Vises

[Dick in Seattle]

Osagetree has had some posts about setting up his new vise.  Made me curious.  I've seen a lot of interesting vises over the years and wondered what other folks use.   I have the usual number of regular style vises in different sizes, but my treasure is my old gunstock vise.  I've had it for probably 30 years.  I got curious and googled and by golly, it's still being made, exactly the same, available from a number of sources.   Currently called the Wood River Gunstock Vise.   Mine has served well, making a bunch of muzzle loading rifles and then when I was working as a woodcarver making ventriloquist figures.  Now it's a bow making vise and has held about 40 bows while I shaped risers and cut shelves.  It lives under the bench and its treaded shaft drops into the bench dog holes in my woodworked bench.

 

So, let's see some other vise setups....

[Paul/KS]

Mine looks just like yours but it's black...    
I set mine up on my work bench through the bench dog hole too. They are great to use since it adjusts to taper of the wood plus the height is good to work at.

[Shaun]

I have the same vise only red and called a "guitar vise"

 http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/item/1813?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2011-07-gp%22  

looks like 10 bucks less for the green model

 http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003516/25437/WoodRiver-Patternmakers-or-Gunstock-Carving-Vise.aspx?refcode=05INFROO&gdd=142768

[Osagetree]

Thanks for sharing!

I like the vise but not the price!!! Besides that,,, I fear the way I jerk and pull on some pretty large osage 1/4 splits,,, would I be able to bear down enough on this type vise to hold it safely? Ever have one pop loose and catch you in the gut?

I am interested in seeing others bench vises or other contraptions.

[Dick in Seattle]

Honestly, I doubt that my vise would be the best for selfbow work.  It's great for normal rasping, filing or chiseling.    I liked the look of the stave vise 3 Rivers is now carrying... the square steel tube with a screw clamp up top.   Saw that back when the guy was developing it a couple of years ago.   If I was gonna do selfbow work, I suspect that's what I'd tty.

[Balding Kansan]

Dick my wife got me a stave press from 3R for Christmas. I haven't got a chance to set it up yet but just by toying around with it I don't think i'll be disappointed. Built like a tank too!

[scrub-buster]

I recently saved my grandfathers old vice from his shed that is falling down.  He used it for years and years before he passed.  It means a lot to me to have it in my shop.  A little TLC, and its as good as new.  Its a little different, the back threads in and out and the front jaw is stationary.  I made some magnetic leather jaw pads for it.  I can pop them off and use them on my other vice.  Its a 4" craftsman that I bought at a yard sale for $5.

   

[J.F. Miller]

I have the stew-mac luthiers vice. one nice additional thing it has over the patternmakers vice is the urethane pads on the wood jaws. they grip extremely well with minimal tightening of the jaws, and will not mar the workpiece. I don't think there is a better vice for building bows. it is, however, not very good for whacking on splits with a draw knife.

the real gem is the shop stand that stew-mac sells. mine is bolted to the middle of my concrete shop floor, so I can approach the workpiece from all directions quite comfortably. for drawknife work on splits, I rigged up my Stave Press to slide into the shop stand that is bolted to the floor. the top portion of the shop stand(to which my luthiers vise is permanently mounted) simply lifts out of the portion bolted to the floor, stave press(mounted on a 3' piece of 2" black pipe) slides in. voila. in about 20 seconds I can change vises, and both are height adjustable. this set up is the most sturdy and stable I've ever used for rough work, and I tend to beat on staves pretty hard sometimes with a drawknife. having used this vise for several years now, you couldn't pay me to go back to the wood vise I started out with.

[Osagetree]

J.F.Miller, nice looking set up you speak of. Just watched the video... I just cant afford that or I would have it. Nice!

Good idea Scrub & a gem of a vise!

I have never tried one but the stave press seems like to much trouble to clamp and un-clamp as much as I do. Guess that wouldn't be necassary if I could have that fancy shop stand sitting in the middle of the floor!

[J.F. Miller]

me either, Joe. I got a smokin good deal on it. one of my hunting buddies went to college with Stewart Macdonald(the owner of Stew-Mac). not at liberty to say the actual price I paid, but if somebody stole mine today, I'd prostitute my wife, sell my dogs and go to work in a sweat shop to get another one at the current retail price.  :D  too valuable of a tool to ever be without again, imo. got my stave press, never used, as partial payment for a painting job I did for a bowyer friend of mine. i did have to pay over $20 for a 3 foot piece of steel pipe, though. lol!

[Cambow]

Everyone who has ever seen me build a bow laughs at me because I never use a vise for anything... old habits die hard  

[Dick in Seattle]

just dawned on me that I actually have some nice pics of my vise in action, rasping in a shelf.   It's in my second build, "How I Build a Bow 2".    It's way down at the end of the build along, but if you're interested, here's a link to that page:

 http://www.dickwightman.com/archeryactivity/bowbuilding/tgbow-2/swapbow-2.html


This was the bow i built for the Bow Swap.  Just remember, you have to scroll way, way, way down to "Cutting in the Shelf".

[WestTexan]

I like the vice real well...I'm a gadget guy myself. Here are a few vices I have. The first one is a bullet proof pipe vice...Freebe my bro found out on the road and I use a pipe stand to hold my stave.
 
another view how it's mounted on stand that I can put around my table are any place I have a 21/2 inch receiver just like a trailer hitch.
 
Couple more vices another wilton and a home built one for knifes are whatever. I have pads made from some stuff called Fabreeka pads that we use in the oil field for vibration.
 

[Roy Steele]

I have a wood workers vice from lowes I and 1 inch rubber pads its been used for over 20 years on bows. Those rubber pads really grip wood without any scares no matter how tight you put it.