On Thursday, February 6, 2020 at 8:14:44 AM UTC-8, Sonny wrote:
More so an update as to what's going on in my neck of the woods.....

A few years ago I bought two antique woodworking tables from the IRS auctions. Each needed some repair. Got one in good working order, specifically the two wood vises needed adjusting and a bit of repair. On the other table, a vise needs a new wooden nut for one of the vises.

The only off-the-shelf way to get a coarse load-bearing screw and nut is 'acme' threaded
stock (there's a variety of hex nuts and barrel (cylinder) nuts to fit. A good wood screw might
have a lignum vitae nut (good for the stresses, and self-lubricating), but that's
an endangered species (and when available, you buy it by the gram...).

Making a new nut of wood is... problematic on several levels, but by taking a mold of the
screw, you can generate a profile for grinding a boring bar... it's do-able for a machine shop
without CNC tooling, and relatively easy with the right scan tools for a computer lathe or mill.

Here is a typical approach for making a wood nut:

https://youtu.be/pCDmwz91phM