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Any experience with a patternmaker's vise?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 5:18 am
by MaineGeezer
I'm thinking I need a better vise. Do any you have experience with one these and can offer an opinion? (Quality, utility, etc.)

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/128748 ... -Vise.aspx

Re: Any experience with a patternmaker's vise?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:12 pm
by ruby@magpage.com
I was recently gifted with an Emmert K-1 with 18" jaws, in near perfect condition. I have worked with them on a friend's bench and I tell you they are handy for many things. As I sit looking at this 60 pound iron object next to me bench, I can't come up with many jobs in guitar building that would be made easier, and I already have jogs and such for the furniture making that I do, so I am considering not mounting it.

Ed

Re: Any experience with a patternmaker's vise?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:58 pm
by ruby@magpage.com
Here is something I just remembered. For guitars, you don't need much capacity for size or weight. A year and a half ago I mounted one of these on my daughter's guitar repair bench with a quick-dismount capability, and she uses it frequently. I put it on a 2" spacer to raise it a bit for working on bridges, nuts, and saddles (she like to stand) - on the left corner:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... ed-public/

here it is:

http://www.garrettwade.com/garrett-wade ... /05R10.10/

This is the "parrot vice" that has been around for ages that swivels in 2-D, but they had a separate piece made that makes it a 3-D vice, just like a pattern maker's. The extra piece is the shiny round thing near the base. You have to drill a hole and tap it which is a royal PIA, but once done, the vice is great, and not too expensive.

At the other end of her bench is the standard guitar vice which has loose jaws that will grab angled things like necks and may be the right vice for you for guitars in the short run. This vice is offered by dozens of catalogs, but here it is in the StewMac catalog:

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Ty ... _Vise.html

Good luck
Ed

Re: Any experience with a patternmaker's vise?

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 9:49 am
by glasalle1
I have the stew mac vise, and I really like it. I also have the mini vise stew mac sells that can be clamped into the bigger vice - really good for nuts, saddles, bridges, etc.

Glenn

Re: Any experience with a patternmaker's vise?

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:04 pm
by MaineGeezer
Well, I got the patternmaker's vise, all 55 pounds of it. It's of decent quality, all things considered. It's certainly usable.

There was some shipping damage. The vise is packed in molded beadboard (like Styrofoam coffee cups) and it just isn't strong enough to withstand having the box shunted around. The vise shifting around pulverized the beadboard in several spots. The tee fitting the handle goes through was broken. I sent a photo to Woodcraft, together with a note, and they immediately agreed to send a replacement part, which was nice. The thought of returning the entire vise was a bit daunting.

Another problem was a stuck adjustment screw. The tilting jaw on the vise pivots on two tapered-end adjustable pins that screw into the jaw, top and bottom, and engage with tapered holes. During shipping one of the pins got driven, HARD, into its mating hole. Being a taper, it wedged solidly and Would Not Turn. I ruined the screw slot trying to free it up, before I backed off long enough to anazlyze the situation and realized what the problem was. I then tried driving the stuck pin (and the tilting jaw) in the other direction, using a block of wood and a hammer. Several vigorous whacks freed the pin from the hole, and it now works except for the fact that I ruined the screw slot. I describe all this in case you also buy a vise and run into the same problem. You'll know what to do and can fix it without ruining the screw first.

Anyway, it looks like a good vise. If in use I run into anything interesting I'll write more.