SKI MAN Vise Modification -- 100mm to 140+

[JayPowHound]

I have been thinking about doing this for a while now, and today I finally got around to making it happen.

My 1st thought was that I could find a longer bar with the same thread as the one that opens and closes the vise. Swap that out and put in some longer guide posts and I'd be good to go...

Well, a visit to the local fastenal killed that dream pretty quick. The kid working there said he had seen this thread once before, in a book when he was being trained. All he could remember about it was "pretty much, you're fucked."





Time for plan 2.

Rather than mess with the threaded center hole I decided to put a threaded rod in the lower guide post hole. A longer guide post for the top and a couple of wing nuts for easy(ish) adjustment and I was in business.






Step 1 was disassembly. The threaded center post was held on with a lock ring, and the two guide posts were press fit and happily popped out after a couple blows with a hammer.






After cutting the rods down to size I installed the threaded one through the bottom post hole. A couple nuts, lock washer, and some red thread locker and everything felt pretty solid.





For the new guide post I just used liberal amounts of superglue. I'm sure a real epoxy may have been better, but the final product with super glue feels plenty strong and should hold up just fine.






Opposing wing nuts allow the floating side to be locked into position.







The vice now feels just as solid as it did before, and can clamp down any ski on my wall.









One potential downside of the opposing wing nuts is that the inside one will need to be removed in order to use the vice tightly enough for edge work. Not a huge deal, but a thought for future efforts.

All told this little upgrade cost me about $12 and took less than an hour from start to finish.

[mobygrape]

looks promising.

guide post is just a non-threaded steel rod?

looks like about a 3 beer job to me. Will take me more than an hour, to be sure I don't screw it up royally, but it looks fairly simple, really.

[JayPowHound]

Yea super simple and straight forward, there's not really much you can fuck up.

The new post I used was aluminum, but either way...

The posts that came out were 10mm, but my local Lowes didn't have any metric rod so I got 3/8. There was a bit of wiggle room, but not so much that I couldn't get everything tight with the nuts and glue.

Took me 1 beer per side, nice little Saturday afternoon project during nap times.

[old goat]

Why not just clamp the binding plates?

[skifishbum]

nice work
i recognize

[HansJob]

another brilliant mag modification

[east or bust]

Nice dude! I love seeing shit like this

[JayPowHound]

Why not just clamp the binding plates?

I prefer a wider stance for the vigorous removal of hard wax.

Clamping the bindings always seemed kind of precarious and didnt give me as much tip and tail support as I'm looking for..




Any you know it SFB, these have given me years of solid service since you passed them on and now they're ready to keep on keepin' on brah!!!

[glendmcc]

Fastenal people don't know shit. I'd check out Mcmaster.com... it's a great wealth of knowledge for things like fasteners, thread types, adhesives, inserts. I will never have a shop without a full catalog on the shelf!

[MRR11]

This thread inspired me to finally widen my own Ski Man vise. Unlike JayPowHound's guide posts, mine were a real pain to get out. Hammer blows, heat, and some pilot holes to relieve the pressure all were unsuccessful in getting those things to budge. So I ended up drilling out the old posts altogether.





I replaced the guide posts with 12mm aluminum posts from McMaster, it was a perfect fit.

I really wanted to keep the original handle from the lead screw, so I decided I would cut off the threaded part of the lead screw closer to the handle, bore out the remaining part, and epoxy in some threaded rod from Home Depot. To accommodate the new threaded screw, I drilled out the existing threads on the dynamic jaw with a 1/2" bit, which was about the perfect size to remove the threads but not make the existing hole too much bigger.



3/8" threaded rod was the biggest size without going larger than the original M12 thread, and I happened to have a 3/8" coupling nut laying around. I rounded off the coupling nut on the bench grinder until it was 1/2" in diameter. I would later insert and epoxy the coupling nut into the dynamic jaw to engage the new lead screw.





Time to cut off the lead screw from the handle. My plan to bore out the existing piece with incrementally larger drill bits went out the window fast when I snapped a bit early on and couldn't get it out. I ended up roughing it until I had about a half inch of depth, and used a dremel to even out the hole. To make sure the new threaded rod was inserted straight, I just epoxied it in and then set it with the threaded rod engaged with the new insert in dynamic jaw. Once everything cured, I drilled a small pilot hole through the original piece and threaded rod, put a nail through it, and epoxied over again. That should ensure the new rod won't pull out of the handle down the road.





Last step was to put everything back together and slather some anti-seize on the new threads, and it works great! Ever so slight wobble when I'm turning the lead screw at narrower widths, but works perfectly at about 90mm or so and wider, and otherwise came out fine.

[JayPowHound]

Well done sir!

[DropCliffsNotBombs]

I absolutely HATE Ski Man vices. How the hell did they become the "gold standard" in most backshops anyway?
The part that clamps the sidewall is beveled to force the ski up when tightened, the adjustable legs on the tip/tail supports are weak and collapse when barely pushed on, the rubber parts fall right off, the hand cranks seem to be designed to snag on any apron, and what's with the ribbed platforms? Are they somehow supposed to hold a ski on edge?

Nice mod though!!

[MRR11]

Haha, so true about these vises. Glad I'm not the only one who has these issues. When I reattached the tapered rubber pads on the vise jaws (with epoxy this time) I put them in upside down by accident, which I think may actually help grab onto the sidewall and keep it from popping up and out. I ended up getting a Swix Quick Compact vise for edge work.

[Kied]

Holy shit, that's tits!

[mrkbrnblm]

Reviving this thread to provide a slightly different approach and thank the ones who went before me and suggested this in the first place. I used 3/8" rod like the others and epoxied it in place. Instead of threaded rod, I used a 3/8" eye bolt which is easy to turn. I made a set of threaded rods for these to go wider, but haven't needed them yet. The eye bolt is plenty long enough. I didn't drill out the other end for the threaded rod. I just used a 3/8" tap and tapped the existing thread. It's not the strongest, but hasn't slipped yet. It was no more than a 3 beer job.

[MRR11]

Great idea, love to see this mod continue to evolve. Nice work!

[Choucas]

Why doesn't Ski Man just smarten up and do a redesign so that their vises accommodate wider skis? Nice work on the mods however. Love American ingenuity.

[Choucas]

My mistake. They do make a wider jawed vise. Never mind.

[Alpinord]

Why the persistent love of clamping skis by their sides for base work and waxing?

I rarely clamp my skis when doing base work due to skid proof rubber on blocks in wide vises. The Tools4Boards Grip and vises in this image are more than wide enough and I rarely see the need:

[mrkbrnblm]

Why the persistent love of clamping skis by their sides for base work and waxing?

I rarely clamp my skis when doing base work due to skid proof rubber on blocks in wide vises. The Tools4Boards Grip and vises in this image are more than wide enough and I rarely see the need:

That is indeed a beautiful and simple setup! When I inevitably break the current hack job, I'll probably go with something similar to yours (albeit, likely more homemade and far less nice). I'm equally impressed by your ability to embed a photo right-side-up.