I recently bought a Waldmann joiners bench and love it! My old, homemade one has served me well for twenty years but this is great. Only complaint I have is that the front vise goes out of alignment when tightened and need some advice on how to adjust it. The vise is about 20″ long but the guide bars and screw are offset towards the center. If I attempt to clamp anything at the outer edge it won’t hold because of the misalignment. Anyone have experience with this that could offer some help? If I simply close the vise against the bench everything stays aligned!
Thanks, John
Replies
John - Any bench vise will have it's greatest pull centered over the vise screw. If you put a block of wood near the end of a vise, that side of the vise will be locked at the thickness of the block of wood, but the screw will continue to pull in towards the bench since there is nothing to prevent it's continued movement, and the vise will rack. There is nothing wrong with the vise. If you wish to clamp a workpiece at the edge of a vise, simply put a similarly sized block of wood (perhaps with a cleat at the top to hold it up onto the top of the bench when you loosen the vise) near the other end of the vise jaw, and you won't have any more problems.
John
Ditto Peter. I circumvent the problem as I chose a twin screw end vise which has about 18" of open space between the outer twin screws. I just center the stock between and the twins give even pressure to the center.
Regards...
sarge..jt
Proud member of the : "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Sarge, thanks for your reply. I see your name many times on the forum! This was just a case of "no duh" when Peter told me the solution. I plan to make different size spacers that I can just hook over the bench as needed to fill the space.
John
John
if you make the spacers rectangular in cross section you'll only need half the number ! say one that is 1 x 3/4 in section, another that is 1/2 x 3/8 etc
Ian
Ian, thanks for your suggestion -- makes a lot of sense. I'm thinking that if there is a cleat on top though I wouldn't need three hands to hold the part, hold the spacer, and then spin the vise. I have found though that since my handle is about 20" long I can usually manage to turn it with my leg!
John
John
of course put a cleat on the top and you're back to only needing two hands
John
I also have a front vise as yours and if I didn't have the tail, Peter has nailed the solution. I just need a lot of versatility as I do many different things. I am toying with adding a 3rd vise to my bench. The Wilton with the 15 degree cant face inside the front jaw specifically designed for tapered work. It has the old British "tommy bolt" and I hate to hear that metal handle clang when it drops, but I don't hear all that well anyway according to my wife. ha.. ha...
I think you got the situation whupped at this point.
Regards...
sarge..jtProud member of the : "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
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