Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey Robert!

The value to me of having the leather sling as deep as it is is that I work on electric guitars, mandos, and b*njos... when no one is looking... and the depth of the sling is helpful with other instruments. You can clamp an electric body sideways in the vices when your sling has some depth to it.

David F.: When I hung up the $1,000 custom made leather briefcase that I had shlepped all over the world for 2.5 decades I got the biggest kick out of cutting that sucker up to make my leg vice. I even saved the maker label and it hangs on my leg vice too. For me it was more than repurposing but instead representative of having played in the corporate rat race for decades and survived and now I'm living the dream making .99 cents an hour as a Luthier...

Regarding the inner jaws yes, very observant, some of our vices, we have many of them...., have softer material on the inside of the jaws as further insurance against ever leaving any marks on the work piece. I didn't do this on mine and don't crank mine down as tight as Dave does.

... exactly why I used "adjustable" vs. "shorter". I saw the value of a deep pocket... just wondering if you ever thought: "dang, I wish that hadn't dropped 4 inches..." (and we're talking guitars here... )

Got it, thanks.

No I never wonder that because the taper of the legs also prevents anything from falling very far unless you spin the vice handle open quickly and pretty far. The stop on the sling is also positioned to stop things from falling too far.

The beauty of these vices is that all manner of things in the design come into play as we would hope (for a change) such as the legs being 2 X 4s that flex a bit when and if they need to, etc.

Here's mine, the first shot shows it screwed to the bench, too restrictive.
The others show it liberated from the bench, a base added, and a couple of bar bell plates hung on it for weight and stability.


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Thrift stores around here had lots of things made of leather. I had my pick of thickness, softness and skirt length.

The screw is from an RV leveling jack. It has a 3/4" hex head on it so I use a racheting box end wrench. It always hangs straight down out of the way.
I also used a "self closing" spring loaded door hinge for the bottom vice hinge which gently forces the jaws apart when backing off the screw.
I will probably, eventually, put an adjustable hinge attachment at the bottom to take advantage of the extra long screw length.
So far no complaints.