blade lean with cam-lock vice
- This topic has 5 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 01/05/2018 at 5:01 pm by
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Theoretically, the Gen 3 vise should clamp FFG knives dead vertical, but there may be other factors causing it. It may be a quirk related to how the jaws’ pads which actually touch the blade are aligned or shaped.
I’m assuming that if you can measure 1 degree of lean in all of your FFG blades, you must be using an AngleCube and that you know to zero the ‘Cube out while resting on the base to which the vise is mounted.
My suggestion is that you push out the two pins holding the jaws in the vise, remove the jaws and flip them around, then reinstall the pins and check to see if the lean goes to the opposite side. This should confirm that the problem has to do with the jaws themselves, as opposed to some other fault.
Another test might be to clamp a flat piece of some hard material, like steel or glass. Check to see if this thingamajig sits dead vertical or not. If it does, then we have to wonder what there is about FFG knives that doesn’t like this particular vise.
I’ll add one caveat, in that a one degree error might well be within Wicked Edge’s specification limits. If we didn’t have electronic protractors, we’d never know about a one degree error. I have two Gen 3 vises and I seem to recall that one of them behaves like yours and I’ve just chosen to ignore it.
Perhaps the fine gents at WE might chime in here with their position regarding verticality, and/or a recommended test or series of tests to determine the cause.
Meanwhile, I’d simply subtract one degree from the left side and add it to the right. One degree is only about three turns on the micro-adjust screws.
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Welcome James Wilson. Sorry you’re having this experience. TCMeyer’s suggestion to reverse the jaws is one I’d have made also. I hope it works and that’s the end of this issue. Here is a link to a recent post by “Graphite” showing disassembly of the complete vice, this may come in handy.
I’d like to ask you questions that are more specific to maybe help with your situation.
You didn’t state which particular WEPS model with the single lever cam lock vice with floating jaws you are using. Is it a WE130. F&S Pro, or a GEN 3Pro. This may also be helpful to resolve your issue.
I bought the cam lock vice (model??) to help with blade lean on f g knives. I sharpen mostly kitchen knives and they all lean to the left about 1 degree even with the new vice. I am measuring the knife with the angle gauge. Is 1 degree lean about normal or am I doing something wrong? I can compensate for the lean by moving the arms, but should I need to with the new vice?
Just how are you measuring the knife with the angle cube; method? Are you physically holding the zeroed-out digital angle cube against one side of the knife and noting the angle, then repeating this on the other side and comparing the two readings? You really didn’t state the method in your post. Here’s how TCMeyer did that method in a recent post.
OR:
Are you setting both side rod angles settings to the same value, left and right, then measuring the stone leaning on the knife with the micro-adjustment all the way turned in using the angle cube and comparing the measured one side angle with the other measured side rod angle with the micro-adjustment also all the way turned in? In this situation you may get different angle readings not necessarily indicating the knife is at a lean.
I have backed the micro-adjustment screws, left and right, all the way in and set my right and left side angle at the same value and measured my angles with the same stone placed on the angle rods and used on both sides while leaning against a thin piece of metal, (a machinist ruler), clamped in the vice so as to be parallel with the top of the jaws. I did and do get different angle readings from side to side. But when checking the verticalness with angle cube against the clamped knife’s side done similarly to TCMeyers method, there was no lean measured.
Marc
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tcmeyer thank you for your reply. I will try switching the jaws. I have tried a flat piece of metal and it also leans. I know about the angle cube it has been zeroed on the base.
march thank you for your reply. the vice is an upgrade from an earler version so it is like the we130. measuring by holding the zeroed angle cube on the knife. their is 1 degree difference between right and left. I have also tried tcmeyer method with the same results. I will repost when I have switched the jaws.
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march thank you for your reply. the vice is an upgrade from an earlier version so it is like the we130. measuring by holding the zeroed angle cube on the knife. their is 1 degree difference between right and left. I have also tried tcmeyer method with the same results. I will repost when I have switched the jaws.
James since you replaced the vice as an upgrade, please check that when installed or mounted on your base, that it is sitting flat so there is nothing causing the whole vice to lean slightly left which in turn would appear as the knife is leaning left. Maybe check to make sure the tension adjustment housing is mounted flat and squared against the vice housing, too. It wouldn’t take much to cause the 1º difference. It may be worthwhile checking.
Marc
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