Glide with crisscross 14 install questions

[Aaron Liebling]

I've gotten everything mounted for my new bench, but I'm not happy with the feel of the glide + crisscross. It spins perfectly smoothly at the far end, but as the chop approaches the leg the movement gets rougher and rough. Given that the smoothness changes depending on how open the chop is, I'm sort of at a loss to tell what I need to adjust: the acetal bushing, the nut on the back of the leg, the wheel flange on the front of the chop or the crisscross.

Two thoughts:

1. Upon further thought, part of the crisscross mortise intersects the stretcher mortise in my leg. I don't think this will be a problem when the stretch is installed, but maybe it is causing the difference in play right now? As the chop approaches the leg, the crisscross arm will be pushing on the section of the metal place with the open space behind it. I'd have thought the metal plate (which is screwed at the top) would be stiff enough that this wouldn't matter, but maybe I'm wrong?

2. There is a little play between the handle and the flange. This means the chop can rock/wobble slightly if moved by hand. It is not tight up against the handle.

3. I used wood screes instead of machine screw for the mounting. What are the possible issues with this?

I've taken a short video showing the movement, the wheel flange gap, and the toe in (which looks good). Sorry about the poor video editing - I'm not good at such things. I also included a photo of the wheel flange gap.

Video showing movement:

https://youtu.be/eYZxQsioAl4

All thoughts very much appreciated!

[Jim Matthews]

Looks pretty good. The chop is excellent, with opposed grain.

Mechanically, I suppose the slight alignment error means the cast iron wheel is "bumping" the proudest point of the garter as it closes.

If that's still objectionable (and yours is smoother than my 100 year old Emmert vise) a washer made of Delrin, Nylon or suitable UHMW plastic should deform enough to even out the bearing surface. I would start at a car parts store for stock.

[ken hatch]

I've gotten everything mounted for my new bench, but I'm not happy with the feel of the glide + crisscross. It spins perfectly smoothly at the far end, but as the chop approaches the leg the movement gets rougher and rough. Given that the smoothness changes depending on how open the chop is, I'm sort of at a loss to tell what I need to adjust: the acetal bushing, the nut on the back of the leg, the wheel flange on the front of the chop or the crisscross.

Two thoughts:

1. Upon further thought, part of the crisscross mortise intersects the stretcher mortise in my leg. I don't think this will be a problem when the stretch is installed, but maybe it is causing the difference in play right now? As the chop approaches the leg, the crisscross arm will be pushing on the section of the metal place with the open space behind it. I'd have thought the metal plate (which is screwed at the top) would be stiff enough that this wouldn't matter, but maybe I'm wrong?

2. There is a little play between the handle and the flange. This means the chop can rock/wobble slightly if moved by hand. It is not tight up against the handle.

3. I used wood screes instead of machine screw for the mounting. What are the possible issues with this?

I've taken a short video showing the movement, the wheel flange gap, and the toe in (which looks good). Sorry about the poor video editing - I'm not good at such things. I also included a photo of the wheel flange gap.

Video showing movement:

https://youtu.be/eYZxQsioAl4

All thoughts very much appreciated!

Arron,

After watching your video I would venture you have an alignment problem, maybe with the crisscross but it could be the nut. Bottom line the vise is binding, the wheel should spin freely as the chop goes in and out. My first guess is the problem is with the nut Make sure it is mounted square. If not the nut the crisscross is taking the chop out of alignment as the chop approaches the bench. It takes very little misalignment to cause binding.

With a correctly set up screw, nut, and crisscross the vise should travel from full open to close with just a spin or two. Yours is not correct, wish I could be of greater help but with out being able to see and feel the vise action it is hard to be sure what the problem is.

ken

[Jim Koepke]

Aaron, welcome to the Creek. Hopefully the suggestions offered here or in the future will get your vise settled.

jtk

[Aaron Liebling]

Thanks for the warm welcome and helpful words. I took the various pieces (screw, crisscross) apart and tried them in isolation. It looked like it was a screw issue and I fixed it by adjusting the attachment of the wheel flange. It now spins beautifully (two spins to fully close). It could probably be even smoother, but this is more than acceptable to me:

https://youtu.be/3lbpkpKTxhA

The only issue is that now the chop face and the leg are slightly out of alignment (the top of the chop meets the leg on one side but is slightly open on the other). I'll probably just plane the chop face to adjust this rather than mess with the screw/crisscross alignment further unless anyone thinks there's much to be gained by further tweaking.

Any concerns with having used woodscrews rather than the machine screws? Why the machine screw recommendation at all? Will I likely have a future issue?

[Michael Bulatowicz]

Any concerns with having used woodscrews rather than the machine screws? Why the machine screw recommendation at all? Will I likely have a future issue?

Hi Aaron and welcome to the Creek.

I took a look at the instructions; the question of wood versus machine screws appears to be all about the shape of the underside of the screw head. Wood screws have a roughly conical underside, while the cap screws they recommend are flat on the underside. Why would this matter? Two reasons.

First, the counterbored bearing surface has been machined as a flat surface, so a conical mating surface would concentrate the force on a small area rather than across the whole counterbored face. A machine screw would bear the load across a larger surface.

Second, the conical shape is self-centering: as you tighten it, it tries to pull the through-hole into perfectly centered alignment with the screw’s cylindrical axis. If your holes are perfectly aligned to each other to start, that’s not a problem. A machine screw allows some misalignment between the counterbore and the tapped hole without the screw trying to push the parts around so much. So, it becomes much easier to slightly adjust the position of the flange as needed.

Are you likely to have an issue in the future? I guess that depends on how much the wood moves over time.

I hope this is helpful.

Michael

[Jim Matthews]

The only issue is that now the chop face and the leg are slightly out of alignment (the top of the chop meets the leg on one side but is slightly open on the other). I'll probably just plane the chop face to adjust this rather than mess with the screw/crisscross alignment further unless anyone thinks there's much to be gained by further tweaking.

If you're not opposed to using hides, a piece of heavy leather could be "skived" to take up some misalignment.

[Aaron Liebling]

If you're not opposed to using hides, a piece of heavy leather could be "skived" to take up some misalignment.

Great idea!

[Lisa Starr]

I don't think you need to worry too much about having used wood screws. I believe that is one of the things Chris Schwarz suggests in his "The Anarchists Workbench". If it works for him....