Chain Leg Vise (pinless parallel guide)

[Tony Shea]

I was just talking with Jim Ritter and he showed me his new design on his leg vise. It gets rid of the need for constantly changing your pin on your parallel guide. Not exactly sure how it works but it seems to work very well. And is a lot less metal kicking around down below your screw than the St. Peter's cross design to dent up your work, not that it really is of concern.

Sorry Garrett, forgot to post the link of the vise in action. This was the whole point of the thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1z_sVZsxug

[Jim Ritter]

This uses the chain to control the lower parallel beam. It can be retro-fitted to an existing vise by drilling a 5/8" hole through the chop and leg and mounting the sprockets on the inner leg. It just another way to solve a problem.

[Jim Belair]

Very slick. So are you planning to offer this commercially or ? (the video was noticably sparse in "details")

[Jeff Wittrock]

Very clever.

Looks like it would just need two sprockets. One on top where the chain enters then turns 90deg. down the leg and one on the bottom where the chain would again turn 90deg and out to the inside end of the parallel guide?

[Jim Ritter]

You are right, but all the commercially available sprockets were too large to be practical that's why I made my own and designed them for just this application.

[Bryan Schwerer]

Cool. I will be awaiting details.

[Michael Peet]

One of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas. Very cool, Jim.

Mike