Show us your bench vice(s)

[brewdexta]

That Dohm is very unusual and cool piece of kit.

Cheers, I saw it late at night on the bay, I instantly thought it could be useful as I find vices and round stock are a pain however I resisted the urge to buy it and slept on it 'till morning. It was a buy it now so didn't want to hang around, and at 42 quid, although more than I would pay for a big belter I thought it was just about OK price wise.

 

[MattF]

Not a bad price at all. You don't see many of those. Main reason I recognised it was due to that front jaw insert. It's very distinctive; like copping an eyeful of a buxom bird wearing a low cut top.

 

[MattF]

A good old fashioned classic style bench vice. Jaw width is 3-3/8".

 

[Maker]

That looks like some kind of pretend leg vice.

 

[RA Dunk]

My workbench, just a kitchen worktop and some 2" x 4" it 's been durable enough for anything I've ever done with it and I can be a bit heavy handed at times..

 

[Turbo]

A clamp-on leg vice? Very unusual.

I have a leg vice which I think is unusual as it only has 3 1/2" jaws and quite a short leg, most seem to be a lot larger than that.

 

[RA Dunk]

A clamp-on leg vice? Very unusual.

Just thought it would beef it up a bit more, it's quite sturdy anyway.

 

[MattF]

Latest addition to the brood. The obligatory mug for scale is included.

A Parkinson 8A. 6" jaws and weighs in at 92lb, according to the advertising literature.

Also collected this one from Optima21.

Had a session checking through the various European manufacturers, (jaw size being listed in metric rather than imperial suggested European rather than Asian, so worked on that assumption and found the manufacturer eventually), and it appears that one is a Polish vice, made by Bison-Bial. Quite a sturdy little vice.

 

[Maker]

There's an antique crap shop in Colchester with all sorts of old rubbish in there, a Myford wood lathe caught my eye so we went in and had a look round. In between crates of old matchboxes, guitar amps and tins of foreign coins, there were quite a few vices; a Record #35, a leg vice (I'll post a picture tomorrow), a P&B (I think) on a swivel base and a few others (Smallest had a 1 inch jaw). The guy wants £50 for the leg vice BTW, I considered getting it.

 

[MattF]

£50 ain't too bad for a leg vice. You can drop on them cheaper, but it's the locations which are usually the killer. Having one local which you can just take there and then makes that price not too bad, but I reckon you'd be able to have it for £35 to £40. End of the day, there won't be many people likely to take that off his hands. How much was the P&B? Did you get a photo of any of the others?

 

[Maker]

I only took a photo and asked the price of the leg vice but I might be back in a couple of weeks to buy it so I can inquire and take pictures then if you like.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

It's a vice. Interest pretty much guaranteed. Yup, it's the same company. That one is of their older style. Judging by the way they're designed/built, I'm guessing they must have made those from around the time the company started to the point where they introduced the more precise twin rod type. Not seen a catalogue snippet which shows that type as yet though, so it's only a rough guess as to time period. Here's one I prepared earlier.

.........

There you go Matt, 1930's catalogue.

EDIT: Reading the advert below the old style Parkinson wood vice it suggests that the rod type and non-rod type Parkinson were available at the same time.

 

[MattF]

Cheers CW. That throws that theory out of the water then. Looking at those prices, it wasn't a budget model either, with both styles costing the same. I'm wondering why they had two such blatantly different styles now, if it was neither age nor cost related.


p.s: I'm thinking this thread might now have a few photo additions soon?

 

[MattF]

I only took a photo and asked the price of the leg vice but I might be back in a couple of weeks to buy it so I can inquire and take pictures then if you like.

If you could, that would be appreciated. Not seen too many of the P&B ones, and if memory serves, the ones I have seen usually tend to be the small clamp on style.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

Cheers CW. That throws that theory out of the water then. Looking at those prices, it wasn't a budget model either, with both styles costing the same. I'm wondering why they had two such blatantly different styles now, if it was neither age nor cost related.


p.s: I'm thinking this thread might now have a few photo additions soon?

If you consider that the non rod came first and the rod style was the new fangled design it's perfectly feasible that a few set in their way carpenters would have nothing to do with this rod malarkey so Parkinson ran both designs to please everyone?

I may be persuaded to add some pictures to this thread

 

[CwazyWabbit]

Here's a slightly out of focus picture of my Record 34's mobile stand.

I've come to the conclusion the handle in the Record 48 is not original, it's far too slim for the hole it goes through so I'll have to make a new one at some point.

Seems a few of the vices mentioned in this thread have found their way to me .....
The Leatherhead Samsonia 37

And the Wadkin universal ball and socket vice ....

 

[MattF]

If you consider that the non rod came first and the rod style was the new fangled design it's perfectly feasible that a few set in their way carpenters would have nothing to do with this rod malarkey so Parkinson ran both designs to please everyone?

Sounds a likely reason. Sort of a phase-in/phase-out period. That explanation makes good sense.

I may be persuaded to add some pictures to this thread

Is the Jenga column photo available?


p.s: You're going to need to supply a definitive answer in regard to that gnome now too.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

I got plenty of disapproval for the Jenga column on the other forum, so always the rebel here it is

 

[MattF]

I got plenty of disapproval for the Jenga column on the other forum, so always the rebel here it is

It's unorthodox, but it obviously works. Good use of space as an interim solution. If you do ever get round to trying that staggered column/wall method which Outlaw suggested, let us know how that goes. Currently, I stick with the older fashioned methods and just make wooden racking for storing on, but the vices do gobble up that type of space quickly. There's obviously the weight issue to consider too. Horizontal shelving is more prone to problems there than a vertical only setup would be.

 

[brewdexta]

There was a vice that fitted into the square socket of an anvil at the blacksmithing day, probably called something really obvious but i will leave that to the experts

its being used here to put twists into some S hooks we were making.