Salvage Yard Tool

[davidinsarasota]

My Veritas Carver's Vice, which is actually more like an arm that clamps a spindle that holds the carving, is great for holding work securely, but still gives complete access to all parts of the work.

I am working on a big piece, probably too big for the Veritas. It holds the piece stable, but when I bear down with a gouge on the far edges of the work, it rotates. I had been wedging the rear end with boards and whatnot, but it was very tedious trying to get them to line up with vice's detants or spindle holding grooves.

So, I needed a strong adjustable back support that could be raised or lowered precisely, and had a range from 3" to about a foot. It occurred to me that one of those hateful jacks that are stored under the spare tire in a car might fit the bill. I figgered every car at an auto junk yard probably still has its jack when it gets towed to its final destination, so I stopped by my local salvage yard to see if they had one.

The guy was on the phone, so I turned around to rest my butt on the counter and wait and I saw a rack of about fifty filthy jacks. Most had pretty weird configurations, but I found one from Canada that looked pretty straight forward, which is typical of Canadian thinkin. The guy said $10 USD, so I bought it.

I got it home, cleaned it up and started removing the unnecessary hardware that was originally intended to hook into the car's underside with my angle grinder [hi Don]. I actually ended up using one of these pieces (shown circled in blue) between the arm and the spindle to raise the spindle. The extra height was nice, but it also smoothed the action considerably when readjusting because the spindle is large and flat and the new piece is smaller and rounded.

I can crank it up with a ratchet until I get the exact amount of back pressure that I want, and it just so happens that the socket size fits the bold that holds the vice too. Mods rarely work out this great. The work is now solid as a rock

[Ron T]

David, that's really using the old noggin. What a smart idea.

[davidinsarasota]

Thanks Ron

[Northwest29]

I like it! Wonder if you made a bigger platform and pot the scissor jack in a bench vice you could eliminate the Veritas altogether? Just a thought =