Record 61 "mini moxon"

[Bedrock]

Anyone seen one of these recently?
Bought about a month ago for £5, so no real hardship. I've made a couple similar to Robert Ingham, but given recent coverage, I couldn't resist.
One main problem is that the holes in the front jaw are too loose, hence it's difficult to align the front and rear jaws. I am considering two modifications to improve: either fit bushes into the holes to take up the slack, or, possibly sacrilegiously, fit a couple of bars in the front jaw, to hold the jaws in alignment.

Any thoughts/better ideas?

 

[AndyT]

I think a bit of slack is essential so you can hold the work with one hand and tighten each side in turn with the other hand. If you remove the slack you will only be able to tighten one side a tiny amount before you need to tighten the other side.

I also think £5 was a gloatworthy bargain!

 

[Bedrock]

Andy

Thanks for the advise, but there's slack and slack! The holes don't seem to have worn out of round, so as you say, that's how it was made. Am I right on dating or were these available for some time?


Mike

 

[swb58]

My thoughts FWIW. Given that it's built with twin screws and a certain amount of 'slack' doesn't that make it suitable for holding irregular shapes, i.e. not parallel. I don't think you should go out of your way to make it act more like a conventional vice if it wasn't designed to be one.

 

[AndyT]

It's very hard to tell as your photo is rather small, but is the Record name the relatively recent Record-Marples one with a big initial R?

 

[Bedrock]

I'll try to do something about the photo, but am having difficulty with resizing. The Record name is in an informal script, and has an upper case R, followed underneath by "SHEFFIELD ENGLAND 61"
Mike

 

[AndyT]

I just spotted what I think was another one of these in a reclamation yard. It was rather optimistically labeled "antique cheese press £45".

I think you paid a much more sensible price!

It did wrack quite a lot but I think that would be necessary in use.

 

[JIJ]

I picked up one of these recently for a few pounds too.
I couldn't imagine how it was intended to be used, so I screwed a length on wood to the back at the bottom and sticking out at right angles, and use holdfasts to clamp that to the edge of the bench. I can then use it like a moxon vise. It works great.
Is it meant to be screwed to the bench as a more permanant fixture?

Mine had more of a problem being too tight, rather than too slack when I got it.

James

 

[Bedrock]

James
I have used it only briefly for dovetails on a small box. Either clamp the workpiece in the Record vice, and then clamp the Record in the bench vice, or step one, then simply clamp the tail of the workpiece in the bench vice. Either way, it raises the level of the workpiece to what is for me, a more comfortable level.
On the 2 Ingham style "Moxons" I have made, I have screwed a substantial batten to the bottom edge of the rear jaw, then clamped that batten to the surface of the bench. As RI recommends, I have used a sacrificial MDF clamped in behind the workpiece to prevent splitting out, when cleaning out the bottom of dovetails to the scribed line.
These have metal studding instead of the woodscrews, with much less slack around the holes in the front jaw. I like the woodscrews in the 61, but it obviously has had an interesting life, especially the dried bloodstains.
Thanks Andy - I can't see by what stretch of the imagination it could be called a cheese press!

Mike

 

[JIJ]

Here's how I use mine. I'm not sure if it is a Record 61, the label had gone by the time I got it.
It sounds like your Ingham style ones.

 

[Bedrock]

JIJ

Yours looks older. Mine is in beech with an incomplete thin varnish finish. There are short wooden cross bars for the screws. For the RI type that I have made, I have given both an extended top surface to the front jaw, one has a Perspex surface, the other an extruded aluminium section, to give a better, true and wider surface for cleaning out dovetails and the like, and which are a bit more wear resistant than the beech.
For the Record, it's easy to hold in the bench vice, so I don't have to bother with cramping to the bench.
Mike