Lie-Nielsen chain-drive shoulder vise

Furniture & Lighting
Lie-Nielsen chain-drive shoulder vise
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There are vises, and there are vises. And there are those of us for whom vises are also vices. For we few obsessives cognoscenti, the price of this beautifully-designed chain-drive shoulder vise package may not be unreasonable. For the mechanically inclined, a remake would be totally do-able, and Lie-Nielsen is to be credited for not keeping any secrets about how it all goes together. The installation instructions (.pdf) contain all you’d need to know to cobble together one of your own.

10 thoughts on “Lie-Nielsen chain-drive shoulder vise

  1. Nate Gordon says:

    Lee Valley also produces a fantastic version of this type of vise.

    http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=45114&cat=1,41659

    Wooden twin screw vises date back even farther.

  2. Jennifer Elaan says:

    I think the remake potential is somewhat limited by the cost of acme threaded rods of that size. A pair of them will eat up half the cost of buying it.

    And Lie-Nielsen has a great reputation for making the best quality tools for woodworkers.

    1. Mike J says:

      Yeah it looks like it would be cost prohibitive to remake unless you could do it in scale, but a nice piece none the less.

      Woodworking

  3. alandove says:

    That’s a strikingly beautiful piece of furniture, but I’d be loathe to scuff its silky finish. My $20 folding “Bench-N-Vice” (sic), however, elicits no such fear. The clamp on it doesn’t coordinate itself automatically for a straight closure, but having two hands, I can just turn both cranks at equal rates and accomplish the same result.

    On a related note, an old ironing board with the cover stripped off makes a pretty sweet workbench. The height is infinitely adjustable, the metal top is durable enough for most uses, it folds to store, and if you manage to break it, just ask Freecycle for another.

  4. pat says:

    …and broken bones will heal…eventualy.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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