Leg vise question

[Mike Henderson]

Fine Woodworking (FWW) has an article in their latest issue of "Tools & Shops" about building a Roubo bench, with a leg vise.

For those of you who have a leg vise, I have a question. It seems that a leg vise has two center points of support - the screw and the parallel guide. Because of that, it seems that the vise would have serious racking problems if you put something in the vise off center. Is that correct? Must the work be centered in the vise for the vise to work well?

The advantage I see for a leg vise is the deeper space between the top of the bench and the screw. But it has the disadvantage of requiring adjustment of the parallel guide when changing the size of the piece clamped.

So what say you? How do you like a leg vise? If you've used other vises, how does a leg vise compare to other types of vises, including a European type vise which allows you to clamp something all the way down to the floor?

Mike

[george wilson]

You can make a sort of stepped pyramid to insert on the opposite side of the vise where your piece is clamped. Select the step to match the thickness of your workpiece. There are several ways to eliminate racking.

[Chris Griggs]

I have a slanted leg vise that I quite like. They are really nice if you prepare stock by hand and do a lot of edge jointing because the depth lets you put the board on edge nice and deep/low in the vise.

Because mine is slanted I can't quite do and apples to apple recommendation though. The slant allows me to clamp a board vertical in the vise so that it is centered over the fulcrum of the screw at the top where the clamping pressure is but hangs to the right side of the screw at the bottom of the board.

Still sometimes I clamp things where the board isn't centered at the top. There is some racking but its really only bad if you clamp way off the center of the screw. I would imagine that on a straight leg vise as long as you clamp the piece right next to the screw you won't have a major racking problem.

[Andrae Covington]

...It seems that a leg vise has two center points of support - the screw and the parallel guide. Because of that, it seems that the vise would have serious racking problems if you put something in the vise off center. Is that correct? Must the work be centered in the vise for the vise to work well?...

Sometimes racking is an advantage. For example, holding a tapered table leg.

legvise-taperedwork.jpg

In my experience, the racking caused by placing work off-center is more than compensated for by the tremendous grip. I can't even begin to pull this piece of wood out of the vise. I was able to rotate it out with a few hits of a deadblow mallet. So holding the workpiece off-center and trying to mortise probably wouldn't work out well. But I don't use the vise for mortising in the first place.

legvise-rackingbutfirmgrip.jpg

Despite the stunts illustrated above, I do normally try to approximately center the work in the vise, or hold it with both leg vises.

[David Posey]

Still sometimes I clamp things where the board isn't centered at the top. There is some racking but its really only bad if you clamp way off the center of the screw.

This is pretty much my experience with a vertical leg vise. There is only so much play in the screw, so it can only rack so far before it has to start biting. I still try and clamp in the center, but i I have to clamp near the edge for some reason I just put a piece of stock that's the same thickness in the other side.

Also, lining it with leather increases the amount of grip tremendously.

[Jim Ritter]

Hi Mike I just sent you a PM. I am a big leg vise fan and there are solutions to the pin issue, one I've been working on for a while. As to the wracking it really isn't that big a deal mostly because you can clamp close to the screw due to the fact that there are no guide bars on either side of the screw. They would naturally force you to clamp further away from the screw. Derek Cohen posted a while back ( not even a month ago) about how he dealt with his battle with wracking. But as a previous post has stated, it can be your friend.

[Jim Ritter]

Here is the link to Derek's post, one of them anyway. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-Yacht-Service it was on page three.

[Ron Brese]

Been using mine for two years and I have no racking problems. The size of the screw helps a lot to resist any twisting. They've also just introduced the "Criss Cross" which eliminates issues with moving the pin in the parallel guide. It's a very elegant solution to the parallel guide. I plan to retrofit my bench with the "Criss Cross" in the near future.

Ron

[Mike Henderson]

Been using mine for two years and I have no racking problems. The size of the screw helps a lot to resist any twisting. They've also just introduced the "Criss Cross" which eliminates issues with moving the pin in the parallel guide. It's a very elegant solution to the parallel guide. I plan to retrofit my bench with the "Criss Cross" in the near future.

Ron

So we have two options for automatic adjustment of a leg vise - the Criss Cross and the Chain Leg. Anybody looked into them and have any comments, recommendations, etc?

Mike

[Bill Houghton]

Fine Woodworking (FWW) has an article in their latest issue of "Tools & Shops" about building a Roubo bench, with a leg vise.

For those of you who have a leg vise, I have a question. It seems that a leg vise has two center points of support - the screw and the parallel guide. Because of that, it seems that the vise would have serious racking problems if you put something in the vise off center.

You would think so, but that wasn't my experience. Not sure why; it just wasn't.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

MY leg vise doesn't have too much racking in it- I feel like part of that is because of the large screw (Lake Erie wooden screw) and large parallel guide with a fairly close fit in the side-to-side dimension. This is just speculation on my part though.

Honestly, the thing with the leg vise for me, though, is that most of the jobs I use a leg vise for, the racking isn't really an issue. The things I can think of offhand where racking would present problems are mostly things that I'm apt to use another work holding method for. The couple of times movement and vibration has become more of an issue was with wider stock that hangs out of the side of the vise, when it's got a bit of bow so it doesn't pull flush to the edge of the table, but that's quickly overcome by holding the other side with the sliding deadman and a clamp or holdfast.

[Curt Putnam]

So we have two options for automatic adjustment of a leg vise - the Criss Cross and the Chain Leg. Anybody looked into them and have any comments, recommendations, etc?

Mike

I just bought a Lake Erie screw and Jim's Chain Leg adjuster. FWIW.

[Mike Henderson]

I just bought a Lake Erie screw and Jim's Chain Leg adjuster. FWIW.

The thing I like about the chain adjuster is that it's easy to install, especially on an existing leg vise. The Criss Cross looks like it'd take a lot more to install it. Also, we only have a price on the chain adjuster so it's not possible to really compare the two.

For anyone who's installed the chain adjuster, how does it work for you. Is it smooth in operation? Does it adjust so that the jaw is square to the work? Etc???

Mike

[Jim Ritter]

Here is a review that Derek Cohen did on his website http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolRev...nAdjuster.html
He has a lot of very good info on his site so be sure to look at the whole site.
I think it's the best of both the old and no more adjusting. Not many people have these yet there is I guy on Lumberjocks I sent a preproduction kit to, he has installer it on his bench. His review is a couple of weeks away. If you search chain leg vise over there you might find it. He goes by ScottyB.

[Bill Houghton]

Thinking about this question some more, I realized that the lack of racking may have been because, on my vise, it was possible to clamp vertical pieces right up against the screw, because the strut at the bottom was narrower than the screw.