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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:02 pm 
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Walnut
Walnut

Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:10 am
Posts: 37
Location: Canada
Further to Carlton's suggestion regarding the piece of plywood, you can simply round the back of the ply piece. I have a piece of thick leather glued to the inside face of the plywood which wraps around the neck, padding it from the vice jaws and bottom.


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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:14 pm 
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Koa
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        The stew mac one looks just like what I was told was a carver's vise... which sells for around $100 or so at Japan woodworkers in my neck of the country. What's the difference?

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PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2006 1:45 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 6:16 am
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if you do repair work the catch straps are rather vital; clients don't appreciate having neatly spaced square notches in the back of their necks.

i also added a very large rubber band around the "towers" to take up the backlash. makes operations smoother and quicker.

years ago s-m sold exactly the same vises as the woodworking houses and charged an extra $30 or so. it was a bit of a no-brainer which to buy. but eventually i guess the penny dropped and they put in the mods mentioned above to justify the price differential, and they are probably worth it now.

the parrot vise is just a cheap copy of what used to be sold as the "versa vise" for around $150, and which came with both a clamp-on movable base and a screw down base. i haven't seen much less used one of the new cheaper ones but do get a lot of use out of my old expensive(!@#$%&?) one. have often thought of getting a set of the pivoting jaws sold for the parrot to use in mine.crazymanmichael38847.4565509259


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PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2006 8:36 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:31 am
Posts: 3134
Location: United States
[QUOTE=crazymanmichael] have often thought of getting a set of the pivoting jaws sold for the parrot to use in mine.[/QUOTE]
I bought a set for my Versa-Vise. As with many products nowdays, they needed some work--very sharp edges on the aluminum; the rubber pads started to come unglued almost immediately. Did some filing and gluing, and they work fine. Personally, I'm very glad I got a Versa-Vise before they went out of business--consider how much it would cost now!


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PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2006 8:20 pm 
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Contributing Member
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Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2005 5:49 pm
Posts: 2915
Location: Norway
Todd, that swivelling base in the link you posted looks like a lot of work! I got my parrot vise from LMI 2 or 3 years ago, and the first thing I did was make a couple of plywood pads like Frank Ford shows on FRETS. I can clamp necks, headstocks and such easily, no need to totally rebuild the whole vise. I lined my pads with cork, but thick leather would probably work even better.

One thing I was not prepared for was the fact that no matter how much you tighten it, it is still possible to rotate the vise a bit on the base. This annoyed me at first, but I have come to really like it, it makes it easy and fast to adjust your attack angle without loosening any screws to shift position, and it's still tight enough for most operations. I have other vises for heavier work where this would have presented a problem.

I can't compare the parrot vise to the original, but the new one works pretty well in my opinion.

Frank Fords parrot vise mods

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