Pen Vise Help

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Johnathan

Johnathan

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Vacaville, California, USA.
I am so sick and tired of sloppy drilling becuase of that piece of crap Woodcraft calls a pen vise.

I am looking for a heavy duty solid pen vise that will not move around, and make sure that I drill perfectly everytime.

I have been put on a waiting list for Paul Huffman's vise but I'm #50 and who knows how long that will take, probably too long. I am tired of these drilling problems.

I did see that Penn State has this vise and it looks pretty solid.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/drillcent3.html


Please let me know if you have this, and how it works. Thanks:)
 
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I have a regular drill press vise. I use a squaring block to make sure my blanks are straight up and down, and then drill. I haven't had any real problems with this method as of yet. I think I paid maybe $15 for the vise at lowes.
 
I bought a normal 6 inch drill press vice and gave it to my father in law who is a machinist.
he then took the original jaw plates off and made new ones.
the new are are aluminum and have matching v-grooves for holding the blanks straigh and secure.
i have had no problems with this set up and it is a lot cheaper than buying a "pen vice".
 
I use a machinists cross slide vise from Grizzly. Has many uses. I am particularly fond of the safety factor. Holds stuff while hands are kept away from sharp turning things. It has one groove for the corner of a blank, I scratched a corresponding mark on the opposite jaw. Works well for me.



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Originally posted by Johnathan
<br />I am so sick and tired of sloppy drilling becuase of that piece of crap Woodcraft calls a pen vise.

I am looking for a heavy duty solid pen vise that will not move around, and make sure that I drill perfectly everytime.

I have been put on a waiting list for Paul Huffman's vise but I'm #50 and who knows how long that will take, probably too long. I am tired of these drilling problems.

I did see that Penn State has this vise and it looks pretty solid.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/drillcent3.html


Please let me know if you have this, and how it works. Thanks[:)]
Click to expand...

Jonathon,

Lots of good advice has been given. My two cents worth is to buy a drill press vise (for pen making, vises work better than vices! [:D]) and use it until you get to the top of Paul's list. My drilling has improved 1000% since I got Paul's vise set up and in use. I was not willing at first to pay that much for a vise, but now consider it an amazing value!!
 
Jonathan, if you haven't drilled your blanks on the lathe yet you should give it a try. I have since sold my vice and have never looked back. All you need is a four jaw and a jacobs chuck and you're ready to go.

Lance
 
Johnathan I have the psi vice you are looking at. I thought it would be a great value but I am not to happy with it. It has no support at the blank to keep it from moving around due to slop in tolerances. I have to hold the vice down while drilling
 
I feel your pain. I found that tightening the WC piece of crap nuts at the rear of the pen vice will help some. Also be sure to keep the woodchips clear of the area where the blanks are held. I have one of Pauls vises and can't say enough good things about it. Being able to load and unload blanks from the side instead of the top is really huge for me. I simply did a tune up on the wc piece until Paul could make one for me. I personally doubt the other vises will work any better than the one you have.
Jim
 
Thanks everyone. I think I'll just make due with what I have, maybe make a couple minor adjustments while I wait for my number to come, Man! it feels like the DMV! I appreciate everyones comments.[8D][8D]
 
I put a two thin pieces of UHMW plastic between the base and the jaws of the Woodcraft Pen vise on each side of the screw. It seemed to help alot.
 
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