Excuse my ignorance

[Terredax]

I see there is a vise for sale in the classified and I didn't want to clutter up the ad.

I'm guessing this vise is used for drilling blanks. I thought most people have moved to drilling on their lathes (I wasn't one of that made that leap), so is there an additional use for this vise? I see the notch that could hold either a square or round blank vertical.

Can it be used for glue ups? What about cutting grooves on either a band saw or table saw? It seems the blank could be rotated to four positions for a square blank and almost infinite positions for a round blank and it could be held securely to cut the groove.

Maybe I'm missing something, more obvious than drilling blanks. My head is hanging in shame.:redface:

 

[Edgar]

I would say that there are a lot of us who still use a drill press for drilling blanks, and if you have a good quality floor-standing model, there is no good reason not to do so IMHO.

I've been using a dinky PSI-style pen vise for the last 3 years, but I've been wanting to upgrade to one of Paul's vises for some time. I just sent him a reply to that ad & hope I'm not too late.

Paul has been making these vises for about 10 years and it is widely regarded as the finest pen drilling vise available. Check out post #6 in this thread for an idea of how to use it.

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/paul-huffman-pen-vise-17588/

 

[MDWine]

I agree, I still use a drill press, and I use one of Paul's vises. (although mine is not fancy red with engraving!) Mine is simple, but it is the best vise I've come across, and I have used 2 or 3. I think it is more accurate, and stronger, and anything else on the market that I have encountered.

I don't think I'd use it for glue-ups, there are other tools for that purpose, but I suppose you could.

It is the best tool for holding a blank for vertical drilling, IMHO.

 

[Terredax]

I wasn't faulting anyone for using a vise for drilling, but after reading all the posts about drilling on the lathe, I thought that was the norm.
I didn't use a vise and never invested in the accessories to drill on the lathe.

I thought maybe it was a multi-functional tool like a lot of tools are today. With the v-groove, I think it would work well to cut slots the length of a blank to insert strips. It appears to hold the blank near the edge and the edge looks flat, so using it to run across a table saw should work, in my mind.

Maybe someone that has one could either try it or confirm if it would work?
It might actually be a multi-function tool. :wink:

 

[MDWine]

No offense taken at all...
On the occasions I have drilled on the lathe, it seemed to take more time and setup that slammin' it into the vise and punching the hole!

I have run 5 to 10 at a time, so maybe that is just part of "my" process...

With the ingenuity that is rampant in this place, there's no limit to what you can do with a piece of equipment, so go for it!