At one point in that example (step 7) the tyer said to rotate the jaws of the vise, not the body of the vise. That turned the fly on end which made it really easy to wrap the post for the parachute. In other words, it flipped the fly from a position where the haft of the hook was horizontal, to a position where the shaft of the hook was vertical
I wasn’t aware that rotary vises had rotating jaws. I thought that only the body of the vise rotated. Is a rotating jaw standard for rotary vises or is that feature specific to a particular kind of vise?
Of course, the next question is which rotary vise should I get and can a rotary vise with rotating jaws be purchased for $200 to $300?
The one thing all rotary vices have in common is the ability to rotate parallel to the hook shaft. Some rotary vices have additional joints that allow for several axis of rotation.
I’m a little confused by the ‘rotate the jaws not the vice’ instructions in step seven of the example. It appears from the photographs that the fly has been remounted in the jaws to a vertical position, or at least the same result could be achieved in a fixed jaw vice by remounting the fly.
In my experiance the challange with wrapping the parachute comes from keeping tension on the wing while wrapping the hackle, and getting the hackle fibers out of the way when tying off. Changing the orientation of the fly didn’t help me much, although some foks swear by it. I resolved the problem by practicing, after several dozen attemps my fingers developed the required dexterity.
I find the rotatary feature very useful and recommend it. The Griffin company makes several true rotary vices for under $100. I own the Griffin Oddessy model which I purchased several years ago for under $85.
The vise mentioned was a prototype I (and a friend) developed but currently doesn’t have a manufacturer. There are quite a number of vises on the market that have jaws that rotate but none that I know of that the jaws rotate independed of the in-line rotation of the actual vise. DynaKing contracted Gretchen and me to shoot a DVD for them on a new vise called the Ultimate Indexer that has most (but not all) of the features outlined in that chapter of the book. It should be on the market soon but not in the price range you mention.
I do have a machinist working on an attachment for the Danvise that would provide that function. Until that prototype is complete I don’t know if we can afford to bring it on the market or just make a few for our own use. Our goal in selling the Danvise was to offer the market a reasonably priced, in-line rotating vise. If we add a “rotating jaw unit” it is important to us that we keep the vise in a reasonable price range like the extension arm has. We’ll see if that is in fact possible or just a dream on my part. Take care & …
I’m a little confused by the ‘rotate the jaws not the vice’ instructions in step seven of the example. It appears from the photographs that the fly has been remounted in the jaws to a vertical position, or at least the same result could be achieved in a fixed jaw vice by remounting the fly.
I can see how that makes sense. The jaws are mounted at 45 degrees so rotating the jaws of the vise would “flip” the fly from a horizontal to a vertical position. Then the hackle is tied in and the BODY of the vise is rotated to wrap the hackle. Then the jaws are rotated again to bring the fly back to it’s original position.