Which VISE is best for your work area

[Brian Jordan]

The flat on the post will help out alot, but these vises are not designed for heavy work.

[Birddog6]

No doubt the set screws would work.  My problem is if I put the other vices on there I have to take the regular ones off as I need them as well & I don't want the parrot bases there.  So I put one parrot base over to the sid for knife work am going to keep building rifles with the two vices as I have been using. I am working on the 28th rifle built on this bench with those two vices the way they are set up, so I am pretty used to doing it that way now.  Some day I would like to have another bench behind me & then I could use one bench entirely aside for rifle building.

[Beaverman]

I had the same problem with the vise moving, especially when you are clamping something were light pressure is desired. I fixed that problem with a simple fix, and have been happy with it ever since.


I ground a small flat on the post the vise slides onto.



Then I drilled and tapped the vise, and installed a set screw that tightens up against the flat. Problem solved

 Ive got one of these bases from melsdad, the thing works great and is built $#*! for stout!

[Kermit]

Midway's Wheeler is the bargain of the age. I have one that I paid full freight for and don't feel slighted. I may order another!

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=577167

It's a little less sophisticated version of that nifty red guitarmaker's vise. At $47 and change, you can't go wrong.

The first thing I did when I got mine was to remove the wood jaws and make some extras out of shop scraps--some maple, some cherry--and faced a couple of pairs of spares with heavy leather. I've thought of making a pair of steel ones as well--maybe when I get that spare vise. You could make some of different lengths and contours as well.

I make custom furniture for a living, and vises and clamps are a big part of my working day. I had no idea how much I'd come to use my Wheeler. I doesn't do everything I need in a vise, but that's what my traditional bench and vises do. When I need it, it drops in a bench dog hole in my bench in half a minute. For the money, it'd be my first choice if thinking about building a gun or two or three..

[altankhan]

what about the old-style post vice?  my friends and I learned on them back in the blacksmith shop in Ohio Village (Columbus) in the mid-1970s -- and we still like using them.  they still surface around here at flea markets, etc quite regularly.  for metal work we have folded copper over the jaws. for stock work we often use two vices, or one large post vice in connection with a smaller bench vice

[Hank*in*WV]

I bought the china version from midway usa. I made a swiveling vise base for it that will rotate 360°, and tilt 45° anywhere within the 360° rotation. I have made about 6 or 7 of these for some gunbuilders on another forum.

I'm one of the people he made one for and it sure made the vise a lot more versatile and is effortless to use.