Thread: My $5 tail vise - is it right?

I'm not sure if you meant A or B ?

I've tried to show how it would sit on a bench to make say a leg vice.

A is morticed in on the far (inside) side of the bench leg, and the 'washer' needs setting in to the outer jaw.

I have three like this but they only have a flat 'washer'.

Does B move down over the threaded section? or is it captured near the handle?

Hope this helps.

Paul.

acme1a.JPG

Hi Paul.

The bit I'm puzzled about is B.

To me, it looks as though the flat side should be facing away from the handle, ie facing in toward the bench, so it sits against the outer wooden jaw and the domed side should butt up against the winder.

But the flat side is facing the winder, so if you were going to screw it onto the wooden jaw of the vise you'd have to carve a little hollow into it so the dome would fit into the wood.

I think maybe it's just been taken apart at some stage then put back with part B inside out.

That's the only way I can make sense of it, but I'm no expert.

One day when I have nothing better to do I'll have a go at taking it apart and putting it back together. How I'd take it apart I have no idea. Someone appears to have done it once, so it must be possible.

Then I'll build a bench so I can see if it works!

I've got an old one branded H&G. It is very similar to yours and the face washer is dimpled on both sides. The dimple protrudes away from the handle. The handle nut is also shaped to sit into the dimple when its tightened, this might provide some alignment and locking action in use.

The washer is counter sunk for screws. Thinking of the forces involved when in use, the handle will push against the washer and force it into the vice jaw. So it is the correct way around. If the washer faced the other way, when tightened the washer and screws would be pulled out of the timber jaw.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/attach...ench-screw.jpg

Originally Posted by Koala-Man

if you were going to screw it onto the wooden jaw of the vise you'd have to carve a little hollow into it so the dome would fit into the wood.

I'm also no expert but I expect that is exactly correct.

To clamp, the circular inner face of the 'T' section has to put pressure against the metal plate (B) attached to the vice jaw. It doesn't look to me from the photo that the bell-shaped face (of B) is suitable to receive that pressure.
... Maybe it is??

The block A will probably unwind off the shaft ... there might be a pin on the shaft to remove ... then it comes down to whether B can be removed (and reversed) or not.

Cheers,
Paul

Ooop. Yup. Fuzzie got it.

These bench screws are used for all sorts of applications apart from tail vises, so people arrange the bits as they please. The way the flange is assembled in your pic is a little odd, and certainly inconvenient for use on a tail or leg vise. It should be a simple matter to knock out the pin holding the T-piece and reverse it.

Which way round you mount the nut depends on what you are using the screw for. For tail vises, it is usually mounted with the nut facing the way it is in your pic., with the nut sunk into the cross-member of the bench. This gives you maximum travel of the moving jaw. This is a pic of a tail vise with a wooden screw, so there is no metal nut to worry about (the nut is tapped directly into the cross memmber, so it's all flush & nicely out of the way).

Bench Tail vice red.jpg

If you use the screw for a leg vise, (or a face-vise as I have done here),

Front vise red.jpg

you can mount the nut either way, because it's out of sight and out of the way. If you mount it sunk into the leg or mounting face, you get another 40-50mm of travel out of your screw, which may or may not matter to you. In my case, I had heaps of travel, so I wasn't concerned with the nut limiting opening by a couple of inches....
Cheers,

Thanks Ian, I love a proper tailvise. Simple, elegant and versatile. The cabinetmakers pal.