Prentiss Bulldog Bench Mounting

[damnesia]

I'm mounting a vise to my workbench and have a question. It's a Prentiss Bulldog, non-swivel base and the front of the mounting plate has a lip which reinforced by a 45° piece of metal. Is this vise made to mounted on a stand ( or something ), or do I have to notch my bench to get the lip to sit flush with the side of the table?

 

[MJD1]

You could add a steel plate as a spacer. I believe the theory behind that lip is to take some of the rotating force off of the bolts and the holes they pass thru.

 

[Carla]

Yours is an earlier style Prentiss......at some point, probably in the 1930's sometime, they revised that back jaw casting so that 45deg. reinforcement area was removed.

At the time your vise was new, it was just 'taken for granted' that it would be mounted to a wooden bench top, and that top would be notched to suit the vise.

Rather obviously, this wouldn't work so well with the then-new steel bench tops which the Hallowell and Lyon (and other industrial furniture) companies were promoting.

The Prentiss Bulldog is a good vise, and well worth the few minutes it will take to do the notch in your bench top........ : )

cheers

Carla

 

[454ragtop]

The idea was to notch the vise to "key" the base to the bench top. If you don't want to notch your bench, make up a spacer out of a piece of 2 X 8 or something.

 

[jimreed2160]

I mount most of my vises to wooden bases before attaching them to benchtops. It makes them easier to move around. Here is a base I made for a Parker.

All it takes is a few chisel whacks.

And then you can mount the vise.

The wooden base can be bolted or clamped to your workbench.