I have a 4" thick bench that I have my el cheapo wood river front vise on. I've had it for 6 or 7 years now. It's only recently that I've really gotten to the point of wanting to use it a lot. I've used it in the past for several things and it always made due, but now I'm growing frustrated with it. It has a lot of racking top to bottom and side to side. I know anything is going to have racking and I don't mind using spacers for side to side. But the top to bottom is annoying. I found this thread:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-top-to-bottom
Identical issue (major gap at top when clamping leads to insecure clamping). There is a LOT of slop in this vise where the rods go through the cast base. The threads work great as does the quick release, no complaints there.
My question is.... Are they all this bad? Do I just need to taper the hell out of the clamping faces? Or are there some better, higher end, front vises that just work?
vise.jpg