After a couple of years of shop built jigs and such, and looking at the many
vises on the market, I chose the one from Lee Valley:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...55&cat=1,41659

It was a bit sturdier than the others, had a large know instead of a crank, good
capacity and was the same price or less then the ones from PSI, Craft Supplies,
etc..

I spent an hour or so drilling assorted size and shape pen blanks yesterday and
as usual, realized that this was something that I should have bought a long time
ago..

I haven't found anything I dislike about it yet, but a few things that I really
like:

Side loading...
I was wondering why there were 3 guide bars instead of 4...
I got around to reading the instructions and realized that one corner was
"empty" to let you load the blanks from the side, instead of backing off the DP
to get them in and out..
Once I re-clamped it on the ol' Shopsmith with the open corner facing me, the
stack of blanks went through a lot faster and easier..

Well thought out design....
I KNEW that these were made with a threaded shaft like a cabinet makers clamp,
1/2 with right hand threads and 1/2 with left, but the drilling, tapping, etc.
was too much to deal with to re-invent a $40 tool..
Instead of tapping the movable plates, they used replaceable brass bushings...
very clever and much smoother turning than threaded steel..

Anyway, once set up, it's dead-on accurate and the time to drill each blank is
much less than any other way I've drilled them..

It's probably not a good investment for the occasional pen turner.... If you
only drill a few blanks, it's easy enough to drill them on the lathe.. But for
folks that do a lot of pens, it's a great investment, IMHO..



mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Hi Mac
I seem to recall something like "I told you so", quality hurt only
once ;-)))

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo


On Aug 29, 1:17 pm, mac davis wrote:
After a couple of years of shop built jigs and such, and looking at the many
vises on the market, I chose the one from Lee Valley:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...55&cat=1,41659

It was a bit sturdier than the others, had a large know instead of a crank, good
capacity and was the same price or less then the ones from PSI, Craft Supplies,
etc..

I spent an hour or so drilling assorted size and shape pen blanks yesterday and
as usual, realized that this was something that I should have bought a long time
ago..

I haven't found anything I dislike about it yet, but a few things that I really
like:

Side loading...
I was wondering why there were 3 guide bars instead of 4...
I got around to reading the instructions and realized that one corner was
"empty" to let you load the blanks from the side, instead of backing off the DP
to get them in and out..
Once I re-clamped it on the ol' Shopsmith with the open corner facing me, the
stack of blanks went through a lot faster and easier..

Well thought out design....
I KNEW that these were made with a threaded shaft like a cabinet makers clamp,
1/2 with right hand threads and 1/2 with left, but the drilling, tapping, etc.
was too much to deal with to re-invent a $40 tool..
Instead of tapping the movable plates, they used replaceable brass bushings...
very clever and much smoother turning than threaded steel..

Anyway, once set up, it's dead-on accurate and the time to drill each blank is
much less than any other way I've drilled them..

It's probably not a good investment for the occasional pen turner.... If you
only drill a few blanks, it's easy enough to drill them on the lathe.. But for
folks that do a lot of pens, it's a great investment, IMHO..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

mac davis wrote:
After a couple of years of shop built jigs and such, and looking at the many
vises on the market, I chose the one from Lee Valley:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...55&cat=1,41659

It was a bit sturdier than the others, had a large know instead of a crank, good
capacity and was the same price or less then the ones from PSI, Craft Supplies,
etc..

I spent an hour or so drilling assorted size and shape pen blanks yesterday and
as usual, realized that this was something that I should have bought a long time
ago..

I haven't found anything I dislike about it yet, but a few things that I really
like:

Side loading...
I was wondering why there were 3 guide bars instead of 4...
I got around to reading the instructions and realized that one corner was
"empty" to let you load the blanks from the side, instead of backing off the DP
to get them in and out..
Once I re-clamped it on the ol' Shopsmith with the open corner facing me, the
stack of blanks went through a lot faster and easier..

Well thought out design....
I KNEW that these were made with a threaded shaft like a cabinet makers clamp,
1/2 with right hand threads and 1/2 with left, but the drilling, tapping, etc.
was too much to deal with to re-invent a $40 tool..
Instead of tapping the movable plates, they used replaceable brass bushings...
very clever and much smoother turning than threaded steel..

Anyway, once set up, it's dead-on accurate and the time to drill each blank is
much less than any other way I've drilled them..

It's probably not a good investment for the occasional pen turner.... If you
only drill a few blanks, it's easy enough to drill them on the lathe.. But for
folks that do a lot of pens, it's a great investment, IMHO..



Now you're making me feel really bad for cutting notches in the face of
my wooden-jaw clamps.

Bill
--
I'm not not at the above address.
http://nmwoodworks.com


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On Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:25:04 -0400, BillinDetroit
wrote:

It's probably not a good investment for the occasional pen turner.... If you
only drill a few blanks, it's easy enough to drill them on the lathe.. But for
folks that do a lot of pens, it's a great investment, IMHO..



Now you're making me feel really bad for cutting notches in the face of
my wooden-jaw clamps.

Bill

I tried that, Bill... also v-blocks attached to plywood and clamped to the DP
table...
I even drilled some using the DP chuck in the head stock and my Talon chuck with
spigot jaws in the tail stock... Pretty accurate, but a real PITA to insert and
extract the blank, plus cranking the tail stock in and out each time..

I drilled some 1/2" blanks this morning (ok, I'm cheap) and every one was dead
center on both ends... Never had the accurate holding to try that before..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing