since record vises are no longer made, does anyone have any suggestions as to equally good alternatives? lee valley's quick-release steel bench vises look almost identical. does anyone have any experience with those that can recommend them? are there any other makes i should consider? thanks.
i did not know what a record vise was dont know like you said if record does not make them any more. BUT did a google search "record vise" found plenty for sale.
how is the center rod held in the back to the two frame rods? The one weakness in the Record vise, at least the one I got 6 years ago is that the center rod is held to the back of the frame by a spacer with a pin through it. The rod and pin turn around the metal plate and will eventually cause the plate to wear such that the spacer plate will come loose from the frame rods -- not a good thing.
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Mark & Juanita wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I'm not entirely certain of your question, but, after leaning under the bench just now, the rear assembly of the vise seems very sturdy and secure. There is a casting secured to the frame rods, and some sort of threaded bushing for the screw.
If you're really interested, the support folks at Garret Wade are usually able to answer questions pretty well. They have been selling this one for a while now...
Patriarch, spending more time on carpentry than fine woodworking this week...
Yeah, my terminology wasn't the best. If you take a look at the picture in , you can see how the screw is captured against the two frame rails by a retaining plate. That plate in back obscures the retaining mechanism for the screw. The screw has a through-hole in back, through which a pin is inserted. That pin is used to retain the screw against the back plate. There-in lies the rub (pun intended); when turning the screw, the retaining pin rotates and rubs against the retaining plate. I have only had my vise installed for the past
4 years and don't use the vise on a daily or even weekly basis, but the pin has already worn the retaining plate such that the retaining plate has disengaged itself on several occasions from the frame rods. When that happens, the screw is unable disengage the vise (or tighten for that matter). In addition to the obvious irritation of having to re-attach the retaining plate, this repair is diabolical in that the retaining plate is just waiting for the operator to get his fingers in just the right place before re-engaging the frame rods such that some skin is captured between the retaining plate and frame rods.
It seems as if either some kind of thrust bearing or threaded bushing would be a much more robust retention mechanism, particularly for a part that is *intended* to rotate.
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What size were you looking for? General has a 7" vise (95-700) on sale for $99 (CA funds I believe) that looks half decent. Don't have any personal experience with their vise, but if it's of the quality that most of their other products are, then it should be fairly decent.
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for those that are interested, General has done a complete revamp of their website as well as adding a number of new products.
larry and lois: i did a similar search for "record vise" before i posted, and everything on which i clicked through said that the item was no longer available. i'm specifically looking for a woodworkers vise, similar to the record #52 or #52-1/2. can you post a specific link to a supplier of this?
Thanks, I'm going to keep that in mind in the future. Doesn't look like the Record is going to be the last vise I buy in my lifetime. :-(
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Paramo are the usual current Sheffield alternative to Record (there's a good tale as to why). A Parkinson's Perfect (old, no longer made) is generally regarded as more substantial than either.
It's a common situation. Lots of old UK car jigs/moulds etc are sold part and parcel to India and are still made over there. Why should this be any less likely?
OTOH, the excellent 'Ballbarrow' (a wheelbarrow with a large ball instead of a wheel) went out of production because only one mould existed and it broke -(
There is more to making a tool than the casting it was made with. Quality of materials, or lack thereof, finish, and in the case of cast iron, allowing it to season before selling, just to mention a few. Anyone who has everseen an Anant plane knows the quality of their work.
Where are Paramo vices sold? When I did a search last, I found that they weren't, just like the Records. I have a Record and and old Columbian, pre-Wilton, but a Paramo would be nice for comparison.
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