I can point to one disadvantage of a shoulder vise -  a skinny little
girl can break it without even trying very hard.  Just give it a good
turn after it has bottomed out and CRACK! that cantilevered arm is
history.  

Blake 

>>> "Robert Weber"  10/04/2005 11:44:57 AM
>>>
Having only observed face and shoulder vises being used, I have a
question.
(The only vise I have ever used personally is my WorkMutt).

I guess that I cannot see the advantages of a standard face (or worse
yet,
metal like a Record) vise over a shoulder vise. It would appear to
have
limited depth, and be terribly subject to racking without various
offsetting
gymnastics. By contrast, there is no racking with a shoulder vise and
you
can clamp anywhere behind the screw.

Now, I can see where the face vise does answer some of the
disadvantages of
the shoulder vise - it's ungainly big on the corner of your bench, and
maybe
there are other problems I haven't thought about. The disadvantages of
the
face vise don't seem (to me) to outweigh the advantages.

At times I have toyed with building Paul Pederson's multi-mode vise
(http://pages.infinit.net/perrons/Paul/Woodwork/Workbench/Woodvise/woodvise.
html) and I think that Jack's shoulder vise "insert" for his face vise
is
brilliant. Still, why bother with the shoulder vise at all?

It occurs to me that you gain the advantage of clamping boards flat
between
dogs in the top of the vise, but isn't that handled just as well by
either
an end vise or a well placed holdfast?

Rob, quandrying in Peoria
1960 Anniversary Shopsmith Mk V Brownie
www.jlatech.com/rob/Woodworking/Knowledge%20Base.htm 
 
Wood shavings on the floor! Wood shavings on the floor!
 

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