Shopsmith Forums

Not that I want to discourage you from buying a vise from Shopsmith, Pinkie, but I feel honor-bound to tell you that our "Bench Buddy" is more of a specialty vise than an all-around woodworker's vise. For utility, versatility, and durability, you just cannot beat the bench vise. They are as common as dirt, I knoiw, but the reason they are so common is that they are so useful. Here are several links to show you what's out there on the new tool market:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... paign=2008

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... paign=2008

http://www.nextag.com/Anant-9-Inch-Quic ... rices-html

http://www.tylertool.com/benchdog37.html

http://www.nextag.com/Anant-7-1-2-582271932/prices-html

http://www.nextag.com/Bessey-BV-W611-6- ... rices-html

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... paign=2008

http://www.nextag.com/Bench-Dog-40-090- ... rices-html

http://www.nextag.com/Jorgensen-40709A- ... rices-html

http://www.nextag.com/Wilton-63144-Heav ... rices-html

My favorite vise of all time is a toss-up between the Columbia and the Record 52ED. Both had 7-1/2" jaws, quick release, and a built-in dog on the front jaw. Anant (an Indian company) now makes copies of the Record vises. The bench vise at Harbor Freight is also a Record copy, but the Chinese have put the quick release mechanism together 90 degrees off what Record engineers intended and it barely works.

The Columbia is much more common than the Record and ridiculously easy to find on the used tool market. There are two of them right now on Ebay. See http://cgi.ebay.com/woodworking-vise_W0 ... dZViewItem Personally, I would much rather buy an old Columbia than a new Anant; you get more for less money. I've bought them for as little as $10 apiece with nothing more wrong than the faint odor of dissuse. Note: If you go looking for bench vises on Ebay or Craig's List, search for "woodworking vises." Searching for "bench vises" will bring up nothing but mechanics and machinists vises.

I have never had a workbench with a vise other than a bench vise, and I have never felt particularly deprived because of it. If you get one with a slide-up dog in the front jaw, you'll never need anything else. As for dogs in the workbench, just drill 1" holes and make a few of these:

[ATTACH]1281[/ATTACH]

If you're up for a little more research, get yourself a copy of 'Workbenches and Shop Furniture" by Nick Engler through interlibrary loan. In the chapter on "Vices and Worbench Accessories," the author shows how to make a bench vise sing and dance.

With all good wishes,

Before some wiseacre asks me what the bench vises sang, it was "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Sergio Mendes.

With all good wishes,

Pinkie
I have this vise. I like it a lot. I really like the lock in place on tabletop feature. It is especially good when using the drill press. For the price, it is hard to beat.

Bob
San Diego

Nick wrote:... For utility, versatility, and durability, you just cannot beat the bench vise. They are as common as dirt, I knoiw, but the reason they are so common is that they are so useful.

...

If you're up for a little more research, get yourself a copy of 'Workbenches and Shop Furniture" by Nick Engler through interlibrary loan. In the chapter on "Vices and Worbench Accessories," the author shows how to make a bench vise sing and dance.

With all good wishes,

+1 on the woodworking vises.

And this Engler guy sounds like he knows woodworking. I'll have to see if he's written anything else.

Hawk

PS Sorry, Nick, up late woodworking and my sense of humor "wierd" kicked in.

Wow!
Thanks Nick! That is a lot of information and very useful. I am going to get the SS vice for use on the Mark V.
Hawk also gave me the great idea of the jig which I used last night to finish the piece I was working on. (You know the one where I dropped my hand plane:o )
Thanks Bob for sharing your thoughts!
I plan to use the Horizontal drill quite a bit and I've had some experience with trying to line up dowell hole without something similar, and it was very difficult. I made a crib for my Step-Daughter at the time and fitting the dowels into the curved tops was really difficult, I could have used a vise like this one.
On the other hand, I am going to check into the vices nick mentioned and check out the book too. I just bought 5 of Nick's books but they have been shipped media mail so it will take them a while to get to me
Thanks for all the information. I feel better about my options, without spending for a work bench at this time.

Well, I was out-bid on a couple of vices on EBay.
I guess I'm tighter than I thought. When they get over $30 bucks my submit button pushing finger doesn't want to work.
So, I priced newer Vices...I might have to suck it up and pay a few bucks more for a used one. $112 for newer vices by columbia.