I went with Lake Erie Toolworks screw and Jim Ritter's chain - basic kits for both. End result exceeded my expectations. Here are a few interesting details for someone building similar:

  • Chain is hidden in a groove in back of the leg - looks clean and won't mar project parts you leave on the shelf.
  • Parallel glide is below the shelf. It slides on a urethane wheel which I harvested from this caster and mounted it onto this 6mm shaft (a perfect fit, and 1/4" won't work). This shaft is hardened, so after wearing out a hacksaw blade, I used a rotary tool with cutoff disc with much better results.
  • Handle is permanently centered in the hub - required if you want to spin it. 12" handle is more than long enough and doesn't get in the way. I would guess 10" and maybe even 8" would be OK too. I stuffed some metal inside handle caps to give it extra oomph. It travels 8" if you spin it right, down to 2" if you just give it a very sloppy slap. The only time you need to turn the handle is to tighten or release.


End result is a very smooth vise that spins like a popular metal-screwed leg vise at about half the cost (if you make your own handle and garter) and to me looks a lot sweeter. The secret to making it spin is that the screw has to be on the same axis as the nut as any amount of binding will sap the energy. The easiest way to make that happen is to mount the nut as the last step, so you can make the screw exactly parallel to bench top. You don't need a special contraption to measure parallel - the way you will know it is the sweet spot is that when you look where screw meets the garter, you should see that it leaves same-sized light gap all around (the garter will be ever so thinner than the groove, and you'll see a gap around it).

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