise, and slide it on a dovetail to balance heavy work. Features - Self-centering: one screw, left/right-hand threads, jaws always symmetric about the centre line

- Fast: 2-start thread, 16 mm jaw gap per turn, 0 to 76 mm opening (flat jaws)

- Swap-in jaws: flat + TPU pad, V-groove (rods up to ~25 mm, auto-centred), PCB jaw (1.0 / 1.8 / 2.6 mm slots)

- Engraved scale on the deck (tick every 5 mm of jaw opening)

- Drop-in assembly: body, then screw, then carriages, then jaws. Disassembles the same way

- Handwheel on one end and a knob on the other: turn it from either side

- Ball-head desk clamp: Ø32 ball, ring-nut lock, tilt + swivel, dovetail slide, fits tables ~5 to 50 mm

- Every part prints flat without supports, in PLA; TPU for the grip pads (optional)

Print settings (Bambu Lab, 0.4 mm nozzle, PLA) - Layer height 0.2 mm, walls 4, infill 15 % gyroid (screws and carriages: 25 %)

- Supports: none. Brim on the screws (they lie on a 5 mm wide flat) is recommended

- Keep the orientations in the STLs (they are already print-flat). The screws print lying down on purpose, so the threads are round and the layers run along the shaft

- Slow the outer wall to ~60 mm/s on threaded parts (screws, carriages, clamp frame, ball head, collar)

- Estimates (rough, not slicer results, 15 % infill): see the parts table

Parts list File Qty Colour idea Est. g Est. time

centerlock-vise_body.stl 1 graphite ~108 ~4.8 h

centerlock-vise_screw.stl 1 light grey ~22 ~1.0 h

centerlock-vise_carriage-a.stl / carriage-b.stl 1 each orange ~21 each ~0.9 h each

centerlock-vise_handwheel_x2.stl 2 (vise + clamp) orange ~21 each ~0.9 h

centerlock-vise_end-knob.stl 1 graphite ~10 ~0.4 h

centerlock-vise_jaw-flat_x2.stl 2 dark ~12 each ~0.5 h

centerlock-vise_jaw-vee_x2.stl 2 (optional) dark ~18 each ~0.8 h

centerlock-vise_jaw-pcb_x2.stl 2 (optional) dark ~13 each ~0.6 h

centerlock-vise_tpu-pad_x2.stl 2 (TPU, optional) black ~2 each ~0.1 h

Desk clamp (optional)

centerlock-vise_clamp-frame.stl 1 graphite ~66 ~3.0 h

centerlock-vise_clamp-screw.stl 1 light grey ~13 ~0.6 h

centerlock-vise_ball-head.stl 1 orange ~27 ~1.2 h

centerlock-vise_ball-collar.stl 1 graphite ~20 ~0.9 h

centerlock-vise_tpu-disc_x2.stl 2 (TPU, optional) black ~1 each ~0.0 h

Vise only (flat jaws): ~230 g, roughly 10 h of printing. Everything including clamp and all jaws: ~420 g. No extra hardware needed.