Munich Vise

Back at the ranch...

Today I spent some time installing the vise.  I chose the smaller quick release vise that  was available at Dictum.  This seems to be a pretty well made vise, made in Taiwan that was not that expensive.

I chose the smaller one because I felt I probably won't use it that much other than to pinch stuff in between dogs on the bench.  Also, all of the working parts are the exact same on this one as was on the larger one, only the guides are closer together and it doesn't open as far.

First things first, I had to get that sticky gunk that is probably packing grease off of it.  First I sprayed it with some brake cleaner.  That sort of worked.  Then came some paint thinner.  This made everything smell terrible.  So, don't tell anyone, I sprayed it off with hot water, dried it best I could, and then coated everything with a generous douse of WD-40.  It seems to look and feel better now.

I prepped the recess for this vise at the workshop, having a nice Mafell plunging circular saw that made a really nice kerf.  You can see the kerf on the end of the bench here.

It turns out that the end of my bench was not perfectly square.  After some work with a jack plane, I was happy.  I temporarily held it in place with a clamp inverting the handle to make a spreader, I marked out the position.

Five minutes with a chisel and the space for the vice was excavated.

It took a little bit of fiddling, but after a few tries I got everything lined up nicely.

I needed to hold the vise in place to mark out the pilot holes.

The vise went in easily.

At this point, the batteries of the camera died.  I only got one more photo after everything was done.

The only problem I had was I used some narrower lag bolts to attach the chop.  Twice, I broke off the head of the screw in the chop while tightening it.  The easiest way to fix this was to leave the screw in the wood and move the chop out a little.  I finally got the chop on securely with some shorter lag bolts.  I'll take the chop to Peter's workshop to cut it to length on the table saw there.  Perhaps also rough out the planing stop.