A few details about SM's Ultimate Vise wanted

[tadej bratkovic]

Hi guys,

I'm a planning to make an ultimate vise myself, so if anyone has the SM's ultimate vise, would you care to share a detailed picture or two of the spherical bearing? I have a basic spherical bearing, I'll cut the outer ring and weld some rigid flanges on the sides so I get a clamp. I'm more interested in how the inner ball/ring is shaped. I can see on some pictures the edges are notched, but no closeups. Is this enough so that the outer ring can clamp everything securely? I wanna make sure the clamp will hold, then I'll move on. Some details would be really helpful.

Thanks!

[Mike Kolb]

Hi Tadej,

It took a while but, after pinning a note to my shirt, I finally remembered to take a camera to the shop and got some shots of my ultimate vise that may be useful to you!  If there's any other details that may be helpful, let me know.

Congrats on building your own...

[Mike Kolb]

Here's the last 2 shots, showing the inner ball on both sides. Note that one side is fully split and the other side just has a groove and doesn't go all the way through.  

One interesting phenomenon that StewMac addresses is the need for "springing" the inner ball if/when it tends to seize over time. Mine's needed this only once in a few years use and it works well... to quote StewMac:

Over time the vise gripping ball can compress under constant clamping pressure. If this happens the long shaft of the vise will get harder to rotate and harder to slide within the ball. The cure for this is to spring the ball open a little. To do this place two good sized straight-slot screw drivers in the open cut-side of the ball and give a gentle pry. Once this is done the long shaft should slide freely again.

[tadej bratkovic]

Mike, I don't know how will I ever repay you for doing this, but many thanks for those photos. I must correct myself, welding will be done by a friend who's an industrial welder, everything will be done in structural SS, I stil haven't decided on the pipe diameter but I think it'll be something like a 20mm just slightly smaller than 1''.

I will go and mull about this thing for a couple of weeks, it's a strong winter here and I'd have to work in an unheated garage to cut the pieces. Once the thing will be ready, I'll definitely share :)

Thanks and happy holidays!

[Mike Kolb]

You're more than welcome!  Yes, share the results and we can all learn a thing or two in the process! Stay warm and dry :)