Parkinson Perfect Vice

[Garden Shed Projects]

Yours is identical to mine. As you say its hard to exactly date it, I tend to agree its somewhere between 1915 and 1930, so 1920s seems right.

Of the two vices, both good and will work well, sad to say it, but the Record is superior in terms of performance, Record copied Parkinson and then bettered them by replacing the cast ion bars. However I like using my old parky it works well for everything I've thrown at it and just as good as it was 100 years ago, I like the thought of using something that has seen a lot of wood over the years.

You could consider using both, one for the end of the bench (tail) and one on the face, although having said that tail vices are not used anything like a face vice, its an excuse to not sell the other one.

As suggested above I have the Parkinson as my face vice and a record 52 1/2 as a tale vice. I am considering swapping them over as the record feels like a superior bit of kit. I love the Parky but if forced to choose between the 2 would probably go with the record.

 

[dannyr]

As suggested above I have the Parkinson as my face vice and a record 52 1/2 as a tale vice. I am considering swapping them over as the record feels like a superior bit of kit. I love the Parky but if forced to choose between the 2 would probably go with the record.

I have had both - not much in it, but I prefer the older style Parky. The extra weight is a slight disadvantage when fitting or moving your bench, but when actually working at a bench it adds stability.

I think the main reason the ww vices went to round bars was a much simpler and lighter casting and the ease of drilling holes rather than machining rectangular slides.

I also rather like the look, but that's just my taste.

For my next bench, I'm fitting a non-QR even older than Parky mk1 -similar construction but even heavier - prob 150 years old and little to go wrong. Love it.

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

Agreed, there isn’t much in it as both are a pleasure to use.
You have seen my Parkinson at the beginning of the thread but here are photos of my Record 52 1/2.
When I built the bench I didn’t plan on fitting a tail vice and placed a transom right in the place where a vice would be. I ended up cutting through it entirely and to add a bit of support back in I glued and screwed a decent peice of ply across the legs.

 

[TominDales]

I have had both - not much in it, but I prefer the older style Parky. The extra weight is a slight disadvantage when fitting or moving your bench, but when actually working at a bench it adds stability.

I think the main reason the ww vices went to round bars was a much simpler and lighter casting and the ease of drilling holes rather than machining rectangular slides.

I also rather like the look, but that's just my taste.

For my next bench, I'm fitting a non-QR even older than Parky mk1 -similar construction but even heavier - prob 150 years old and little to go wrong. Love it.

Those are good points, its very solid and grips very tight.

For the vintage like @crystpins with 3 holes, it makes it quite easy to modify to add a DOG holder using the 3rd screw hole to hold the dog in place. The large rubber knob was a spare foot for the late mother-in-laws walking stick, but any M6 threaded screw would do, as the spring on the metal insert holds the dog most of the time quite well. It's their to just hold the metal insert at the correct hight when doing a lot of repeat holds, The 3rd hole is tapped for M6. Behind the wooden jaw plate are two thin sheets of ply to create the gap for the metal part. The metal insert is an short piece of a 1 inch bar, its held in place by a home made spring made from a piece of garden wire inserted into a tiny hole at the bottom of the bar, sounds complicated but if you have the parts it took about 1hr to make. The small hole in the side of the bar was remarkably easy to drill.

The other things that's easy to see in these photos is the vice was originally recessed into the bench, in this way the top & apron were the back face of the vice. This is a very traditional mount (it was made in 1975 at school) to allow for clamping long narrow boards to the bench, but when replacing the original face plate I added one to the inner jaw so now it protrudes by 1/2 inch. I find this a more comfortable arrangement.

 

[Crispym]

Mine is a younger model though was in a similar state of rust however I decided not to paint and just used oil and wax which still looks good and is esy to maintain, the other thing I did was cut a length of copper pipe in half lengthwise, can't remember if that was 22 or 28mm and used one half to form a cover for the screw mechanism to shield it from sawdust. It was surprisingly easy as there was a lip under the back casting and it just lies in place and doesn't interfere with the quick release.

Ah yes, saw your earlier pics - I assume I don't need to reverse the jaws though. The grease is manky and sticky so I'll like to keep it away from sawdust.

 

[Lons]

Ah yes, saw your earlier pics - I assume I don't need to reverse the jaws though. The grease is manky and sticky so I'll like to keep it away from sawdust.

Yeah the reversed jaws was an error and one I freely admitted, you could try it is you wished though
It's been a decent vice so far and had a fair bit of use, I also have the smaller version as a tail vice.

 

[Crispym]

Yeah the reversed jaws was an error and one I freely admitted, you could try it is you wished though
It's been a decent vice so far and had a fair bit of use, I also have the smaller version as a tail vice.

Hope I didn’t cause offence. I knew you had admitted it but a tiny wee dig was irresistible It’s exactly the sort of thing I would do. In fact I wouldn’t admit that I might, only might I’ll have you, have stuck the leather on before I planed the cheeks down to bench height. Of course no one would ever do that sort of thing. Oh no.

 

[Lons]

Hope I didn’t cause offence. I knew you had admitted it but a tiny wee dig was irresistible It’s exactly the sort of thing I would do. In fact I wouldn’t admit that I might, only might I’ll have you, have stuck the leather on before I planed the cheeks down to bench height. Of course no one would ever do that sort of thing. Oh no.

Far from taking offence I had a little laugh when you reminded me. It wasn't the first time or will be the last that I do something stupid like that , and I know I'm not alone.