After chewing my fingernails to the nub for a week, my new vise arrived by UPS this afternoon. It is a Snowbee-Waldron vise. Designed by the same fellow who designed the LAW Bench Vise and produced by Snowbee. I heard about the vise on a UK board I visit and it sounded like a great vise. In two words…it is.
The vise came my way in it’s own travel bag, complete with stem extension (if you want to use it), background plate and bobbin rest. The pedestal case has a nice hollowed place for hooks/beads so they don’t slide off the base plate.
Very high quality, fit and finish. Price tag as driven is about $350.
Congrats Ron, thats one very pretty and functional looking vise mate. Oh by the way you have a very neat tying table. All the best to you and Vicki and happy tying
Nice looking vice. It would be interesting to know if the horizontal support for the profile plate & bobbing holder gets in the way of the bobbin, thou…
Apparently you two haven’t read of my trials and tribulations on the other thread about Hard Labor. The semi-neat state of my tying desk is the result of three days of hard work, what with resorting all the stuff I haven’t been able to find for months. Bought a new Grizzly neck from Denny at the Idaho Fish-In. When I cleaned my desk top off, I found the other two necks I couldn’t find before, along with about 20 spools of black thread.
After spending some time tying flies ranging from a spey fly tied on an Alec Jackson 1.5 Spey Hook to a size 20 BWO all I can say is…Dang, but I love this vise. The angle of the arm and jaws is completely adjustable to allow for different hooks and tying styles. The rotation is smooth as silk. Tension on the rotation is adjusted by two delrin washers, similar to a disc drag on a reel. Two fully sealed stainless steel bearing races for the rotating shaft to turn on. It may not look like it, but the shaft for the back plate and bobbin rest is very adjustable. Mine doesn’t run under the jaws at all, but behind it, completely out of the way. Pretty much a necessity when using a Nor-Bobbin holder.
It’s mostly stainless steel with very little aluminum. Nice sturdy bit of kit, as the UK guys would say.
As for the tying station, I would love to have more storage near me and table surfaces for additional equipment like a regular vise not for tying type as well as other things. I feel so cramped somethings, but some of that is the mess I call my tying station, LOL!
Wow! That’s beautiful!! Shouldn’t even admit that I’ve been looking at the LAW vise…JUST looking!! In $'s it’s 700!! So I’ll just look. But, wow, that’s one fine looking vise!!
Here’s a gander at VEE’s tying areas. Notice, areas, not one, but three.
Trout area on the left with a Nor-Vise, Dremel Bug area in the center and her Classic Salmon fly area on the left with Danvise and Renzetti Traveler.
She has almost three times the table space I have. No wonder her’s stays so neat.
Looks like a great vise. I’ll ask the questions nobody else has so far. Where did you get the vise at? Is there a web site to get more info on this vise? I’m sure I’m not the only one interested in the answers.
I e-mailed Snowbee USA at flyfish@snowbeeusa.com and asked about availability of the vise in the US. They provided a list of retailers in my area that could order the vise in for me. After that it was just a phone call away.
Ron,
That looks like a very good vise! I’d maybe be interested too at some point. (I’m trying to save for bamboo-building tools at present.) I wish a guy could actually get hold of one to give it a few turns to see for yourself but I’l have to say that everything Lawrence W. has produced has been outstanding in quality.
I’m tempted to trade in my Renz. 4000!
Congrats on a fine piece of tying eqpt. I love a good tool!
As a cabinet maker, I too, love fine tools. Those made to work and work well. So far (it’s hard not to tie on this vise) the Snowbee-Waldron is proving to be an excellent tool.
I am keeping my trusty Renzetti Traveler as a back-up.
Oh NO!! Just noticed that I got a small drop of head cement on the pedestal base of the new vise. Oh well, the new is gone. No more new car smell.
Not sure if they have Canadian distributors or not. Best bet is to contact Snowbee USA and get a list of stockists (that’s a term I picked up from the UK guys). For some reason the vise is selling for a little less in the US than in the UK.
