End Block troubleshooting

[Kevmc]

For most of the length of travel for my end vice there is a little bit of friction when turning the handle when it's between about the 5 o'clock and 11 o'clock position. It's not too much but enough to notice compared to the rest of the turn. Anyone have recommendations for where to start looking

[Chopcat]

I would start by pulling the rod out and taking a look at the inside of the hole ini the end cap. i found that because my clearance hole was slightly skewed and also a bit of a tighter fit because of using metric drills the tread rubbed a bit.

I just took a file to the offending area.

if that isn't the problem the the other area to look at are the two bolts holding the metal plate on the end cap. loosen those and see if that changes things, idiot does, again it points to slight skew of one to both of those holes. Opening up these a bit is not a problem and that should allow the thread to self centre. it is the washer that keeps the thread central.

let us know if any of that works.

cc

[thewoodwhisperer]

This might also be a good time to contact Benchcrafted. Doesn't sound like the wood around the vise is influencing the friction so it's probably just an issue with the setup, alignment, or milling of the hardware itself.

[Kevmc]

I did hear from jameel and he said what chop cat at said. I was thinking the same thing after looking at it more closely. My rails are slightly sloped so it put the screw at a slight angle and the clearance looks very tight at the bottom of the hole in the end block, I am thinnking that the very last bit of the screw interferes with the wood when the thread is at a certain position hence my tightness for only half the circle. I am going to remove and check it out. I will follow up with how I resolve in case others have a similar problem

[Kevmc]

I took my vice apart to tune it up. First I removed two shims that I placed on one end. I thought I needed those when I first was aligning the rails but I noticed the dog block was lower then the bench at that end so I figured I didn't need those. I then filed down the access hole a very little bit to make sure the screw had enough space. I also planed a bit off one side of the end block because is looked to be a small bit out of square relative to the rails and I thought that might be putting the screw at a slight decline. It was working really smooth until I tightened the bolts. So I made the recess for the washer a tiny bit deeper because I figured it was getting squeezed when I tighter the bolts. After that it worked really sweeeeeetttttt. Just like the video. Thats one awesome vice.