Benchcrafted Criss Cross Vice Mechanism: Cross an effortless vice off your list, you've just found it
Available in two different styles. Please select your option from the drop-down menu.
If you've ever wondered what makes Benchcrafted workbenches special - and, let's be honest, quite expensive - it's the detail they put into the manufacturing of their hardware, particularly the vice mechanism. But in a fantastic development for regular woodworkers, you no longer have to break the bank to bring industry-leading quality to your own workbench.
This Criss Cross Vice Mechanism features two castings, equal in length and joined in the middle to create a pivot. The upper ends of the arms are fastened to the bench's leg and the chop and are free to rotate on their mounts. The resulting mechanism completely eliminates the need for a traditional parallel-guide and pin arrangement, saving time, effort and hassle readjusting.
The idea is to make the vice process as enjoyable as possible.
Features
- Floating, frictionless action
- Cast iron and machined steel components - designed and made in the USA
- Automatic adjustment to your vice's capacity for any workpiece thickness.
- Works perfectly with bench screws or all-wood hardware
- Suitable for new installation or retrofitting
- Can be used to build accessory vices with other vice hardware
Solo or Retro. Which is for me?
We offer the Criss Cross two ways. Both function identically. The arms in both the Solo and Retro are identical. The difference is only in how you install each version into your bench. If the information below doesn't suffice, please read through the Crisscross installation instructions below which clearly show how each version installs.
The Criss Cross Solo attaches to the bench's leg and chop with two 3/8" steel mounting pins drilled through the sides of the leg and chop. These potentially deep holes (depending on how wide your leg and chop are) are most accurately drilled using a drill press, so choose this model if you're building a new bench, and can work on the bench leg at the drill press.
You can, of course, install a Solo into an assembled bench, you'll just have to figure out how to drill the long hole into the side of the bench leg.
The Criss Cross Retro doesn't use the 3/8" steel mounting pins. Instead, it features two cast iron brackets which hold short, steel pivot pins. The Retro bracket fastens to the bottom of the Criss Cross mortice, so you don't need to drill any holes for pivot pins with the Retro, which makes it a better choice if you're retrofitting a bench with a Criss Cross.
You can also use the Retro in a new bench, even if you have access to a drill press, if you'd prefer the installation method of the Retro.