High Vise

 "When my grandfather brought us home,  I could still hear her voice down the corridor, the tail end of a whisper"

Akil Kumarasamy, Half Gods

Here is the latest addition to my ongoing vise collection (which brings the total to 5).  I usually use a mechanics vise to elevate the work and while it worked it was far from ideal so when I saw this idea I decided to build one. 

Benchcrafted makes a beautiful one with all the bells and whistles but I didn't want to spend much on it not being sure how much I'd use it. Also it's a pretty simple project requiring not much skill or wood. 

There are many ways to mount it to the bench (clamps, shoulder vise etc) but I decided to use ⅝ bolts to hold it down and ⅜ thru bolts to hold the inside upright to the clamp bar. This one is red oak with some chamfers to ease edges and add a bit of craftsmanship.  I thought layer a lambs tongue would have looked nice maybe someday. 

The screw is from Lee Valley. I also decided to keep it simple and use a spacer bar that is held in place with oak dowels which keeps it from wracking. The leather pad helps with grip. 

While I haven't carved anything yet I do have a couple chairs with knuckles coming so I'll keep you posted on how it works. 

 

Fixing a hole

 That's the power of literature,  you know, it can act like little love letters between two people who can only explain their feelings by pointing at other people's 

Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

So Anxious People was the best book I read (I try to read one book a week) in 2022. Just amazing and I have to say the Netflix adaptation was amazing. 

So I was building a so called high vise (see last picture) for carving and I drilled the hole for the threaded rod the wrong size, namely I drilled the thru hole too small which of course didn't give the larger counter bore hole anything to center on. 

I knew I could cut a 1 inch diameter plug to center the plug but that wouldn't allow me to actually drill it. So in a moment of inspiration I stuck a couple ear plugs in to push the plug up enough to engage the center but then allow the plug to get pushed down and cut the counter bore. 

And here's the hole and vise. I'll post on this next week but I do find it quite handy; more than I thought.