Shopsmith Forums

Funny how things get shoved back and largely forgotten sometimes. I was looking at some stuff in the corners of the farm shop today and ran across a woodworking vise I bought years ago at a yard sale for about $8. It is a heavy older Reed quick action vise with 4" x 10" jaws. I didn't measure the opening width but it opens quite wide. It also has a sliding dog on the front jaw. I carried it to the wood shop and checked it out. It is in good shape in general but will need some cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. Much like a Shopsmith it will need the ways polished and waxed with some JPW. I'll also make it a pair of hardwood jaw faces. My old homemade vise is at the right side of the bench and I will put this one on the left side.

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This is my old homemade vise I made maybe 30 years ago from some stuff I had and a $2.50 yard sale screw assembly.
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I have started to clean up my Reed vise about 4 or 5 times today but keep getting side-tracked by other jobs or shiny objects. I did take it apart and inspected it carefully. Everything is perfect. I will clean it well and polish the ways a bit but decided to not paint it nor to polish the ways to full bright like I would on a Shopsmith. It's a shop vise... No matter how well I paint it it is going to get scratched and chipped. I'm just going clean it up and give it a good going over all over with JPW and mount it... After all just look at how sparkling and spiffy the rest of my bench looks.
Part of what has side-tracked me a few times has been trying to figure out exactly where I want it. I do want it toward the left end of the bench but may not put it right at the corner. I may mount it about 16” back toward the center where I already have a row of dog holes. I normally never work off of the left side of a vice on that left corner anyway. It's just not my lifetime work pattern.
I would like to find another steal on a quick action vise and mount it around on the very end at one end as a tail vise mostly so I can hold a long piece end-wise with the vise dog and a bench dog or two.


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Farmer that vise is no good.

Please send it my way and I'll take care of it for you.

My step one would include washing soda, battery charger some scrap steel and a bucket(plastic).

That is a fine looking vise - no way that thing would slip past me at a garage sale, particularly for $8!

I did finally get this Reed vise mounted. After a bit of thought I ended up mounting it around on the end as a sort of tail vise except on the left end instead of on the right as you normally see them. I have an overhang on that end that lent itself well to mounting there.
I needed to make a handle for it and while I have a lot of oak doweling I latched onto it was all either too big or too small. Being quite frugal (cheap) I also save old broom and mop wooden handles. Looking through those I found one that was a perfect fit. I cut off a piece and drilled a cross hole in each end and glued a short dowel in the holes to serve as handle stops like I did on the homemade vise shown earlier in this thread. I'm happy...


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