What do I do? My vise is askew!

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

It’s my first time mounting a front vise,
Screwed it all in, after measuring twice,
Now the jaws close, but not very nice,
So before I it up more, I seek your advice.

What do I do? My vise is askew!

Do I taper the jaw, so it’s thinner on the left?
Do I somehow rescrew the base, a few degrees to the right?
Can I add a washer to something, or a shim somewhere deft?
Or do I just accept the skew, and give up the fight?
406897406898406899

[bill howes]

Mishkin
Before doing anything too extensiv ,I would loosen the base screws a turn or two, tighten the vise firmly. There may well be enough play in thefit that your malalignment will minimize. If so just tighten the screws with the vice closed.
Next I would flip the front plate 180* to see if any assmetry in the csating would help.
If neither move gives you satisfaction you have to decide to live with it or inset the left end of the front fitting which may be tedious.
Remember the enemy of good is " better"
Otherwise nice looking bench
Bill

[William Fretwell]

If you have no joy with the above, I would just make a new vise front jaw with a compensating skew built in. Providing the front jaw and bench front come together evenly then you will get even clamping pressure. I would also use a hardwood. Your front jaw in softwood looks rather thin given the clamping forces you can achieve with a vise.
Your other option is to move the vise an inch to the left, re-drill the mounting holes (plug the old ones). Then chop an inch off the end of the front jaw.

[Derek Cohen]

I echo William's suggestion as the quick solution. Personally, I do not like bodgers, so would look to re-do the vise attachment. Pull it off, and resite a little away?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[glenn bradley]

Always easier to mount the vise with the bench (or top) upside down. Forums are for suggestions and opinions so here's mine based on what looks like a softwood bench.



Remove vise.
Flip bench.
Fill existing holes with glued in softwood dowels (generally poplar from the home center, as opposed to oak).
Wait overnight.
Place vise in desired location.
Clamp vise in desired location.
Drill new holes using the vise casting as a guide.
Remount vise (preferably while still clamped).
Remove clamp(s).
Flip bench.
Consider a hardwood chop with dog holes ;-)

[Jeff Bartley]

Mishkin, I would echo the advice already given and thank you for the poem-in-a-post! Woodworking can be so serious, it's nice to see something like this to make us smile.

[Phil Mueller]

I agree hardwood would be a better option and a slight skew sets off my a-retentiveness. However, my leg vise has just a wee bit of a skew for some reason as well, and I’ve not found any issue with clamping. You may just want to live with it for awhile and come back to it if it seems to cause you any trouble.

[bill epstein]

Doweling and re-drilling the holes is the best fix. The obvious attention to detail exhibited by the unblemished underside tells me you won't be content living with the slight skew. Elongating 3 of the 4 holes then closing the vise and re-tightening would likely work just as well except, just as likely, periodic re-tightening would be required.

[David Eisenhauer]

Put some real shoes on - those Chinese safety boots you are wearing aren't gonna shuck off that vise when it falls:).

[William Fretwell]

Those must be Mishkin’s poetry shoes! No one wears those in the shop....wait I think he’s writing a new poem.....

[ken hatch]

Those must be Mishkin’s poetry shoes! No one wears those in the shop....wait I think he’s writing a new poem.....

LOL, In my shop those are the safety boots. Often I'm commando.

ken

[ken hatch]

I have to add: Back in the day watching African airport workers wrestling 55 gal drums of Jet A out of trucks with nothing but flip fops on was unnerving.

A vise drop, just a flesh wound :eek:.

ken

[Jim Koepke]

It’s my first time mounting a front vise,
Screwed it all in, after measuring twice,
Now the jaws close, but not very nice,
So before I f* it up more, I seek your advice.

What do I do? My vise is askew!

Do I taper the jaw, so it’s thinner on the left?
Do I somehow rescrew the base, a few degrees to the right?
Can I add a washer to something, or a shim somewhere deft?
Or do I just accept the skew, and give up the fight?



[slight edit] Mishkin
Before doing anything too extensive ,I would loosen the base screws a turn or two, tighten the vise firmly. There may well be enough play in the fit that your malalignment will minimize. If so just tighten the screws with the vice closed.
Next I would flip the front plate 180* to see if any asymmetry in the casting would help.
If neither move gives you satisfaction you have to decide to live with it or inset the left end of the front fitting which may be tedious.
Remember the enemy of good is " better"
Otherwise nice looking bench
Bill

My first step would be to check the wood on the moving face for being parallel. This could be done by measuring or removing it and flipping it end for end.

Next would be Bills suggestion of loosening the mounting bolts to see if there is enough play in the mounting holes to fix the skew.

If neither of these help, the easiest solution might be to plane the piece of wood on the movable face a little skewed to make up for the misalignment.

With wide jaws like yours you may also experience some racking with your vise. You may want to consider a adapting one of these to work with your set up:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?183743

jtk

[michael langman]

Mishkin, If you don't mind losing some capacity on how far your vise can open then you could open the vise enough so that the base underneath is positioned further back from the front of the bench, so you miss the first holes you drilled for lag bolts.
Clamp your vise jaw to the bench and then clamp the base to the bottom of the bench before drilling your holes for the lag bolts.
This will make sure your alignment is ok in the end.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Mishkin, Judging by your choice of “Safety Footwear” (around very sharp tools that can get dropped) I will assume you have very thick skin, so I will share my opinion.


Firstly, nice looking bench!

Ideally, your pine chop is going to quickly get worn out and beat to heck. I wouldn’t be in any great hurry to mess around with pulling and remounting the vise. I would probably try to reverse the chop and/or plane it askew to meet the bench.

I would absolutely consider replacing the pine chop with a hardwood that is lined with leather.

I’d also climb my neighbor’s fence and grab a piece of firewood to make a “riven” oak vise handle. I have had vise handles break on me with some not unsubstantial loss of blood from wounds caused by the sharp edge of wood. Riven oak is now all I will use for those handles.

In reality, if you heavily use and abuse your vise properly, you’ll probably skew the crap out of the jaws anyway.



BTW, I wear bedroom slippers in the shop. They’re navy colored velvet with a soft plush layer of padding on top! Sawdust and shavings make them very “slippery” to walk in.

I’m more worried about falling than a tool drop.

[Jim Koepke]

BTW, I wear bedroom slippers in the shop. They’re navy colored velvet with a soft plush layer of padding on top! Sawdust and shavings make them very “slippery” to walk in.

I’m more worried about falling than a tool drop.

Maybe we should have a thread on footwear. It could never become as heated as a discussion on sharpening, could it?

My last employer had a shoe allowance for many workers to purchase safety shoes. Those used to be my preferred footwear. Then came surgery and the doctors didn't want me bending down to tie my shoes. Since then my footwear is what we used to call 'deck shoes.' Slip on canvas tops with a sole that holds on to slick surfaces. They are so comfortable my old safety boots are only worn now for when there is a higher likelihood of needing foot protection.

jtk

[Paul F Franklin]

Nice bench!

Another option: Bill suggested seeing if there is enough slop in the vise holes to even it out; definitely try that first. If there isn't, you could make some! Take a round file to the back of the two mounting holes on the left side (looking from above front) so that side of the vise can slide a little forward to even out the skew. When you clamp something in the vise it will tend to pull the vise toward the front, so filing the back of the holes should allow that side to slide slightly forward. A bit of a hack for sure, but I'd do that before tapering the chop. Just don't overdo it or you'll tilt the other way.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Jim, I probably should have stayed on topic and been more mature and not brought up feet and footwear.

After all, it’s difficult to gauge if a poet engineer has a sense of humor. Besides, you probably need a permit to wear real shoes around Maui. I think flip flops are approved on the job footwear for Hawaii’s volcanologists.

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

Thanks all.

The holes only had a little bit of wiggle room but not enough. I didn't have a round file on hand, and don't think I'll miss the capacity so I shifted the base about 3/4" in and re-drilled the holes. Problem fixed.

As for the footwear, I wear the sandals as a precautionary measure - if I drop a chisel I would hate for the edge get damaged by those tough materials on closed toed shoes. This way, the blade can just get captured in the soft flesh of my foot and I won't need to resharpen. :)