Gibson Guitar Vice

[ruby@magpage.com]

All

My daughter the guitar tech took a tour of the closed Gibson plant in Kalamazoo and found a bench and vice she thought was interesting. So, of course, I had to build one for her to try out - hope it gets some use. What do you think - has this been tried and abandoned? Can you see any improvements?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/s ... 540926993/

Ed Minch

[B. Howard]

That is one of the oldest type bench vises known. It is called a leg vise. There were different variations, but all were similar. The main difference I see on this one is it's height above the bench.

[ruby@magpage.com]

Brian

Thanks. The first URL is what I have always thought of as a leg vice, this one for blacksmithing - the smith vice has a leg that is designed to sit on a big rock so you can pound downward. I have owned a couple of these and they are a perfect solution to the problem.

http://www.anvilmag.com/smith/107f2.htm

The second URL is in case you wanted to spend $400 on the big wheel that was on the Gibson vice - down the page is the traditional cabinetmaker's leg vice. I have used one of these and I find them a little clumsy.

http://benchcrafted.com/glidevise.html

The Heritage people also called this specialized guitar vice a leg vice.

I was wondering if there is any improvement you might make on this or have any comments on its usefullness?

[B. Howard]

I have used leg vises in the distant past and also found them a bit clumsy. I remember one that had a toothed cast iron ratchet at the bottom to set the bottom of the jaw quickly and easily with your foot. To me, for guitar, that would be more useful in a factory setting. Where a bench is dedicated to one or two particular jobs and the instrument moves on. I have the red stew mack version of a pattern makers vise that I find to suit a lot of jobs. The fact that it can easily be moved from bench to bench and even mounted vertical off the face of the bench makes it a good all around vise for this building and repair. For a leg vise to be useful I would want to be able to vary the height of the top of the jaws above the bench quickly and easily. If one jaw would swivel so that tapered objects like necks could be held more securely that would be nice as well.

[ruby@magpage.com]

Thanks again

My solution to those 2 problems was to make the neck rest adjustable, and I found that there was enough slop in the hinge pin to allow the two jaws to grab the slight taper of the neck. Also, see my picture #5 - I added a block at the bottom so that the jaws were 1-7/8" apart when parallel, thinking that all guitar necks are within about 1/4" of that measurement and the 48" jaw length from the floor would mean that they are essentially parallel through that range. After some use my daughter may find it is better to have them splay open just a bit at the top for better access where the neck hits the jaws, and I will then narrow the block at the bottom.

Or, after some use, it may become firewood.

Ed Minch