Vice Advice

I have one big vice and will make a virtue of it here. It's a well-restored, made-in-England Record 52½ quick-release woodworking vice, and i recently bought it second-hand from TradeMe under Paul Sellers's recommendation.

If you want a good woodworking vice for your workbench, then read Paul's article before buying anything. That's what i should've done before buying my previous vice, a well-restored, made-in-England Record 52 quick-release, which was high quality but too small for my work (width 178 mm / opening 203 mm / weight 8.2 kg). The 52½ is the perfect size (width 228 mm / opening 330 mm / weight 14.5 kg) and, like its little brother, solidly built for lifetimes of clamping and releasing.

To install the vice, i followed Paul Sellers's instructions which are based on his experience installing several hundred woodworking vices and which i recommend. The job took me much longer than i expected at about 6 hours. I had to retrofit over my previous holes and packer, which were cut for the smaller Record 52. Then i decided to fasten the packer to the bench's crossbeams instead of its top boards so i can replace the latter in the future without disturbing the vice.

Bench's underside. You can't see it, but pocket-hole screws come in from above to fasten the packer to the bench's crossbeams. Those small screws you see only fasten the bottom part of the packer to the top part and not to the bench's top boards.

Then i discovered a crack in the bench's apron by the vice hole, which i had better epoxy.

Finally, after all that work and much heaving, i realized that i somehow misaligned the vice so that its right-hand side sags.

Bah! But the sag is slight, cosmetic only, and not worth correcting. The oak jaw pads protrude above the vice and are planed level with the bench top, so i won't notice a thing in practice.

The job is done, and i can say that the Record 52½ grips like a soft-clawed coconut crab. Now let's make stuff with it!