The Virtue of Vises

What Wikipedia says about vises.

     I thought that I would start with a link to the Expert (on everything) and then talk about some of my vises.  

   My first vise is actually related to my current theme of tools at the apartment/first time home owner level and my most recently acquired. If you have been reading along you know I have a thing for clamps, I actively believe that you can never have too many clamps.  That said, a vise is really just a clamp that doesn't move around much.  I have been using wooden hand screw clamps, clamped to my bench as vises for years, they are pretty good but....not as good as this tool.

  

   A little vise like this can be clamped to a table or portable work bench to hold things you are cutting with a hack saw, or things you are trying to file or drill.  When you are done your little job, it goes into a box and gets out of the way, neat eh!.

Bessey Three Inch Clamp On vise.

  This Bessey Vise is the "cat pajama's".  The jaws are three inches wide and open nearly three inches, and the alignment of the jaws is very good.  You can see that there is a heavy screw and two alignment bars to keep things moving smoothly and accurately.  The vise clamps securely onto your bench, table, or portable workbench with another smooth strong screw.  These things should be no surprise, Bessey does make the best clamps out there, clearly the quality of the materials used has a huge impact on the quality of the tools produced.

   Why would anyone need a little baby vise like this?  I don't know about you but I use it all the time.  Every time I make a kid's toy or a wooden bracelet, or anything that is smallish and needs to be sanded or filed this is what holds the piece while I do the work.  I move the vise around my shop to take advantage of natural light, to avoid accumulated clutter or to enable me to work sitting down sometimes, and standing up others.  I honestly don't know why it took me so long to get this little tool and I can't picture doing with out it now.  I have only had it for a little over a week and it is now an indispensable part of my shop.

  Finding little treasures like this vise is the reason I go to shows and in-store events, I can take my troubles to a sales representative that knows the entire line of their products.  The sales rep. can tell me what is out there and point me toward a solution to my problem, their job is to keep me a satisfied customer and out there using tools.


p.s.  Thanks Doug.