Gressel Pneumatic Vise and Leinen Bench Vise

[stihlcollector]

When you put something in between the jaws, you can spin the arm and just barely tighten on the part, just enough to hold it. Then pressure must go into the line at the bottom front of the cylinder, which moves the rear sliding jaw forward 1/4" unless there is something to clamp down on. If something is between the jaws it clamps down tight. But to put pressure in to clamp it, the rear fitting must be vented to atmosphere. That is why there are two sets of valves. The front set apply pressure to close or open, and the rear set have to be used to vent for either action to take place. I am sure there is some sort of foot valve that does this automatically, but not that I can find at Gressel's website. They don't even show this kind of vise anymore.

Interesting to me that both the Leinin and Gressel move the rear jaw, which means more of the vise has to stick off the bench in front. Seems like this is very common in European vice design but not in USA brands. I wonder if there is any advantage? I use the Leinen a lot as well as a big Craftsman and have not come across a situation where one design seems to work better than the other.

 

[RoninB4]

-Interesting pair of vises you have there. The Leinen vise has some history. The founder of Leinen machine tools, makers of precision lathes, started the firm by making the vises of his design (?). They were successful enough for him to delve into the watchmaker's lathe business in direct competition with his former employer G. Boley, an already established name. Leinen expanded the machine tool line to include other high end machinery and tooling. Nice piece not often seen here.

 

[stihlcollector]

Thanks RoninB4, I appreciate the info. Lots of history to be discovered in any of these old tools we all enjoy collecting and sharing.

 

[General Geoff]

With a foot actuator a pneumatic vise could be very useful for work pieces that require both hands to carefully position it while clamping down. Would be a big time saver for someone who works on many different pieces for short times consecutively.

 

[stihlcollector]

Yes Geoff, that was how this was used. It came off the assembly line at STIHL Inc. and was used for some task back when they built the 028 saw, which went out of production in 1993. If you look at the front jaw it has a corner milled off, and there is a notch in the back jaw that is not visible. I assume the operator would use it to press two parts together, or hold a part while doing something to it, so once the jaw is set, you would never need to adjust the handle. Of course with a foot pedal, OSHA might not like it since it would be easy to pinch a finger!