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Anyone use the Rockler 37180 vise?

Jim C Bradley

Jim C Bradley

Member
Messages
4,945
Location
Oceanside, So. Calif. 5 mi. to the ocean
Moderator: Remove the paragraph after my "Jim" if it is inappropriate. Thanks

QUESTION: Do you have a Rockler 37180 vise? Do you like it? Do you have racking or any other problems? If yours was destroyed, would you purchase another?

I have reached a point where I am going to build a new workbench top. This is due to my stupidity. The current bench works fine except I want to add some more dog holes. The top is three layers of 3 / 4 inch plywood, glued and screwed together with a temperboard top layer.

The key word here is SCREWED (that’s me). I made a detailed plan of the location of each screw so I could drill future dog holes. I lost the plan. I ruined a $75 3 / 4 inch router bit in the process of playing “Blind Man’s Bluff.” I don’t want to ruin more; therefore a new top is mandated.

A new top. So why not a new vise to replace my HF vise?

I was at Rockler (San Diego---an hour by freeway away) and became enamored with the 37180. It has a wide jaw face and a 17.5 inch wide face (or whatever you call the dingie that the screw and guide rods go through). The vertical jaw measurement is 4 inches.

Am I drawn to this because it looks sexy and functions as smoothly as glass---at least in the showroom? Or, is it really a great vise?

Glenn (my son) thinks that there is much more room for undesired jaw movement such as racking in this type of vise. We discussed the Jorgensen rapid-action bench vise. I have not seen the Jorgie but the magazine statistics on it are very good.

So that brings us back to the question at the top of the page---Is the Rockler a great vise or not?

Thanks for your input and Enjoy,

Jim.

If someone wants a few hundred pounds of bench top with hidden screws, it yours for free if you come and get it. I will add in the already mounted HF vise for cost (I got it on sale) if you want that too. I will add in the very rugged base also, making it a complete bench, for a hundred bucks if you want also and I will really start from scratch.
 
Is this your sly way of telling me you killed my 3/4" router bit!?! Just for clarification, my comments on the magnitude of racking was based on Fine WWing's reviews of 14 bench vises ;-)
 
glenn bradley said:
Just for clarification, my comments on the magnitude of racking was based on Fine WWing's reviews of 14 bench vises ;-)
Click to expand...

I don't know... if I were going to spend that kind of money (yeah, that'll happen! ;) ), I think I'd just spring for the veritas and be done with it. People love those things.

Just think of how much you'd save in router bits alone! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Rockler Vise Again

Hi,

Thanks for the chuckles people!
See the end for a chuckle from me.

Glenn informed me that the router bit was only $46.00, not $75.00. It is still too much to chance chewing up another one so I am still going to build a new top. The new top will be basically the same as the old---except no hidden screws.

If someone takes the top and the base, I will design the new one a bit differently to accept the different type of vise. This top was designed specifically for vises like the Jorgie.

Enjoy,

Jim

I have always spelled "vise" "vice." Glenn informed me that that type of "v___" is not what I am supposed to be interested in.
 
This has worked for me when building a benchtop---- I join the sheets making up the top with solventbased contact cement. Seal the surfaces tobe joined with sealcote shellac first. Provides a nonabsorbant surface for the contact cement.
this also works well to attach the masonite.
 
Wow Jim it only took a 46$ router bit to get you to build a new bench to justify a new vice. Thats pretty cheap in justifications.

My shop cost thousands as part of a justification to build a strip canoe that could not be built in the house basement due to the Loml identifying for me that the finished item could not be removed from the basement.

So for a ????$2000 Canoe ....(still not built yet) I got to justify the build of a whole stand alone shop heater and all. :rofl::rofl::rofl:


Seems to me the vice youre getting is pretty cheap.:D:thumb:

Maybe Glenn would trade you one bench and HF vise for a router bit.:rofl::rofl:
 
Bob Keeble said, " My shop cost thousands as part of a justification to build a strip canoe that could not be built in the house basement due to the Loml identifying for me that the finished item could not be removed from the basement.

So for a ????$2000 Canoe ....(still not built yet) I got to justify the build of a whole stand alone shop heater and all. :rofl::rofl::rofl:"

I would love to have a stand alone woodworking shop. However, there is a patio just out the back door of the house. There is 190 feet out that way beyond the house. However, about 4 feet from the patio it goes down at a 45 degree slope. If I had a shop there all of my chairs and tables would have differen length legs to compensate for the slope. Guess I will have to stick with the garage shop.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
Jim C Bradley said:
However, there is a patio just out the back door of the house. There is 190 feet out that way beyond the house. However, about 4 feet from the patio it goes down at a 45 degree slope. If I had a shop there all of my chairs and tables would have differen length legs to compensate for the slope. Guess I will have to stick with the garage shop.

Enjoy,

Jim
Click to expand...


How about a shop on stilts..:D:thumb:
 
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