Veritas Screw Vice - New Bench

[Mike-W]

I know this has been covered before but I am keen on any updated views from some of those who may have fitted a Veritas Twin -Screw vice over the last few years.

I am currently preparing hardwood timber and fittings for a new cabinetmakers vice I shall be making in the next few months for my small workshop. It will be about 60” long and about 28” deep. I shall be making the top from laminated Beech that will be about 3.5” thick complete with a tool well and a tail vice fitted using an Axminster York Quick release vice kit # 32335.
For my main (front mounted) vice I can either re-use an Record 53 vice which is fitted to my current bench this is 11” wide and will open to about 13.5” or purchase from Axminster while they are offering 10% discount the Veritas Twin -Screw vice.
The English made Record I have is a great vice although it’s not the quick release model, some of the comments on this forum in the past were not 100% in favour of the Veritas twin-screw jobbie.

So my question is aimed at those of you that have the Veritas vice, how are you getting on with it, is it proving useful on your bench, and how far will it open? I notice from the fitting instructions that it has a tendency to sag when opened more than half way, is this a problem?
Any advice gratefully received as I hope this is the last bench I need to build!

Best wishes Mike

 

[OPJ]

Hi Mike. I don't have any experience of the Veritas vice personally but, in the current issue of British Woodworking, Iain Whittington makes his own twin-screw front vice at a fraction of the cost. Might be worth a look.

Your bench plan sounds fine. Look forward to seeing some photo's hopefully...? :wink:

 

[Mike-W]

Thanks for that Olly,
Dose the article deal with building a vice from scratch (i.e. manufacturing the screw threads from say wood) or dose it suggest ‘merging’ two vices? I have seen something elsewhere on the web somewhere about synchronizing two vices. If I do decide to go down the route of a twin screw vice I shall defiantly buy the magazine.
When I purchased and fitted the Record 53 I was thinking simplicity was best, certainly the Record vice has served me well (not much to go wrong really!), its quite strong as well, I have used it to push joints together once or twice. I see from the Veritas instructions there is a sheer pin to prevent users from overloading the vice.
The other bonus with my current vice is that there is plenty of capacity at 13.5” – I have made use of this once or twice.

best wishes Mike

 

[Escudo]

Hello Mike,

I fitted the Veritas twin screw vice to my bench last year, as my main vice. I am generally very happy with performance, the vice is big and very strong. The ability to skew the vice a little is also very handy.

This facility is why the vice doesn't have any guide rods and sags a little when significantly open, although this has never been much of an issue. I just had a quick look at the installation instructions and mention is made of fitting some wear strips underneath the bench to overcome this if problematic.

I will let you know the max. opening, will have to measure this.

My main gripe is that the handles periodically fall out of sync. with each other. The grub screw which holds the alignment slowly comes loose over time. I have never been able to adjust this through the little hole for this purpose and find myself dismantling the front cover to expose the screw. It only takes a few minutes.

The vice and fittings are well made as you would expect from Veritas and the installation instructions excellent.

I liked the opening paragraph, directed at me for sure;

If you are the sort of person who only looks at instruction sheets after something goes wrong, this is one product where you should mend your ways. If you ignore these instructions, we can almost guarantee trouble.

:lol: :lol:

Hope this helps.

Regards, Tony.

 

[Mike-W]

Thanks Tony.
So far one vote in favor?
Look forward to finding out how deep it will open, I assume the front jaw and back pad is at about the thickness suggested in the Veritas instructions ?

Best wishes Mike

 

[Jake]

The two-vices-synchronised thing is my beast. Highly recommended if you can be bothered. Wipes the floor with the Veritas (sorry Rob).

 

[mahking51]

Absolutely love my Veritas Twin, best bit of kit I use!
Martin
No DNA connection to Rob Lee, Veritas etc etc! :lol:

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Mike,

Have a look at this excellent artice from the Traditional Tools forum. Wiley Horne wrote about fitting his Veritas twin screw and covered the point about fitting a block of wood above the screw to prevent sagging http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/inde ... icle&sid=8

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[PAC1]

I have the Veritas twin and can only echo Escudo's comments

 

[Mike-W]

Looks like the Vertas twin screw is in the lead! I have been doing some research of my own, I had overlooked the ability to pass for example a chair leg through the middle of the rails - that i could find useful.
The correction for sagging has been well covered although as Escudo said he dose not consider it a problem, I guess it might be more of a problem if I had intended to mount it as a tail vice.
The only other issue I have recently thought of is the layout of the bench, my current bench is only fitted with a front vice, this is fitted to the left hand end despite the fact I am left handed, I have never found it a problem. With my new bench I ideally need the front vice at the same end, naturally it will feel right for me because that is what I have become use to at my existing bench. The only problem that I see because the Veritas will be substantially bigger than my current Record 53 it might get in the way of me working at the bench?
As for posting pictures of the finished bench, yes I could give it a go but it might be quite a while before I can show it completely finished as the second stage of the bench build will involve fitting a cupboard & draws, this wont be done until sometime after I start using the partly complete bench as I have some other jobs to be getting on with once I have the bench up & running.

Best wishes Mike