Benchtop vise question

[Eric Krewson]

Get a 5" or 6" heavy AMERICAN made vise, older flea market vises are almost always American made, bigger is better if you have a place to mount one.

I broke at least 2 possibly 3 Chinese vises before I spent about twice the money for a good American made vise that I have had for at least 10 years.

[Knoll]

Start out buying what you can afford. You don't have to have anything fancy to build bows.

Agree.

But I too was sooooo impressed with those stave presses used at Marshall.

[bubby]

I built my stave press if you can weld it's not that hard

[J05H]

I have busted the bottoms out of two swiveling vices.  Do NOT go cheap if you have to buy a swiveling version.

+1

The kinds of forces exerted on a swiveling bench vice can destroy a cheaply made one in short order. I think I went through three before I learned that lesson. I have a stave press now, and I love it.

[Pappy]

Good  bench top for me, to many folks use my stave press and have 2 broken, it is really all in what you get use to and I am use to the bench top.
  Pappy

[Del the cat]

bench top vice with a '3rd hand' moveable support that you can clamp further along the bench with a G clamp.
A couple of good pics of what I mean on this post:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/starting-and-finishing.html
I keep a piece of old carpet over the vice jaws for conveinence, I also have soft jaws (but that's more to do with my age )
Del

[blackhawk]

I've used em all and nothing beats a stave press.....if ya get one just be mindful of keeping the top plate that's on a swivel level and it'll last ya a long time. I use diff thickness shims at times to keep it level. If ya don't the walls holding around the  ball swivel will wanna stretch,tear,and eventually break and come off. I've been using mine hard for a few years now and its still holding up nicely.

[PEARL DRUMS]

What Chris said. Stave presses break when the inside plate gets cranked on with an uneven load. You cant apply 1-2 tons of pressure on an un-even ball screw and think it will stay put. Shim up the opposing side and your good for a long time. Most everybody who owns one has that same piece of hardwood wedged in there every where they go. I got mine from Cody and his are much. much more robust than the store bought type. He ring welds a washer over the ball end, aint nuttin' coming free there.

[rps3]

My personal favorite is a blacksmith post vise. I like em so much I have 3 now. Watch craigslist.

[Pappy]

If you are the main one using them the stave press is a great vice, I had all the shims hanging on the post I mounted my 2 on ,but as I said some people just don't know and hard to watch especially at the Classic    and the both broke where  Good Chris and Bad Chris said they would. If I was the only one using it I would defiantly get another.
  Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

I have found a support post is very important when you use a bench mounted vise. You can see mine in the picture. I use the support post for supporting the end of a stave when heat bending, general wood removal and can drawknife a stave hard enough to rattle stuff off my workbench without having the stave get loose in my vise.



I have posted these vise jaw pads before but will again for those who haven't seen them. Easy to make and easy to remove.

[George Tsoukalas]

I use a woodworker's vice and drop in a piece of leather to line it. I used to support the other end to, like Eric.
Now I have a dedicated bench for bows.
Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/bowbench.html

[PaulN/KS]

I have been using a pattern makers vise, sometimes referred to as a gun stock carving vise, for quite a few years. It mounts on the work bench through a center bolt at a good height and you can swivel it around.