Vice - again

My machine vice when I got it was almost unusable, measuring the jaws for parallelism showed they were not level to the table or base. machined the seatings and reset them. Then found the sliding jaw was jumping, slightly bent bars under the block allowing movement. Re- bent the and now they work to my satisfaction. Made some blocks to align the base to the table slots and alls well.

John

That's a much more secure and engineering way of going about things.

Putting a set of extra high jaws in the box with the vice to be used like that, and occasionally in the normal position, seems to me better than suggesting using the tiny lips left when the standard jaw is utilised. Maybe add tapped holes in the top of the fixed jaw too so the standard jaws could be set flat giving a reasonably substantial lip too. Such holes would also let you add clamps to either hold work to the top of the vice or provide extra retention to a component which is difficult to hold securely by simple clamping. I've had jobs shift for lack of that extra top clamp.

Things that I might well have done to my vices if the basic casting were more suitable.

The common way is more of a "looks nice in the specifications" thing rather than "really useful for all sorts of difficult stuff". But throwing in tall jaws et al puts the price up without the gains being immediately obvious to the ordinary purchaser. That said I'd have thought that Arc Euros reputation for quality could stand the extra few pounds for two more tapped holes and taller jaws to use on the back and front.

My experience suggests that the 4" size would gain most from readily available, adequately secure, extra capacity given by tall jaws used as shown in Johns pictures. I see a fair number of jobs that wouldn't fit the standard opening of a 4" Versatile but would do just fine with Johns taller jaws on back and front.

With my VJ400 ones I, of course, just pull the pin and shift the nut for extra opening beyond a normal 4" vice capacity. But thats why I bought them after all. Removing the standard jaws and fitting taller jaws back and front on a Versatile would be nearly as easy. Beats the heck out of pulling the vice and the "how do I strap this to the table" headache for sure. Let alone tramming the vice in when you put it back.

Clive

High jaws would only encourage the hamfisted to snap the screws which hold the jaws on.