Leg Vise upgrade

[Christopher Charles]

Hello all,

I'm helping a friend build a roubo bench (which will take a very long time at 2 hours / month...) and I may end up tweaking my leg vise in the process.

I built a BC style vise with the rollers, which I've found to be a bit fiddly because either the roller goes out of alignment or b/c of a bit of slop between the pin guide and my chop (naturally of all the draw bore-drawn pins in the bench, the only one that didn't quite seat right was in the chop-guide joint). Otherwise the vise works great.

So I'm hoping to query folks on whether the roller guides actually work when the guide-chop joint is solid and what folks experience is with the other two options:
1) the chain option as reviewed by Derek previously and
2) the BC criss-cross.

Opinions will likely guide my friend's selection of hardware as well.

Best,
C

[ken hatch]

Chris,

As I have posted before, the leg vise with rollers is fiddly. There may be some in the wild that are not but I've played with a number of 'em and all I've used were the same. I expect the crisscross would fix most of the fiddleness of a leg vise. The major reason your friend has a BC leg vise is because I didn't want to retro-fit a crisscross on either of my benches. I just found a vintage QR worked better for my workflow even when the leg vise was working perfectly.

As always with all things wood.....YMMV.

ken

[Phil Stone]

Chris,

I have a crisscross, and like it very, very much. It just works, assuming proper installation. 'Fiddling' with the leg vise just isn't an issue with the cc.

[John Fenn]

I have the chain option and it works great as well. I guess you can't go wrong with either one. I installed the chain version at the time I built my workbench. The installation was simple at that time and would be much different for a retrofit. Good luck.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Christopher

Have a look at this link, which takes you to a guide for the parallel guide. It minimises the effects of any slop.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/ParallelGuideGuide.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Allen Breinig]

Chris
I have the CC installed and it is great. Super simple and no messing around with it while your working. Not that hard to install either. I did the retro even though I was building a new bench since I don't have a drill press. Just take the time needed to lay it out.

[Tony Shea]

I used to have the parallel guide with holes drilled and did not suffer from the same problems you did but I did not like the inconvenience of having to change hole positions with different thicknesses of wood. I had my eye on the Ancora Yacht chain leg vise for a while, even before the CC was out available for purchase. I liked the chain leg vise due to ease of installation and everywhere I looked everybody had nothing but good things to say about it. It was on my list to purchase as soon as I had the $. Low and behold I was gifted the setup for Xmas by the maker himself Jim Ritter. What a guy he is, incredibly generous!!

Having said that, I have the chain parts installed (which was incredibly easy to do on an existing leg vise) and they are set up properly. All I have to say about this chain setup is WOW!! I wasn't real sure about the physics behind it and why it worked but it all makes sense once installed and set up properly. This setup is just a dream on my bench and I never have to think about what thickness wood I am using anymore, it just locks up tight and even every time I use it, which is often!! I have no experience with the CC and am sure this also works but for someone with an existing leg vise looking to get rid of their parallel guide pin I think this chain option is absolutely the way to go. There is not major stock removal to get this thing mounted and working like there is with the CC and the price is much nicer. But don't let the price fool you, the parts are all high quality and just works like a dream. It took a bit to figure out exactly where I wanted the jam nuts to be for the tension adjustment but since I figured that out I haven't had to touch that all.

The moral of the story is the Ancora Yacht chain leg vise works and works extremely well. It is less obtrusive, less $, and just as high quality. I can't recommend this highly enough and that is NOT because I think the world of Jim Ritter. That is just an added bonus knowing that you are going to be dealing with someone who deserves the business and cares whole heartily about his product! This is my two cents!

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks all. Sounds like both options work well. Will report back.

Best,
C