A look at the Lie-Nielsen twin screw vise hardware

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I am posting this because I found very little information online when researching prior to my purchase. I thought this might be of help to someone who, like myself, likes to see the details of an item before making a purchase. The LN chain drive twin screw vise just arrived. One thing to point out is that apparently they make these in batches as they get orders so there is a lead time. In my case that was 11 days from ordering to shipping. You get a receipt but you do not get charged to your card until it actually ships.

The advertised opening on this vise is 8.25", which is a bit shorter than the Veritas. I toiled over the two vises for this reason, but chose this one when I saw how hefty the threaded receiver is. That piece is 4.25" (11 cm) long. I believe this will reduce the chance of racking. I love that it has one handle. I see two handles as a nuisance- you only need one, and the other just gets in the way.

The threads are very well-machined, and along with bronze bushings there is a needle bearing on the handle end of the vise. That makes absolute sense, as there is where the forces will be pushing towards the handle during clamping.

The handle is sold separately, which I kind of like because then you can make your own and save. I already have the LN handle for my other vise (because I just liked it) so I bought the handle for this one. It does drive the price up quite a bit, but I like the attention to detail with the brass trim rings.

I will do a video when I get this installed. Here are some images of the hardware.

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[Marty Schlosser]

Nice vise you have; I'm sure it'll give you a lifetime of use. Make sure you put it and your bench into your will.

The advantage to having two handles is in being able to skew the jaws for holding non-parallel pieces. Here's perhaps a better explanation right out of the Lee Valley catalogue:
"Even better, a spring-loaded lock pin lets you disengage the chain for controlled jaw skewing needed to equalize pressure on slightly out-of-square work."

[Mike Cherry]

That hardware looks very well made, much like everything I've experienced from LN. I've used the Veritas you speak of and it is a well made design. I use the Veritas quick release front vise myself. If I remember correctly, weren't you planning a carving vise as well?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Nice vise you have; I'm sure it'll give you a lifetime of use. Make sure you put it and your bench into your will.

The advantage to having two handles is in being able to skew the jaws for holding non-parallel pieces. Here's perhaps a better explanation right out of the Lee Valley catalogue:
"Even better, a spring-loaded lock pin lets you disengage the chain for controlled jaw skewing needed to equalize pressure on slightly out-of-square work."

True, I forgot that option. I'm not a fan of having two handles but as I said I thought long and hard about the two vises and I am sure I would have enjoyed either. It was a video of another brand of vise that made me think twice. The guy turned one handle and almost got hit in the head with the other! (His handles were a bit long) I already have a pattern maker's vise for skewing. I was looking for least likely to rack with dog holes on the far outboard end. The LN and Veritas were neck and neck but I liked the hefty receiver of this one, the concealed chain, and the single handle.

As for the bench, it will go to Petra and she can use it as a kitchen island if she doesn't choose to woodwork, but there will be an inscription under the top for her and it is one of two things that I want passed down because it will be where I create. The other is the cradle I built for Petra when she was born.

[Bill Satko]

I love my vise and also wanted only one handle. The need to skew a vise was seldom needed by me, so I made my selection based on the majority of my needs.

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[Pat Barry]

Guys, it seems like parallelism might be a potential issue so how do you adjust these vices for parallelism of the jaws? Is that something that would be easy to do when things wear a bit?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Mike, the pattern makers vise will be the carving vise.

Pat, you adjust skew when you install it. You set one of the receivers, clamp the jaws flush and screw the handles in, and then set the other one, marking them left and right, top and bottom so if you ever take them out you can put them back the same way.

[Edward Miller]

I'm sure the Lie-Nielsen is quite capable. I have the LV, and while the second handle hasn't bothered me at all, it wouldn't be hard to remove it, and install it only when I actually wanted to skew the jaws. The bigger disadvantage of having that capability is that from time to time the set screw locking the sprocket to the screw has loosened, allowing the handles to rotate independently when that wasn't what I wanted.

It looks like the LN vise uses keys to link the screws to the sprockets, avoiding that issue. Is that correct?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Yes, Edward- it uses keys on the screws and in the vise jaws you have to chisel a notch for the keys.

[Justin Smestad]

Hey sorry to revive an old thread for the OP, but how did you find the installation? Did you run into any issues? I have heard the chop needs pretty exact milling to work.

[Phil Gaudio]

Hey sorry to revive an old thread for the OP, but how did you find the installation? Did you run into any issues? I have heard the chop needs pretty exact milling to work.

The installation is a project, but worthwhile. I used these templates to make the maple parts of the vise. I suggest this approach: not sure how you would do it otherwise.