Workbench Vice

George Bridgeman wrote:

I’d love to see one of those in action. Think he’s right in saying it has to be seen to be believed! Have you read Tony’s book? It’s an incredible read – he does absolutely everything by hand and explains it all really well. George.

Thanks for the recommendation. I will have to get his book. His site has a good deal of information when you follow the links on the margin.

-Scott

Has anyone looked at or used Northern Industrial Woodworker’s Vise — 9in (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200413942_200413942)?

Anyone consider this one from Veritas?  You could install it with the back jaw protruded from the bench top, like Paul teaches us.  Thoughts?

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=67755&cat=1,41659

Ken

From the photo it does not look very deep, it would be worth checking the width depth and opening capacity against the other vices you are considering

Phil, that’s a Veritas-branded vise, so you’re pretty much guaranteed high quality.  They always sell good quality stuff, but they only put their brand on the best, usually designed in-house.

Johan, I took a look at that vise and had the same thought as Scott.  I recently picked up the Czech-made face vise from leevalley.com, which Paul has moderately recommended and bought for the NY school.  It weighs in around 40lbs, and every quality face vise I’ve seen has been in this range.  That Northern Tools vise was listed at 13.5lbs.  Seems like the castings must be very thin, and maybe they used hollow tubes for guide rods.

Ken, I have a leg vise on my bench.  I bought the hardware from Benchcrafted ( http://www.benchcrafted.com/GlideVise.html ).  I currently have the standard adjustable pin-stop variety, but this is less useful when following the Paul Sellers method.  Paul uses the quick-release and auto-width adjustment features of his vise constantly.  For instance, he’ll work on an edge and then quickly flip the piece longitudinally in the vise to work on the face.  With the pin-stop leg vise, you have to constantly switch the pin back and forth.  This is sometimes a bigger hassle than others, and usually when it becomes annoying, I figure out a different way to do the work.  But if I was just starting and didn’t have a vise yet, I would go with the cheaper face vise style that Paul uses.  Having said that, my new lust is for Richard Maguire’s pinless leg vise on my next bench.  Not currently in the budget.  http://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_71&products_id=264

Thank you for the reply’s. $150 for just the vise is a little bit out of my reach right now.

I just looked up my local classified web site and a quality vintage Wilton quick-release vise appeared for $75. Just an example of how you can find a quality vise (with thick old-school castings and threading) for a reasonable sum.

I’ve myself been considering a twin screw vise (Moxon) from Tools for Working Wood.  I may be in a different boat than others, insofar as I didn’t build Paul’s bench.  Instead, I built the Underhill portable bench.  Portability is a premium for me (I’m a grad student and a renter, so I need to be flexible about where I store woodshop tools and my ability to move them).  Plus, I like being able to move the bench outside on a sunny day.  This bench, in combination with holdfasts and a Veritas Wonder Dog, works great when I need to hold something to the surface of the bench.  But vertical holding, oy, that’s a different story.   For a while, I’ve been getting away with holdfasts through the apron or handscrew clamps when I needed secure a board for dovetailling.  But durn it, a vise just looks so much easier and more secure for these applications.

The trouble is that to maintain portability, I need a vise that either: 1) doesn’t extend very far into the depth of the bench, which interferes with the legs closing shut; or 2) detaches quickly from the bench.  I’ve been scouring the internet, and haven’t found much.  I called the folks at TFWW, and Ben – who was very helpful – recommended that I install the bench on bench hardware directly into the face of the bench (or through the apron).  Seems like a good solution that lets me maintain portability.

Anybody have experience with this type of vise?  It looks a little less convenient than simple one-handed quick release vises, but it’s also ligther and easier for me to deal with (and perhaps more secure?).  Any other ideas about how to deal with this?

Justin