Thread: Fitting old Tail-Vice Screw

Richard,

This would be useful for a leg vise (Google the term) but standalone, it doesn't have the guides of a standard vise.

It so happens that I have a Record 52 quick release vise that I no longer need. $55 and it's yours. You will need to clean it up a bit, but not much.

It means you have to come and get it (I'm in Lota) but it will be a lot less mucking around than what you have to work with right now.

Send me a private message to make contact if you are interested.

You could convert that old vice screw into something like this shoulder vice.



This vice is explained in this post. Note I had to make a keyed guide to keep the movable vice faceupright.

The best way to install shoulder vices is to build them into the bench as attaching them later is a PITA. An alternative is to attach the shoulder vice to another vice, mine attaches to an end vice on my bench. However unless you have annother vice already on your bench to use in this fashion I would not bother. A standard vice will be much more useful for conventional WW.

Cheers

Yes, it has guides on it now ( http://groups.msn.com/RichardsChookp...oto&PhotoID=22 ) but they're too rusted off to get off, so I had thought of using either some 25mm dowel or some heavy duty bolts like these.

Mark, thanks for the offer of the Record. I'll have a think about it and get in touch in a day or two.

Originally Posted by rhancock

Yes, it has guides on it now ( http://groups.msn.com/RichardsChookp...oto&PhotoID=22 ) but they're too rusted off to get off, so I had thought of using either some 25mm dowel or some heavy duty bolts like these.

I don't think dowel would be strong enough. You could get two 1/2" thick steel plates about 200 x 75 mm and put the screw in the middle and two 1/2" bolts 3" either side and mount it horizontally into the side of your bench. Then you would add wooden faces to the steel plates. The hardest thing would be drilling the big hole in the steel plates for the screw. This would make a medium light conventional vice. At this point one might well ask is it worth it and go back to the original design and just use it as a leg vice with a hardwood faces.

That installation certainly looks, ahem, rustic!

The shoulder vise idea sounds nice but would require a lot of effort to retrofit to your bench. It's also a different type of bench screw actually made for the installation you have acquired or for a tail vise. The installation that BobL has above uses a shoulder vise screw.

I just noticed that the apron on the front of the bench is not flush. That is to say, it is attached to the legs of the bench. So I'm going to recant. A leg vise while still possible, would not be ideal for this bench because you will have very limited clamping area. You might still be better off with a modern iron vise like a Record. I'm not pushing my vise on you, that's just my opinion.

Its definitely rustic! The guy I bought it off didn't know where it came from, but it must have been a farm, possibly even a blacksmith.

What size is your Record 52?