Need Advise of Travel Vise Pedestal Base

Hi All,



What I want is a pedestal base to mount my old Thompson "A" in when I am on the road with a travel kit.

I have a pedestal vase for my old "A" now, but it is a Thompson, and quite heavy. I like the stand portion a lot.

What I plan to do is to make a travel vise/tying set up, so it is packed and ready all of the time. I will likely make a wooden base for it that will be the right size to put my catch tray on, and that will be lighter to carry around than the heavy steel one for my "A". What would be ideal is to find one with a removable upright that holds the shaft of the vise, and I would remove that upright and fix a wooden base that I could attach the upright to.

I see bases on Ebay that might be OK, but have no idea which are good and which are jund.

Price is definately an object, and I don't want to spend a lot.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

a wooden base may be too light to be stable. There is a reason that vice bases are heavy.

I've seen some wooden homemade fly tying boxes that carry materials and have the vise attach directly to the box, which is heavy and big enough to hold the vise steady. They won't solve a weight issue,though. And here's a Cabela's offering that might interest you as the price is right.
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/produ...9-001b2166c2c0

I moved into a restricted, spacewise, area this winter as my basement is not heated. I left a large desk and built a pedestal to hold my bench. To save a few inches I removed the clamp on my vise and built a base screwed to bench. You could do this with a wood box that could be built to hold your supplies and equipment. You could use wingnuts or something similar to make it easily removable. It's not pretty but it works.

Attachment 11873Attachment 11874

Man, Uncle Jesse, that is some setup!!
Mike

I made a wooden base out of a piece of pine that was about 6 x 8 x 2. It balanced well enough for the trout flies I tyed. May not have balanced as well for 'large' flies. Maybe one made out of oak would be better because of more weight. Hope this helps or at least gives you an idea.

Allan

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Originally Posted by melk

Man, Uncle Jesse, that is some setup!! Mike

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That's what happens when you go with the lowest bidder. Everything but the vise, which is inexpensive but functional, was recycled from a previous use. I did use new screws in assemblying it.

Hi All,

Yes, I thought about the weight issue also. As mentioned above, I think the wood would be OK for most of the trout flies I tie, but for bigger flies it might be on the light side. That isn't necessarily a problem for me, because in the past I have held the top of the vise with my left hand, when tying needs required it.

Uncle Jesse, I have also thought about a wooden holder for the vise stem, and had an idea, but have not reached a decision yet. How did you set up the clamp so it would hold, did you use a Tee nut or something similar to hold the treads of the clamping screw?

The oak would definately be heavier, as mentioned above, and I will probably go that route. I have a supply of oak, and am thinking about putting cork on the underside of the base.

I appreciate all of the comments, good advise all.

I have even looked at the Cabelas offering, although prefer to set it up with my old Thompson "A", because it works well for me.

Have any of you used the Cabelas offering above, and how did it do. I was assuming that it was probably like all of the cheap import vises I have seen, and none too good. However, if any of you have one of the Cabelas travel set ups, please advise the rest of us as to how well it holds the hook, and otherwise how well it works.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

Bass Pro and Hook and Hackle also sell pedestal bases. The one at Bass Pro is not all that heavy. One thing to watch for is the diameter of the shaft on your Thompson and the hole size on the base. My guess is that your Thompson is a 3/8 in. shaft. Some of the imported stuff is metric and generally runs a tad larger than 3/8 in. You can shim it though. Years ago I bought an EZ Rotary from Hook and Hackle and even the threads on the knobs were metric. By the way, that EZ Rotary is a pretty nifty little vise for the money. H&H puts it on sale pretty often.

If the cam on the Thompson A you have still works smoothly and the jaws are even, not pitted or damaged, then don't even think of the Cabela's stuff. Near as I recall and maybe things have changed over the years but they were all imported and terrible. IMHO.

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Originally Posted by Gandolf

Uncle Jesse, I have also thought about a wooden holder for the vise stem, and had an idea, but have not reached a decision yet. How did you set up the clamp so it would hold, did you use a Tee nut or something similar to hold the treads of the clamping screw? Gandolf

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Without disassembly to check the vertical 2"x2" is attached to the 1/2"x2" with wood glue and drywall screws and then attached to the bench with drywall screws. I drilled a hole for the stem and then the clamping screw and tapped the clamp screw hole with a 1/4" tap. Dried oak taps really well, no one ever taught me better than do it. You can drill a hole in pine or softer wood, fill it with epoxy, redrill and then tap, works very well.

It you find a crew installed iron water mains, they will probably give you oak 4X4's. Around here they typically bury them, they are rough sawed and sometime have splits but you can get some very workable wood out of them.

Gandolf – this is a lot simpler than most imagine. If the base is large enough, it doesn't have to be heavy, it just has to have a footprint that is outside your angle of pull when you are tightening the thread on the hook.
I made one from a maple cutting board that cost about $5 at the hardware store. It measures 6" x 9" x3/4" and fits in my tying bag (a cosmetic bag from the drugstore).
You just need to drill two holes (a drill press really helps with this) and have one bolt and nut. I used the kind of bolt and nut used in assembling modular furniture because it looks nicer and has a hex driver 'slot' in the head.
Drill a hole for the vise stem 1" from the end of the board. Drill the hole for the bolt into the end of the board so that it intersects the stem hole. From the bottom of the board drill a smaller hole (just big enough to accommodate the nut) about 1/2 way into the board.
Insert the nut in the smaller hole so that it can be engaged by the bolt (the bolt bores through the nut). I epoxied the nut in place. Now the bolt will 'drill' into the board until it presses against the stem of the vise, trapping it in the vise hole.
I added a second hole in the end of the board to hold the hex wrench, put rubber non-slip feet on the bottom. On top I glued a magnetic card to hold hooks. For the same purpose some people drill another hole into the bottom to insert a rare earth magnet (strong enough to hold hooks to the topside) so the top of the board remains unaltered.

Attachment 11881

BTW. I keep the clamp in the bag to in case that is the best option. As well I chose the Griffin (you could get a 2A if you like stationary vises) for travel because the stem comes in two pieces - compact for travel and also for adjusting to different (coffee) table heights. Good luck, Greg

That's a neat setup Greg. I agree it's the size of the base more than it's weight that counts. All about leverage.

Had numerous entertaining discussions with a "some time ago" poster here that lives locally (I forget his FAOL handle) and we argued about just how small one could go and still have a functional base... We were down to very small, light and roughly triangular... It makes one think about the direction he is pulling in... and if that is kept in mind the rest is easy...

Remember, tying in-hand is far from impossible, even with full-dress Atlantics...

Hi Gandolf, I have confronted this problem in several ways. A popular solution would be to get a Cabelas kit. The cheaper one of the two they offer. I'v been using one for a couple years now to take to classes and the only weakness is that the cam lever itself is not hardened and peens over. It continues to be serviceable however. If it really fails, the lever itsesf can be replaced with a Thompson part. The pin that provides the pivot for the lever is a threaded piece.
Anyway, getting back on track, Remove the small metal base from inside the kit box and epoxy it into a larger box that you build.
The only requirement will be that your new box will have to have a depth of eaxctly 2 inches. Now the weight of your entire box will be your platform. Basically you'd just be making the Cabella's kit vise fit into a new, larger box.
Good luck.:D

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...psafcfeb1b.jpg http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps85f769c2.jpg The base is setting on several spools of thread/wire/etc