Well I was looking around to get myself a parrot vice because I was thinking that it's versatility would be just the shot for carving necks among other things.
I did find lots of places that sell the Asian copy of the original Versa Vice, like LMI and Jap Woodworker, and I would have been happy enough with one of these repo's. But once again, shipping to Australia would have meant paying for 2+ to get one, even via surface mail plus a 3 month wait for my troubles
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So I started to scout around and came across a Stihl chainsaw service vice on ebay. Now the description was a bit vague and the images were poor but it did look to be quite rigid, multi adjustable, and aside from some surface rust, in reasonable nic. So, thinking that this item had some potential, I put in a bid and won.
It took near a couple of weeks but it finally arrived from South Australia. I opened the box and knew right away I had done well. It is superbly made, and as was described in the listing, the vice clamps FIRMLY to any bench or utility tray.
It has one lockable shaft that allows a flange type head to turn through 360 deg on a vertical axis, and another locking shaft that allows the head to turn 360 deg on a horizontal axis. The head it self is mounted to a lockable ball joint which also rotates through 360 deg as well as pivoting through 90 deg.
The original tool, as mentioned was designed to enable easy servicing of chainsaw motors. One would simply unbolt the existing bar from the saw, and then bolt it on to a dummy bar which was held to the flange like vice head via a pair of fish-plate like fixtures.
Here is an image of the dummy bars that came with the vice.
Anyhow, for now I have only made up a simple cork faced flat caul that allows me to clamp my work piece quick and easy with quick grip clamps. I can however foresee a few more cauls being made up as it is just a matter of screwing the chosen caul to the flange via 4 x 1/4" machine thread screws.
The flange under the caul has a 4" x 2" x 3/8" rebate machined between the two raised surfaces into which the threaded holes are taped for the 1/4" machine screws. This surface is ideal as you can rebate the outside edge of the caul to let in it's centre into the rebate of the flange, this locks the caul rock solid.
I am now going to hunt around for a small 4" vice that will allow tall jaws to be fitted. I will then make an adaptor plate to fit the flange head...In case you have not guessed already, I reckon this is a cool tool
Cheers all
Kim
