workbench vise choice

[Louis Reed]

I'm in the process of building a good workbench for the shop. I like the Veritas twin screw for the end ( $220.00 at Lee Valley) and for the side, the Anant 53ED ($120.00 at Amazon).
Those of you that have these vises, are you happy with them ? What are the plus and minus points you have found on the vises. What other brands would you suggest ?

Thanks for your feed back.

Art

[Dewey Torres]

I have the LV twin screw and it is a monster.

Pros:

IMHO the best on the market. It is fully adjustable and very user friendly. Hands down one of the best WW purchases I have ever made.

Cons:
Pricey
The skew function is handy but over rated as it doesn't skew as far as most customers are led to believe.

[Louis Reed]

Thanks Dewey,
I was looking at the twin screw for the even pressure of the jaws and not scew. Yes it is $$, but a good tool always is !

What side vise did you go with and are you happy with it ?

Art :)

[Greg Cole]

IMHO the best on the market. It is fully adjustable and very user friendly. Hands down one of the best WW purchases I have ever made.

Cons:
Pricey
The skew function is handy but over rated as it doesn't skew as far as most customers are led to believe.

That's about as "bad" of a review as you'll get in regards to the twin screw....

Greg

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Louis.

I have the exact setup you described. The twin end vise is nice, but it will take a little work to get it installed. It is not hard work, just some time laying on your back under the bench while you play with the barrel nuts. :mad: The directions are clear and helpful. Be sure to read them at least twice before starting the install. :eek:

I have one of the Record 53ED vises I bought at a local WW show several years ago. I recessed the rear jaw in the bench top, even with the edge. When I installed the apron, I had in effect an eight ft long rear jaw. The front jaw is an 18" long, 2" thick piece of maple.

Go for it, you will like both vises.:)

[Louis Reed]

Thanks Ken,

I exprcted more than a little work in the installation. Glad your experience has been good with the two vise choices. I plan on ordering them this next week.
:D
Art

[michael osadchuk]

....I have a Veritas twin screw on the end of my bench and two of the smallest Record quick release vises (7" opening" about a foot and a half from either end of the long (10ft.!) side....

.... the Veritas is fine but the instructions are "involved" and you can download from the Lee Valley website to study before you buy....

...personally I found the smallest size of the quick release vices "plenty" for the front of the bench ..Scott Landis' Workbench book has a fair amount of information on installing the quick release vices as well as interesting background info on the vice... Lee Valley carries all three sizes from a "European supplier" (but with a shipping surcharge 'cause of the weight)

good luck

[Louis Reed]

Michael, thank you for your reply,

I have seen and downloaded the instructions for installation. We have a couple of guys in our woodworkers guild that have built benches and did say go slow and follow the directions to a tee.

Although I have a large shop, space is still a problem, so my bench will not be 10' long to allow for two small vises. I plan to use it mostly for planeing boards and cutting dove tails.

The supplier you reffered to charged a high rate for shipping due to weight, did they have a better price ? Always looking to cut some costs !!:D

Art

[michael osadchuk]

Michael, thank you for your reply,

The supplier you reffered to charged a high rate for shipping due to weight, did they have a better price ? Always looking to cut some costs !!:D

Art

Well, Art, if you live in the U.S. you might want to take an interest in the value of the U.S. dollar vs. the Canadian dollar...... www.finance.yahoo.com at this moment says the U.S. dollar is worth $1.2764 Canadian.......perhaps that Lee Valley twin screw vice that costs $219 Cdn. should/will cost less than $219 U.S. and perhaps you might want to send Rob Lee an email query(smiley)...... in any case, I just punched up the twin screw vice on a order page on the LV website and it is listed as out of stock until November 20th

good luck

michael

[Don Bullock]

..

I have one of the Record 53ED vises I bought at a local WW show several years ago. I recessed the rear jaw in the bench top, even with the edge. When I installed the apron, I had in effect an eight ft long rear jaw. The front jaw is an 18" long, 2" thick piece of maple.


Ken, can you post pictures of this? It sounds like a great way to mount a vise. Thanks.

[Verne Mattson]

I built Chris Schwarz' Holtzappfel bench, and I moved my Veritas twin screw from the end vise position (on my old bench), and now use it as a face vise. My Record 52 1/2 ED functions as my end vise.

I like the Veritas much better as a face vise - the majority of my end vise clamping uses just one dog anyway. On the old bench, the vise had 4 holes for bench dogs and I bored 4 rows of dog holes in the benchtop. In retrospect I hated having my benchtop look like swiss cheese.

With the new bench I have one row of holes about 3 1/2" apart, and a back row spaced about 12" apart. The Record is a great end vise - the nicest thing is that you can position it quickly.

Just something else to consider...

[Ken Garlock]

Ken, can you post pictures of this? It sounds like a great way to mount a vise. Thanks.

Don, I didn't think to take pictures while I was mounting the vise in the top. See the post below for some completed bench pictures.

This process is done with the the bench top flipped topside down.
Basically, I marked out an outline on the edge of my 2 1/4 inch thick top. I left the top edge of the vise jaw about 1/2" below the top surface. I then routed out the edge to accommodate the rear jaw and make it flush with the top's edge. This configuration required that the vise body be shimmed up to the bottom of the bench top. I then mounted the vise to the underside of the top with four 3 x 1/4 inch lag bolts.
When I was done, the rear jaw of the vise was flush with the edge of the bench top, and 1/2" below the work surface.
Once you have the vise mounted to your satisfaction, remove it and flip the bench top over, mount the top to the base, and remount the vise. When you mount your apron, notch out where the vise screws are located and leave the to apron cover the metal rear jaw.
Is it an 8 ft. jaw? Yes and no. Yes in that the apron is one continuous piece of maple. Does the front jaw apply pressure the length of the apron, NO, only for the length of the 18" front jaw.

I know this is clear as mud. I will look around and find some pictures of the finished bench and post them.

[michael osadchuk]

Ken, can you post pictures of this? It sounds like a great way to mount a vise. Thanks.

Don,
If you can find a copy of Scott Landis' Workbench book, page 147 has four diagrams showing various mounting scenarios for Record quick release type vices.....and all of them involve the wood protection pads on the inner vice cheeks being in the same plane as(or flush with) the apron of the workbench..... and unless you build up a new apron, the other three illustrated mounting methods involve cutting into the edge of the bench top to accommodate the inner metal (and protection pad) cheek of the vice.....

..... there are at least a couple of advantages to this 'flush' mounting: first, the vise is not protruding any unnecessary distance away from the workbench to become more of an obstacle as you move around the bench, and second, as noted by another, the apron of the bench some lateral support for long work pieces being held in the vice, particularly long pieces being edge handplaned (typically there will be some kind of 'holdfast/clamp' or even a second vice at the other end of the bench to grip the other end of such long pieces)....

good luck

michael

[Ken Garlock]

Yoooh Don, I found a couple pix of the vise after installation. The quality is a little fuzzy.

This is the bench after completion. You can also see the cyclone and filter cabinet against the far wall.
99555

This is the vise and apron.
99556

This is the "board support" It is an oak dowel that slides back into the bench with an oak disk glued on the end. Every other board in the bench base is sugar maple.
99558

This is the LV twin screw end vise. The four holes in rear jaw contain four long hex head bolts that attach to four barrel bolts. You have to bore the horizontal bolt holes and then, from under the bench, drill perpendicular holes that exactly intersect the horizontal holes. LV does a good job explaining how to drill the four pairs of holes.
99557

The only mechanical fasteners contained in the bench are the four nut/bolt pairs for the twin vise, four lag bolts for the front vise, and one lag bolt at each end to keep the top centered on the base. Every other joint is glued with Tite-bond III.

[Tim Null]

I built Lon Schleining's bench. I used the Vertias Twin Screw vise as the end vice and a 9" quick release vise mortised into the front as described earlier.

The Veritas is not that difficult if you take the installation into account when building the bench. My skirt was the same dimensions as the front jaw and functions as the rear jaw.

So you simply lag bolt the rear of the vise to the skirt. The trickiest part is making sure the holes for the screws all line up. Also boring holes in 3" hard maple supports while crouching under the bench is no picnic!

The front vise install was more of a pain. Hard to get the mortise just right and then get the vise body shimmed to mount straight. But I would do it again.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h76/tnull5/TimsShop015.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h76/tnull5/TimsShop016.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h76/tnull5/TimsShop010.jpg

TimN

[Lon LeBlanc]

Louis,

I had a very expensive vise on a workbench in a earlier phase of my life. This time around, I opted for HF 9" woodworking vises...two of them...on sale for $39/each. I faced them with some maple and they do everything I need them to do.

Lon

[Chris Friesen]

I went with a mongrel version of the Holtzapffel bench with the LV twin-screw as a face vise and a cast-iron quick-release vise mortised into the end.

[Dewey Torres]

Thanks Dewey,
I was looking at the twin screw for the even pressure of the jaws and not scew. Yes it is $$, but a good tool always is !

What side vise did you go with and are you happy with it ?

Art :)

I mounted mine as a tail vise (I am guessing that is what you meant by What side?) You can see in the pic that I have a shoulder vise mounted top left. That one is a quick release.

Heck yes I am happy with it:D <---- This happy!
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=84559&d=1206072961 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=84559&d=1206072961)

[Greg Hines, MD]

I forget who it is here on the Creek who has two twin screw vises on his workbench, one as a tail vise and one as a face vise. He may be able to give you some pointers as to either position being more advantageous.

Doc