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I have no new vices, plenty of old ones though. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to get to "work" (more like learn) in Dave Collins and Hesh's shop.
I was immediately stuck by the vises they used (and some of the vices they have). The utility was evident and I had to have one. I finally got around to making and setting one up. I am building a new shop and I do all kinds of work in my current shop. From guitars to boats. I am space challenged right now and needed a quick and dirty way of making a space to work on guitars. I wanted something that could be stowed away and set up easily, that elevated the work to a better height and used my current assembly table. The hardest part of making the vise was finding the acme screw assembly. All the parts were salvaged. Old 2x8" leaning outside the shop, salvaged knock down bolts and barrels, old tool roll leather, plywood, carpet etc. I bought the upholstery
tacks $1.57 and the vise hardware, $30. That was a bit pricey.
A couple of things that set these vises apart are: mostly wood so no dings to your work or tools, easy and inexpensive to make yourself, great holding power, quick acting to grab the work, Vshaped and leather slinged so when you loosen the vise the guitar can't fall down through the vise and get messed up. One of the most important features is the way it works unlike most any vise is that it has a nice bit of spring in the arms, (or legs if you will). As long as you make it out of common SPF 2x4's it will have the perfect amount of spring. The allows one to hold things with less force and it will hold better. Like a elastic band around something, if what it is grabing moves or shifts a bit the spring action will continue to grab. Also you can crank the vise till the arms touch (not that you would want to or need to but David demonstrated this one day) and no damage to the guitar neck. The vise has a lot of feel unlike a metal vise. Anyway I love mine maybe this will give some ideas.
I I can set this up in under 4 minutes, if you don't count the time it takes to shovel clear a space on my table. Blocks on underside of plywood top index the top to the frame. 2 figure 8s in opposite corners secure the whole thing to the bench. Couple of carriage bolts attach the vise to the structure. Soon I will have a more permanent set up but for not this works great. Oh, it will hold a scraper quite well.
Hasta la pasta.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

More photos. If a picture is worth 1,000 words I am very very verbose.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Hi Link, nice job! Is there a reason why you tapered the spacer that fits between the fixed leg and the box?

Very, very cool bro - nice job!!!

Lee it looks to me like Link's "spacer" is also angled to keep the guitar body positioned over the bench more but I'm just guessing.

Link your leg vice is the nicest one that I've ever seen and you took the craftsmanship aspect of making one of these to a new level!!!

Also you can see the little shelf if you will or the flat spot over the handle that's great for things such as setting your power winder (drill) on while stringing, setting your CA of choice and accelerator when gluing a nut, etc.

I'd say that is a really good guess. Looks like half the guitar body would hang off the table if it were not angled. If the vice was not close to the front edge, the handle would hit the table.

Very nice.

Very classy Link!
If you don't mind my asking, what was your source for the screw? $30 is pretty good.

Nicely done, I have always enjoyed working Douglas Fir. How did you settle on the width of the spacer down at the bottom where the hinge is?

Ed

If you don't mind I have a couple of questions:

Is the thickness of the legs constant at 1-3/4" or do they taper closer to the business end?

What are the approximate dimensions - overall length of legs and distance from hinge to Acme Screw.

Thanks,
Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Ed, The space is 1 1/8". I made a careful sketch of David's when I was at their shop. When I started building it I laughed because 1 1/8" is the space you end up with when you use a door hinge and a 3/4" piece of plywood. So that is just what it ends up but seems to be about right. I buy studs from time to time at Home depot or the lumber yard. In the big stack of wood I look at the ends for vertical or diagonal grain, pick out a few nice ones and keep them around for various things. They dry and I end up with a nice stash of utility wood.

Kevin, there is no taper to the legs.
From memory: the overall length of the legs are 27". The vise jaws are 6" above work surface. The distance from the top of vise to top of screw is 8".
(normally I would measure that to the center but since the vise screws vary I measured to the top.) The angle of the vise to the table I don't know. I just took a Dread and clamped it so it was on the work surface. I figured that was about the widest thing I would work on. I like working with that angle more than with the instrument parallel to the edge of my work surface. I have more control with my nut files if I am coming slightly back towards myself rather than away.

I will measure the angle and take a picture of my sketch with the dimensions later today but I am sure of the dimensions I gave except the 8" to top of screw. I am 90% sure on that one but will check and post a sketch later.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

David, You have to scrounge around. I like the smaller ones David Collins has. They are about 15/16" dia. to an 1" dia. Mine is bigger at 1" to 1 1/16".
The ones you can buy are expensive and even bigger still and too big for my tastes. So, flea markets, surplus machinery type places, etc. Better pickings for the folks that live in the East part of the country.

Another note: Because one arm of the vise is fixed there will be an angle created when the jaws are opened and the screw will start to bind. You will have to oblong your clearance holes (for the vise screw in the vertical direction) especially in the moving arm and fasten the threaded housing loosely so it has enough play and can pivot to accommodate the angle change.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

The screws are hard to find around here too, used ones that is and I suspect that Dave cornered the market on them long ago because I couldn't find one with a couple years of searching. I ended up buying a Lee Valley bench screw which is a big one like Links and too big for my uses too but it works.

On the leg vices in our shop, all four of them the handle on the screw shows lots of wear (and is easily replaceable) but it's telling just how much we use these things.

The point of my original post was that these are an alternative and an alternative that some folks who even already have pattern maker's vices prefer. We don't work on anything but "plucked" stringed instruments so never a need to clamp a stand up bass in our vices either. By the way we have some world-class violin and bow makers in our town so we prefer to be very good at the limited stuff that we do instead of ^&*&^ at lots of things....

I watched Dave rip a neck off a Martin yesterday (translation: neck reset) and he had that beast clamped in his leg vice most of the time which is very much like an additional set of hands when you have to wrestle with something.

Take note of what Link said about the flex because this is an excellent example of exploiting something to our benefit - that flex is part of the beauty of the vice, helps prevent any resulting damage, and by design is pretty close to impossible to damage an instrument with one of these unless you do something really stupid....

There are lots of ways to trick these out too and for folks who work with their vices every day we tend to dream up things that may be further incorporated in our vices to address real-world requirements. Dave has installed a transducer in his vice connected to his bench tuner. No need to be fiddling with a tuner, etc.

Recently we discussed rabbiting bridge bottoms and showed our implementation of the tool/jig. We clamp the Dr*mel in our leg vices when we rabbit a bridge bottom.

In a couple of weeks four OLFers will be stationed at four of our benches and using these leg vices. I suspect that they will have some opinions as well and I am looking forward to that.

Remember too these were never intended to be woodworking vices and should not be measured against say a pattern-maker's vice for anything beyond specific Lutherie work. With this said IMO the leg vices are "better" (sorry Rod that's how we honestly feel) for what we do and I'm sticking to my story.

My leg vices have had thousands of instruments clamped in and worked on and never once did any damage or issues arise from using my leg vice.

Does this make me a leg man?

Thanks for all the leg vice details in the two Threads everyone. I think I have a better understanding of the salient points for building one, (or three!).
I'm still a month+ out on my second patternmakers vice so if can carve out a moment to give a leg type a go, I might decide to cancel the back order.
Unfortunately or fortunately, my Colorado outpost won"t support too much specialization in instrument repair. It's brutal in terms of tooling required (can you say $400+for a bass end pin reamer?). Hesh you really do have some violin luthier cream up in your neck of the woods!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... details&Q=

These will work. I have a few in my shop for other uses.

Here is an 18" one"

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... details&Q=

A 12" one is also available.

James, I don't think those will work. At least not in the same way. The handle end will stick out in the way. On the ones you have shown the threaded part is near the handle. On mine and the others the threaded nut is on the arm that moves and the free non-threaded part is next to the handle. The handle stays put and the threaded rod free rotates at that end, and the arm with the threaded nut moves. Different set ups.
L.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I used a flea market 3/4" pipe clamp (came to me on a chrome plated pipe even!). The bolt on the left supports the end of the pipe.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 540926993/

Ed

I was going to point out the problem w/ a press screw but Link beat me to it. Then I realized I had one not in use and came up w/ this.
A couple of bucks at Ace hardware for a 3/4" stop collar, machine bushing and washer, and a few minutes at the drill press.

Nice work David ! You might have to have more wiggle on the threaded nut part than you would need with one of the screws that I used and Dave Collins and others used. As you can see in the picture these are made with some play in the handle end. (I need some better terminology for these vise parts)
Show us more pictures as you proceed.
L.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Yeah nice job David!

The binding of the screw not to be confused with taming one... need not be an issue because of the limited range that the jaws are ever opened for guitar work. Again this is not intended, or at least the iteration of the leg vice that we use was not intended to be a woodworking vice. As such jaws that can completely close and open to say 4 - 5" without binding are all we need.

Your solution though is a very cool one David and thanks for showing it!

I'm reminded of The Padma and how when he outfitted his new (and uber colorful) shop he made his own press screws! Pretty talented guy that Padma!

Well David,
I saw your excellent solution too late, I pulled the trigger on a Lee Valley Tail Vise Screw this morning.
Btw, I almost ordered the Shoulder Vise Screw by mistake, there is a difference although they look a lot alike.


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I'm trying to design my vice so it accommodates a more severe (5 degree) fingerboard taper for Violin family stuff.
I have a plan but the need to fix instruments keeps cutting into my time for building tools to fix instruments. What's up w/ that?

Stay tuned.

Rusty I'm Shure you'll be well served by the screw you ordered. I only did this because I had one taking up space. Nothing like pulling something out of the, "pile" and making use of it.

Bumping due to interest:

We've been asked for specifics on the leg vices that we use and prefer over all other vices so I bumped this thread and will be adding some links to it to other threads as well. Every time we have a class someone really likes using these and then wants to make their own. Cool!

another thread about leg vices: http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=46547&hilit=leg+vice

Any of you guys who have made your own please feel free to post pics.

Thanks

Very nice. Saving this thread to add one to my workshop someday.

Any value in making the leather strap adjustable? Just looks like in that first photo that it would be nice to have that closer to the neck, if not actually cradling it... or is that just overkill?

Ha ha. Guilty as charged. I have the parts but haven't built the bench yet.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Perfect!

My leg vice project has been leaning against the wall for a lack of suitable leather.

Anyone care to recommend a good leather thickness?

One by one, every saddle and tack shop in Durango Colorado has closed down. Sign of the times.
Ordering leather online and having it delivered, UPS, to Durango seemed so bizarre I haven't gotten it done.
All the Cowboys would be rolling in there graves if they knew.

I'm headed to the big city of Denver this AM. Pretty sure they still have leather there!

Thanks for the reminder Hesh.

I'll post some pics of my vice when I get back.

It's hard to see in the photo's but it looks as though Dave Collins' vice has a small rabbet in the top corner w/ something soft in it. (leather?) True? Or am I seeing things?