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Lake Erie Toolworks showed off a new wooden vise screw kit at Woodworking in America that can be used to make a nice wagon vise or shoulder vise. Both vises work brilliantly and allow you to easily use a wooden screw to make these traditional vise forms.
The vises use the same robust vise screw in the company’s leg vise. What is new about these vise kits is they allow you to attach the wooden screw to a brass plate. And that brass plate can push or pull the chop to a wagon vise or shoulder vise.
Nick Dombrowski of Lake Erie had a bench on display in the Marketplace of Woodworking in America that showed both of these vises installed and in use.
The wagon vise set-up is properly robust. The vise’s movable dog block slides forward and back in a channel and it runs on ultra high molecular weight plastic – slippery and tough stuff. The setup allows you to service the vise if it should ever become worn or damaged.
About the shoulder vise, I have to confess that I’m not crazy about this form of vise in general – they work fine but are quite complex to install compared to almost any other face vise. The Lake Erie works great and moves the chop much faster than any metal spindle I’ve seen. So if you want a cool and traditional shoulder vise, the Lake Erie kit would be my recommendation.
Neither kit is on the company’s web site as of yet. So contact Nick for pricing and availability.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Lake Erie has started running its brass garters through a tumbler to give them a more finished look. It also patinates them so they look like old brass. Very sweet.
We have a lot of books and DVDs on workbenches in ShopWoodworking – including downloads of my first two books on the topic at a special price. Plus a DVD that follows me as a I build an 18th-century Roubo bench by hand.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
What, no WIA in Pasadena this year. My wife and I had a fantastic time at the 2012 Pasadena WIA.
I was definitely impressed with these vises when I tried them out, and especially enjoyed talking with Nick and his wife. They’re good people, and I’m more than happy to give them my business. Quality people making quality products.
It was great to meet Nick and his wife! Great product and is simple and reliable. These will be on my new workbench here in the next couple of months!