A New Vise

[Whaler]

My old center drilling vise has been giving me fits jamming up. Today I went to Woodcraft and picked up a new one that they are stocking. It's made by General and although I haven't done anything but play with it so far I am impressed.
I'll give it a workout later today.
www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=20440

[TB Roye]

Dick

Do you feel that is a better one than the other they offer? #143609 I have a gift card that will cover it and a few other things I need.

Tom

[final_t]

My old center drilling vise has been giving me fits jamming up. Today I went to Woodcraft and picked up a new one that they are stocking. It's made by General and although I haven't done anything but play with it so far I am impressed.
I'll give it a workout later today.
www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=20440

I recently took the existing "old standard" vise apart from the base plate and re-aligned it up, adding plastic self-stick glides to the bottom of the middle bracket to shim it up - previously, the center plate would flex down under load , resulting in either a badly off-center hole or a blown piece.
I also just tossed the plate entirely, since I found it to be unacceptably out of square, and instead bolted the parts right to some Baltic birch, and used the Magna-Jig things to hold it in place on the drill press. Works tons better now.
I probably spent more on that all told than the new and improved gizmo.

[Whaler]

I used the new vise #148457 today and it is far better than the older one #143609. Today was the second time I would have had to tear it down and re-align it and I wasn't in the mood. I am glad I picked up the new style and I feel that it is well worth the extra money.

[TB Roye]

Thanks Dick. Off to Woodcraft tomorrow to see if they have it in Stock here in town.

Tom

[leehljp]

Dick,

I sure would like to see a small write up on this and in comparison to the old style. After you have drilled a couple of dozen blanks or so, give us a report.

Thanks for posting this.

[ragswl4]

I am a newbie at penmaking and I currently clamp the blank sides between two blocks of wood on the DP table fence and also clamp it front to back against the fence and drill the hole. I have done this a number of times and the hole is rarely exactly centered but when I put it on the lathe and turn it down it comes out exactly as it should. What would this vise do for me that would improve my pen making?

[Whaler]

Hank

After I have used it some more I will post another report. Initially it is great but time will tell.

Rags

I have never been able to get exact centers either. If you are getting good results with what you are using possibly the only thing you would gain is faster set up.

[Russianwolf]

I am a newbie at penmaking and I currently clamp the blank sides between two blocks of wood on the DP table fence and also clamp it front to back against the fence and drill the hole. I have done this a number of times and the hole is rarely exactly centered but when I put it on the lathe and turn it down it comes out exactly as it should. What would this vise do for me that would improve my pen making?

If you get it set up just right, you can use smaller blanks and have less waste. The problem is since most of use our DP for several operations, moving the vice means realigning it later.

I was looking at the stuff on arizona silhoette's website and saw a simple hand vise and made one myself (two boards and a hinge). It does a fair job.

was santa good to you?

[gerti]

What I don't get is why they don't provide a way to insert a piece of scrap so one doesn't have to drill into the base plate. That has always kept me from pulling th trigger on the old one, and it doesn't look like the new one has improved n that area.

[Whaler]

gerti
I raise the blank above the bottom of the vise so there is clearance for the bit to go through, there is no need for it to sit all the way down.

[leehljp]

For about 2/3rds of my pens I do use a vise. Getting centered is hard to do. It seems I can get one done but the next blank will be off just a tad on the exit. That doesn't bother met too much and is not usually that important.
However, there are times, especially when segmenting that exact centering is a must, both in entrance and exit.

When I have that need, I go to my lathe and drill with the lathe. I chuck the blank and center it to the end stock drill bit. One caveat is that a couple of times I have had to stop the drilling for one reason or another, or remove the blank and re-chuck it later. I have a Grizzly chuck (H6265), which is a good chuck but it is not recognized as a real high end chuck. It does not repeatedly re-center as well as $200 chucks, so I am told.

The point - Below is a pen that I made. I used Holly, cut down to 8 sided, placed on a sled, cut grooves about 3/16 in deep and filled with some plastic that was the same thickness as the kerf. EXACT centering at the entrance and exit were needed to have a perfectly looking and spaced pen.



Again, about 2/3rds of my pen blanks are drilled on a vise. My current PSI vise is not accurate enough for me for that 2/3rds. I am interested in this vice.

[ragswl4]

For about 2/3rds of my pens I do use a vise. Getting centered is hard to do. It seems I can get one done but the next blank will be off just a tad on the exit. That doesn't bother met too much and is not usually that important.
However, there are times, especially when segmenting that exact centering is a must, both in entrance and exit.

When I have that need, I go to my lathe and drill with the lathe. I chuck the blank and center it to the end stock drill bit. One caveat is that a couple of times I have had to stop the drilling for one reason or another, or remove the blank and re-chuck it later. I have a Grizzly chuck (H6265), which is a good chuck but it is not recognized as a real high end chuck. It does not repeatedly re-center as well as $200 chucks, so I am told.

The point - Below is a pen that I made. I used Holly, cut down to 8 sided, placed on a sled, cut grooves about 3/16 in deep and filled with some plastic that was the same thickness as the kerf. EXACT centering at the entrance and exit were needed to have a perfectly looking and spaced pen.



Again, about 2/3rds of my pen blanks are drilled on a vise. My current PSI vise is not accurate enough for me for that 2/3rds. I am interested in this vice.

Great example of why the vise is a must. I haven't gotten into this type of pen making but WOW, I really like the look of that pen and its obvious that the holes must be dead on.

Another post about set-up time is a great point.

[ragswl4]

If you get it set up just right, you can use smaller blanks and have less waste. The problem is since most of use our DP for several operations, moving the vice means realigning it later.

I was looking at the stuff on arizona silhoette's website and saw a simple hand vise and made one myself (two boards and a hinge). It does a fair job.

was santa good to you?

OK, the idea that I could use smaller blanks is a good one. Less waste, less turning (but then thats the part that I like).

Santa dropped a Barracuda2 chuck down the chimney for me. Nice tool. Hope Santa was good to you and eveyone on the forum. Should be a lot of new tool reviews to read.

[gerti]

gerti
I raise the blank above the bottom of the vise so there is clearance for the bit to go through, there is no need for it to sit all the way down.

Oh, now that was just too obvious... Thanks for the hint!