ancora yacht service chain vise

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VX 20 Vise With Ancora Yacht Service Chain

Jim Ritter from Ancora Yacht Service  has installed his chain mechanism with the VX 20 vise and it works really well! Jim produced a YouTube video showing how it works. Here is the link: VX 20 with Ancora Yacht Service Chain

In Jim’s video the VX 20 is shown with a wooden hub and handle and the housing rotated to allow the chain to be as close to the clamp shaft as possible. I plan to offer a VX 20 specifically for the chain mechanism which will allow the wooden hub and handle to be oriented vertically when in the un-clamped state. I am going to provide Jim with the metal hand wheel as soon as I can get them in. I have a feeling the hand wheel option will be pretty popular.

I just received my own chain mechanism shown above which I will build using the VX 20. I can’t wait to see it in action for myself! The machining on the parts in Jim’s kit is excellent and all of the fasteners are high quality. It is obvious he has put a lot of time in designing the chain mechanism. Please check out his website to find out more:   Anchora Yacht Service Website

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Wooden Canoe Heritage Association

An international organization of builders, paddlers, and admirers of wooden and bark canoes.

Ancora Yacht Services

Builder's Plans

107 Hathorne Point Rd., Cushing, ME 04563

516-509-2765

[email protected]

www.ancorayachtservice.com

Jim Ritter is the owner and founder of Ancora Yacht Service, which he started in 1987. When he made his first canoe in 1976, he discovered his love for boats and woodworking and pursued his interest through repairing, building and drafting a variety of vessels. Since then he has become a shipwright and a refined woodworker, working in boats of all kinds and sizes. Ancora Yacht Service offers plans for canoes and guideboats, and a unique chain-adjusted parallel leg vise for woodworking benches. Ancora Yacht Service also operates a small craft storage facility in East Hampton, NY, and services boats all over the East End of Long Island. Ancora Yacht Service is not confined to this geographic area, and any difficult wood project will be considered.

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Leg vise Parallel Guide Adjuster by Ancora Yacht Service

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For the past few months I have been discussing a parallel guide adjuster designed by Jim Ritter. My input has largely been devil's advocate while Jim sharpened up the design for production. I have no interest in this venture other than wanting to see a good product made available for others to use. The leg vise parallel guide adjuster is an alternative to the St Peter's Cross, both of which enable a leg vise to function without the pin adjuster. No more stooping and setting the parallel guide for a specific width. Instead there is a single setting for all work pieces. In theory there should also be more pressure as the chop is more upright. Yesterday I completed assembling the pre-production kit, and here are a few pics with my impressions. From the front you will not notice any change to my leg vise .. Close up you may note that I have replaced the steel screws with brass .. From the side you will see a solid parallel guide and, above it, a chain .. Solid paralel guide?! Yeah .. in for a penny, in for a pound ... off came the parallel guide of my 6-month old leg vise .. .. and replaced with this new, hole-less version .. Inside the bench the chain mechanism can be seen ... Outside .. In all, including building a new parallel guide (which I do not expect others to do), the installation took a day. So how does it work? It grips ... ... and grips ... .. and continues to grip .. .. no matter how little there is to grip .. Downside? The mechanism requires that the internal wheel guide is removed .. this one .. As a result, there is a little more resistance in the parallel guide moving back-and-forth compared to before. The chop still moves smoothly, and the effort is similar to that of the Record #52 1/2 I had on my old bench. Of course, this may just reflect the need for a little fine tuning since the parallel guide is new. As it stands, this is a rejuvenated vise, one that promises to work with a much greater range and considerably less effort. Once Jim gives the OK I will post a pictorial of how I installed the kit. Regards from Perth Derek

Originally Posted by Derek Cohen Once Jim gives the OK I will post a pictorial of how I installed the kit. Regards from Perth Derek Looking forward to that and maybe even a little explanation of the inner workings. It looks like it could work with a cable and pulley set up as well as a chain. jtk

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Hi Jim We discussed the use of a chain and pulley, since that was my idea as well. Jim had solid reasons why it would not work well - keep in mind that he spends his life dealing with the stuff. Hopefully, Jim will be along to explain. Regards from Perth Derek

Not knowing how everything is put together exactly, I may be wrong, but it looks like if you still wanted the wheel on the back, you might be able to mortise something in place behind the plate mounting the lower gear? The photos make Jim's design make a lot more sense - it definitely "clicks" for me now - I was having a hard time wrapping my head around was going on before. I can see what was said about needing to make new gears - I haven't seen anything off-the-shelf that small before.

Thanks Derek great job as always. As to the cable... I thought about that but the ends would have to be swaged, that is expensive, it also creates a fixed length with a long turnbuckle that is harder to accommodate. After talking to many people about their vise arraignment, screw length, distance between screw and beam every one was different. Custom adjustability was important. The chain can be cut or added to if you make a mistake and cut it too short. Chain also has less stretch than cable. I actually placed my lower wheel on the inside of the leg and the action is very smooth, until it is extended past about 9" but it still isn't bad. I also considered a slot down the middle of the beam with a smaller wheel inserted. But for me the wheel behind the leg works just fine.

That looks like a very promising system, yet very simple. Chain in tension keeps the vise upright? Does it stretch a bit when you are closing the vise? Does the vise face tilt at all? Any slack/slop at all?

Originally Posted by Sam Takeuchi That looks like a very promising system, yet very simple. Chain in tension keeps the vise upright? Does it stretch a bit when you are closing the vise? Does the vise face tilt at all? Any slack/slop at all? The chain length is adjusted so that it always closes toe in so to speak. As full clamping pressure is applied the jaw comes parallel. Not much of what I would call slop.

Originally Posted by Jim Ritter The chain length is adjusted so that it always closes toe in so to speak. As full clamping pressure is applied the jaw comes parallel. Not much of what I would call slop. This is really, really, really nice. Self aligning and all. Are there any issues and kinks to work out still? I think it's the first time I felt excited about a vise of any kind.

I may have to finally build a bench and put one of these puppies on it. Jim, what cute name are you going to call this "Leg vise Parallel Guide Adjuster"? I think PGA is taken...

Originally Posted by Sam Takeuchi This is really, really, really nice. Self aligning and all. Are there any issues and kinks to work out still? I think it's the first time I felt excited about a vise of any kind. Thanks for all the excitement,that is exactly how I felt and my wife was wondering what was wrong. The last thing I did was standardize the sprockets for production,to try and rein in the cost of manufacture. What Derek installed is what I would call the easy install kit. I will offer it without the metal brackets to lower the cost. The upper sprocket would then be mortised into the leg as I did on my bench. Derek has the first with mounting brackets for the sprockets. Haven't thought up a good name yet. Just been calling it the chain leg vise. Maybe a naming contest is in order. What do you think?

Originally Posted by Jim Ritter Thanks for all the excitement,that is exactly how I felt and my wife was wondering what was wrong. The last thing I did was standardize the sprockets for production,to try and rein in the cost of manufacture. What Derek installed is what I would call the easy install kit. I will offer it without the metal brackets to lower the cost. The upper sprocket would then be mortised into the leg as I did on my bench. Derek has the first with mounting brackets for the sprockets. Haven't thought up a good name yet. Just been calling it the chain leg vise. Maybe a naming contest is in order. What do you think? "Missing Link"? "Chain of Command"?

Any idea when we could see this on the market and at what cost? And how about "Chain Stayed Leg Vise"?

I suppose another option to move the wheel further out would be to form some sort of U-shaped bracket after the lower sprocket holder, attached to the stretcher, and going over the parallel guide, sort of "pulling" down on that end of it rather than "pushing" from above.

Let me just beg you to give us a chance to order this before Schwartz writes an article about it and everybody goes crazy. Please, Please, Please!!!!

Originally Posted by Bryan Schwerer Let me just beg you to give us a chance to order this before Schwartz writes an article about it and everybody goes crazy. Please, Please, Please!!!! Thank you for everyone's enthusiasm. It is very encouraging since I've never tried to produce anything like this before. Once I get the bids back from the machinists I can set a price and start taking orders to be delivered when the parts come in.

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Sculptural Woodwork by Chris Wong

Sculptural Woodwork made by Chris Wong on Vancouver Island, BC

Leg Vises – What’s the Big Deal?

As most hand-tool woodworking trends get their start these days, I think leg vises gained popularity when Chris Schwarz installed one on his bench which was featured on the cover of his 2007 book,  Workbenches: from Design & Theory to Construction & Use.

It seems like every woodworker out there is building a bench and many are incorporating a leg vise.

BenchCrafted is now selling hardware for their  Glide Leg Vise .

BenchCrafted has also prototyped a more convenient mechanism, St. Peter’s Cross, which does not require the user to adjust the pin at the bottom of the vise when clamping different thicknesses of material.  (Thanks to Charles Mak for the link.)

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10 thoughts on “ leg vises – what’s the big deal ”.

I don’t have one but I want one. Why? They clamp well. From bench top to screw is deeper than other vise forms. Depending on chop & leg construction, vertical clamping of longer boards is better & easier. If money is the object, one only needs a single screw and head for a handle to make one..

I have one, and it is home-built. As Curt pointed out, all that was required was a screw, a nut, and the time to build it. That’s a big part of the reason I went with the leg vise, rather than just buy the latest doo-dad. Compared to a standard (cheap) quick release the workholding power is much more robust, and there are a lot fewer screws to worry about. The single screw on mine is about 11 inches below the benchtop, so you can hold wide boards on edge well. Also, the clamping works all the way to the floor rather than just at the top for most other designs. There are a lot of other vises that work just fine, but I like the leg vise for sheer simplicity.

I’m very much a rookie at hand tool stuff so I should probably read the responses rather than write one of my own. But here goes.

I don’t have one but am intrigued by the fact that it appears they would hold well since you could insure that the vise jaws were flat to the work. My own vise racks badly in two dimensions so I rarely get a good grip on anything but I could probably just buy a higher quality vise of the same type as I already have and achieve similar goals.

Here’s the prototype of a new design of the leg vise:

Thanks for the comments. I’m now working on a vise design based very loosely on the leg vise.

Hi Chris, thanks for including my chain leg vise. The leg vise is very old, very versatile, easy to build and can in some cases be inexpensive. No guide bars so you can clamp clser to the screw without wracking the jaws. Panels can be clamped the entire length of the jaws. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

I was surprised at how easy a leg vise is to install. The other reasons I like them: the large clamping capacity with wide boards, no racking with a single screw and parallel guide, connection to the past (the leg vise is purportedly the oldest known vise design–15th century), extremely strong grip, and perhaps most importantly, they’re just plain cool looking.

Hey Chris, Quickness, holding power, versatility, holding power! My workbench has a Benchcrafted leg vise and the only negative (aside from the expense) would be having to mess with the parallel guide and pin. Since the bench is already built, Jim’s Chain Leg Vise Modification is looking like a logical modification to eliminate that one inconvenience. Since the early 1970’s, the bench I worked on had a shoulder and end vise, and in my opinion, neither of them had anywhere near the holding power of the leg vise. Hopefully the Roubo will outlast me, but if for some reason it doesn’t….the next bench will have a leg vise as well.

For anyone following this post, I just found another leg vise mechanism .

Here’s a video demoing it.

I love that vise. I’m building my first table,and after watching your vise it looks easy to install and great quality. Your vise will be on my table! Thank you.

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Chain Leg Vise for Roubo style benches

Ancora Yacht Services - Chain Leg Vise / Replaces Parallel Guide and Pin on leg vises (Rating: 5) My Roubo Bench was finished back in 2010 and It's been a dream to use with one exception, the Parallel Guide and Pin on the leg vise were a pain to use. I never seemed to have the pin in the right hole of the Parallel Guide. BenchCrafted, who made the hardware for the Roubo Slit Top Bench announced a solution for that problem. It's called a Crisscross and looked promising, except to install it required way more modification and changes to the bench than would make it at all practical….. Enter Ancora Yacht Services - Chain Leg Vise ([email protected]). It required drilling a 5/8" hole through the chop and leg, morticing a small ledge at the end of the parallel guide to hold a small angle bracket, then installing the two sprockets on the back of he leg, and install the chain. Total install time invested…two hours, and if I ever wanted to I can still use the parallel guide and pin! (that's never going to happen) This thing works like a champ, and the leg vise holds anything I can fit in it. I made a maple cover that slides over the whole affair to make it dust proof and a little more esthetic, but that was totally unnecessary.  

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A wonderful addition to a gorgeous workbench! Thank you for the review. Well done! Cheers!  

How much was it? EDIT: Nevermind, I found the info here: http://ancorayachtservice.com/?page_id=221  

Brandon, There are three different options. You can check them out at Jim Ritter's site: [email protected] To answer your question …$170.00  

Brandon, the price Brian listed is with an end button engraved with his initials and date. The kit itself is $155 shipped in the USA. Brian thanks for a great post and a great job on the installation. Jim  

Boatman, I thought this was yours! I remember you discussing them on the Workbenches thread. Looks like a wonderful bench upgrade.  

Nice job and great solution. What a great looking bench to boot!  

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Ancora Yacht Service

Fine woodworking from keel to masthead.

Ancora Yacht Services is all about fine woodworking for boats. Jim Ritter, now mostly retired, has been working in wood on boats for over 25 years, and brings with him extensive knowledge and resources for all kinds of projects. Any difficult woodworking item can be discussed with him for future consideration. Wooden Canoes, Adirondack Guideboats, sailing canoes, and cedar strip construction are a specialty. Canoe and Adirondack Guideboat plans are available for purchase.

Jim Ritter is the owner and founder of Ancora Yacht Service, which he started in 1987. When he made his first canoe in 1976, he discovered his love for boats and woodworking and pursued his interest through repairing, building and drafting a variety of vessels. Since then he has become a shipwright and a refined woodworker, working in boats of all kinds and sizes and has been involved in a variety of other wood projects. Today Ancora Yacht Service has a list of drawings for small boats, has a storage facility in East Hampton, NY for a variety of small crafts, and services boats all over the East End of Long Island. Ancora Yacht Services are not confined to this geographic area, and any difficult wood project will be considered, just ask Jim. Recently he’s been working on an new product called a chain adjusted parallel leg vise. If you use a leg vise or are going to install a leg vise on your workbench, take a look at the link above called “Chain vise” for pictures and a description, as well as email info.

Jim’s custom made Adirondack Guideboat (left). Maintaining the Beetle Cat sailboats (right) are also part of Ancora Yacht Services business.

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