Leather for vice chops?

[TimHoff]

I just redid the vice on my workbench. Removed the old, saggy vice I'd made and replaced it with a leg vice using the existing, metal screw.

What should I look for in leather to line the vice faces, and where's a good place to get it?

[tshiker]

I bought the leather for my vice from Axehandle right here on Woodnet and i'm very happy with the product and service he provided. I suggest you look him up and see if he has anymore.

[rwe2156]

If there is a saddle maker near you, see if they will sell you some.

I bought a piece reasonable price off Ebay.

[Hank Knight]

Tim,

You have lots of choices. People use various kinds of leather and it all seems to work. Jameel Abraham uses suede on his Benchcrafted vises and recommends water-based contact cement to glue it on. I've seen other vises with thin, smooth leather faces. I don't know whether it was oil tanned or vegetable tanned. Some glue it on rough-side out, doesn't seem to matter. I use heavy (12-14 oz) vegetable tanned leather on mine and I've been very satisfied with it. I made replaceable wooden chop inserts and glued the leather to them with contact cement. That way, when they need replacing, I can simply unscrew the inserts, toss them in the trash and replace them. I got my leather from our local Tandy Leather store. They have a large web site you can order from, or you can do a web search. There are hundreds of online suppliers.

Good luck!

Hank

[Window Guy]

+1 ......... on Axe he had some great leather and I lined my record vise with it also.



Steve

[Mr Eddie]

I purchased mine at the Tandy store.  It is thin - measured a fat sixteenth.  I glued it on with hide glue and put the smooth side out.  It works well especially for holding legs and small panels that you don't want to mar.  Doesn't take much pressure to get a firm grip.  Price was around $30 and the piece was large enough to get four panels 6" X 18".

Lonnie

[Mark A Smith]

I have a twin screw vise, and got my leather from Harry Epstein. I got some pretty nice sized pieces in their 2 pound assorted leather piece bundle. They were all the same color (not like the photo on the Epstein site) and same thickness (about 3/32"). Nice stuff. Oh, and $4.50 for more than I needed for both sides of a 4x24 face vise and both sides of a 5x5 end vise (I had to use two pieces to make up the 24 inches). Adhered rough side out with a couple of strips of double-sided tape.

http://www.harryepstein.com/index.php/2-...ieces.html