Old vise has spring but don't understand what it does

[PossumDog]

I got this vise at an estate sale. I’m not even sure if it’s for woodworking but it’s made out of wood and looks like a leg vise.
I don’t have a leg vise and was thinking about getting one so was happy to get it.

There’s a spring on the backside that I thought would help with quickly adjusting the bottom rail. It wasn’t until I fit it to my bench that I realized the spring isn’t attached to anything. Even if it was attached it doesn’t look like it would operate properly. In the relaxed position it is pulling UP on the botttom rail with teeth. When stepping on the footpad it would press DOWN on that rail, which doesn’t do anything useful.

So does this look familiar to anyone. Is it a different type of vise? Were springs a common add-on to help with the bottom adjustment rail? Are there pieces missing? How is this supposed to work‽

Thank you

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[stav]

I've never seen this vise before but it looks like that spring pulls the bar up so that the bottom of the bar engages with the teeth on the other part that is going through there. Again, I don't have any real experience with this vice so just thinking it through.
Does the bar that is attached to the spring move at all? Might want to see about freeing it if not.

[barryvabeach]

I've never seen this vise before but it looks like that spring pulls the bar up so that the bottom of the bar engages with the teeth on the other part that is going through there. 

Cool vise - though never seen one like it.  Agree with Stav -  the bar seems designed to move up and down to engage and disengage the teeth.  I would take apart the parts that hold the bar to the leg, clean off as best you can and see if you can get it moving smoothly.   Great photos by the way.

[iclark]

Cool vise - though never seen one like it.  Agree with Stav -  the bar seems designed to move up and down to engage and disengage the teeth.  I would take apart the parts that hold the bar to the leg, clean off as best you can and see if you can get it moving smoothly.   Great photos by the way.

plus a bunch on the cool factor. I agree with Stav and Barry about the design's function.

One of the traditional complaints with a leg vise has been the need to bend over and position the pin in the lower bar. It looks like this vise solved that by providing a foot-operated release for the lower bar. That let one freely slide the lower bar to the right spacing as the thread was adjusted and then reengage the stop for the lower bar.

An elegant design that is easier for someone like me to understand than the scissors gadget for a leg vise.

edit: taking a closer look, maybe understanding is not easier.


It looks like the foot-operator part is to push the lower bar down so that it engages the bar teeth with a tooth in the rear chop.

[barryvabeach]

edit: taking a closer look, maybe understanding is not easier.


It looks like the foot-operator part is to push the lower bar down so that it engages the bar teeth with a tooth in the rear chop.

Just a guess, but with the foot pedal in the up position, it locks between two of the teeth.  Push the pedal down  ( the tightness of the brackets will keep it so it slides down, but doesn't retract back up ) then use foot to push the bottom of the vise in, or use toe to pull it further out, then use top of the foot underneath the pedal to nudge the pedal up, the springs helps to retract it between two of the teeth.  The teeth seem to be shape to let the locking device move the teeth back or forth slightly so that it does not get stuck up on a tooth.

[PossumDog]

At a glance it seems obvious that it’s related to the rail with teeth or what in other vises would be the pin board. But I just can’t make the connection. There is no linkage between the two and even if there was it doesn't make sense how pressing DOWN on the pedal would lift UP on the teeth.

I took the front part off and checked the rail for any hardware or marks or clues. The only thing I found was this screw at the end that has a small piece of wire under the head. I wonder if that was an old spring that broke. Still hard to figure out how to tie everything together.

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The part that you step on moves down only 3-4 inches. There is a crossbar trapped between two brackets that keep it from moving any further. There's no indication that the crossbar attaches to anything.

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Long term I don’t mind taking it apart and repurposing the pieces. I was just wondering if anyone’s seen anything like this or knows how it’s supposed to work.