Shopsmith Forums

Why did I buy this?

When I saw this come out as an email special, I jumped on it. Now that I have it, I have never employed it in a drill press operation.

Except as a portable bench vise, I find very little utility for it. I sorta thought it would function like a miniature x-y device but the range of motion when attached to a t-nut makes it almost useless UNLESS someone can tell how to use it so that becomes untrue.

Right now I wish I had my $50 back.

dusty wrote:Why did I buy this?

When I saw this come out as an email special, I jumped on it. Now that I have it, I have never employed it in a drill press operation.

Except as a portable bench vise, I find very little utility for it. I sorta thought it would function like a miniature x-y device but the range of motion when attached to a t-nut makes it almost useless UNLESS someone can tell how to use it so that becomes untrue.

Right now I wish I had my $50 back.

Dusty I have used mine several times always finding it lacks accuracy and on one occasion it nearly cost me a finger. Mine will likely occupy space in a drawer. Fjimp

FYI; here is one use with the Overarm Routing station:
http://www.shopsmith.com/academy/routin ... lpressvise

Here is another Rube Goldberg use, to set the lathe-spindle to indexed angles for fluting:
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/attachm ... 1225671946

But, to speak to your point about an x-y vise, no I haven't used it that way. I'm keeping mine nonetheless....

My Goodness! I find my vise to be indispensable when drilling the holes on the back of the little cars I've been making. Can drill at an angle on the sloped/curved backs and the relatively straight backs also. The quick release feature is nifty!

I've also used it to drill holes in the center of of the end of small dowels to make toy hydraulic cylinders. Here the notches make this operation possible.

charlese wrote:My Goodness! I find my vise to be indispensable when drilling the holes on the back of the little cars I've been making. Can drill at an angle on the sloped/curved backs and the relatively straight backs also. The quick release feature is nifty!

I've also used it to drill holes in the center of of the end of small dowels to make toy hydraulic cylinders. Here the notches make this operation possible.

When doing this, Charlese, do you have the vise mounted in the miter slot or is it free standing. I can see that it would be helpful for the cars.

I've used mine for horizontal boring of pen blanks and several times as an additional bench vise (not always on the bench).

bob

I use mine for drilling pen blanks and as a pen press.

BPR

dusty wrote:When doing this, Charlese, do you have the vise mounted in the miter slot or is it free standing. I can see that it would be helpful for the cars.

Mounted in the nearest miter slot. The saw table is touching the way tubes. The vise is pushed toward the way tubes as far as it will go in it's slots. From here there is only a small amount of movement of the vise or the saw table (toward the operator) remaining in order to drill in the middle of the 1 1/8" wide cars.

I bought one many years ago (15?) and used it so much I wore it out (broke sumpthin I couldnt fix).
A while back bought another from SS on sale, since then I cant remember what I used to use it for. I suspect something else has taken its place.
But I still use it for stuff like the other guys are sayin.