Perhaps I shouldn't have generalized and just supplied the facts as I
observed them with my own eyes and ears.  Once upon a time, when I had
very limited shop space, I bought a Frid-style bench with a shoulder
vice from a famous manufacturer.  It was not cheap.  One day, as I was
working intently on something at the tail end of the bench, I heard a
loud crack from the other end of the bench.  Looking up in alarm I saw
my daughter, then about 9 years old, cranking on the screw with all her
minuscule might.  I don't know what cracked, but something did, and it
wasn't her.  I stopped her immediately, but I have little doubt that had
I not, she could have broken that vise.  I haven't done a structural
analysis to determine which particular part would break, but I'm
confident something would.  Maybe an engineer can tell us how much force
is developed by a half-inch screw being turned by say 50 pounds at the
end of a 12 inch lever? I'm sure it isn't an issue if the vise is used
properly.   But it just kinda soured me on the design.

Blake

>>> Tom Price  10/04/2005 11:31:49 PM >>>
Blake Ashley wrote:
> 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.  
> 

Maybe on your bench. On my bench the maple arm is 2 1/4" by 4" and the

center of the screw is about 6" out. Ain't no little girl that will 
break that. The 1/2" steel bolt holding the arm to the bench would fail

first. That won't happen any time soon, either.
****************************
Tom Price (tomprice03@g...)
Will Work For Tools
The Galoot's Progress Old Tools site is at:
http://homepage.mac.com/galoot_9/galtprog.html 
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