Tailvise

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't mind to equip my bench with a tailvise like this.

Somebody already did it ? Is it so difficult to work out as Mr Smith suggests ?

Nice, isn't it ? At a first sight, I was thinking of using a cm8x8 or 10x10 log, partially fixed (at the left, with the normal vise) and partially movable at the right, using this tailvise. Which wood would you use ? Ash would be OK ?

... of course all this AFTER the Summer, to stand the long dark windy Sundays ...

 

[Chris Knight]

Alberto,

I haven't installed such a vice but I have looked at several versions of these in the past. I think there are sufficient hardware variations in the designs as to make it likely that some are quite a bit harder than others to install. The one shown does not look very difficult but of course it is the things you can't see that make the difference!

I had thought of using this one http://www.atlas-machinery.com/tvh.htm myself when I get around to a new bench.

In any case, it is worth emailing the people who have made one directly once you get hold of the addresses - you can probably find Michael Fortune's email somewhere.

 

[Anonymous]

I had thought of using this one http://www.atlas-machinery.com/tvh.htm myself

mmmm... even simpler :wink: ! Thanks for the tip !
Cheers
Alberto

 

[Philly]

Alberto,
I made my tail vise using the screw from Axminster. Made the runners, etc from wood. I used the Sam Allen book "Work benches" and some inspiration from this site...
http://www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc ... /woodvice/

I ended up building a complete mock-up to work out what went where and how to make it work smoothly. Bit of an effort but well worth it when complete. Mind you, there are easier ways of doing. Like using the hardware like Ian did in Good Woodworking.
regards,
Philly

 

[Midnight]

Alberto..

It is a nice vise huh..??
A while ago, I researched building something similar using the exact same hardware, but dismissed the idea through cost; that German hardware makes the job real easy, but the COST..! Oi Vey....

Instead, I bought a simple tail vice screw from Axminster, and built a Nelson tail vice [The Workbench Book, Scott Landis pp76-79, 237-7].

For the guide plates, I had a set of 3 6mm aluminium plates made (the bulk of the vice is oak so I didn't want to use steel because of oak's ability to leech iron). Construction itself was pretty straight forward, and even if I say it myself, it didn't turn out too badly. Now all I gotta do is build the bench to mount it on...

 

[Anonymous]

and built a Nelson tail vice [The Workbench Book, Scott Landis pp76-79, 237-7].

Sorry Mike, I don't have this book ... is it something similar to Philly's suggestion ?

By the way, I agree with you: these hardwares (and all related low-tech stuff) are expensive like hell ! Hope the Indians of Anant (compare the prices !) start thinking of Europe as a target market !

Greetings
Alberto

 

[Midnight]

Alberto...

comparing both the Fortune and Nelson vices..

hardware wise, they're near enough identical; the primary difference that I can see is that Fortune commissioned 100 sets of hardware from a CNC milling shop, assembled up to 5 of them, leaving the remaining 95 for sale through Atlas Machinery Supply Ltd in Toronto. Other than dimensional differences, the main differences between the 2 vices are the fabrication of the wooden components; The fortune having 4 major pieces in its construction needing fairly complex jig guided machining; the Nelson having 9 reletavly straight forward pieces (10 in my case just to be different).
Cost differences; the fortune vice is designed to match the hardware found at Philly's link, used in conjunction with the 7/8" Record hardware; it was fairly straight forward for me to adapt the Nelson vice plans to suit the Axminster HV510 screw. For the plates, I was allowed to rummage around the ally scrap bin at work to find something suitable; one of the machinists milled the guide slots during his lunch break for some beer money..

The end result is that both vices end up looking very similar; looking down the axis of the screw, both have a row of dog holes to the left of the screw, neither have the L shaped section re the vice in your link, and they both look pretty damn good on a bench......

 

[Anonymous]

Ian Dalziel's bench in GWW uses a tail vice from Herr Schmidt - don't know if it's the same one pointed to above, but it was done, and Ian considered it a fairly simple excercise to put the lot together, IIRC

 

[Chris Knight]

leaving the remaining 95 for sale through Atlas Machinery Supply Ltd

The Atlas site says they are selling a redesigned Mark II version.

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Mantrakalas,
I built my workbench using that very vise, it is very straight forward,
when it first arrived i couldnt beleive the weight in it, its an excellant piece of engineering.
Dieters website shows how its done by pictures, there are no instructions with the vise, so i printed the pics but ended up redesigning it a bit to suit my needs, basically you are screwing it inside a housing, its entirely upto you what kind of tailvise you are going to build.
Make sure you buy the hardware before you build your bench though
regards
Ian

 

[Anonymous]

Make sure you buy the hardware before you build your bench though

for sure ! this is one of my (very few) cardinal principles: NEVER start a project without having ALL hardware at hand !

Thanks a lot to all for your useful comments: if I ever decide to start a retrofit like this to my bench, I'll keep you posted.
Alberto