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Friday, 30 November 2012

The Vice's of My Father.

Well for the time being at any rate just the one vice. My Dad was simply fantastic with his hands, he made all sorts from either wood or metal. If it was for someone else it would always be made with great care and extra time was put in to make it look really nice beyond what it would need. However if it was for his own use, especially if it was a tool, function and nothing else was considered.
 
Now I have wanted to get my hands on my Dad's old miniature vice for a few years, originally for a stunt at a games convention, but more recently for something like the purpose it was made for!
 
Good old vice.
My Dad cast the body out of aluminium, even making the moulds himself. The jaws are steel plates screwed into the body. The only parts that he bought are the nuts and bolts holding the body to the wooden base, the nut you can see and the screw that closes the jaws. It's been lost amongst a load of scrap for the past seven years since Dad got ill. Even so the action is incredibley smooth and precise. I can see lots of uses for this old girl and I will think of my Dad when ever I use her. The only surprise I think is the lack of a name plate on the bugger. I must post something on the beam engine he also built from scratch.
 
15mm figure for scale.
I added a shot with a 15mm test figure for scale, as you can see it's not dinky. It also ways enough to keep most projects in place, the idea was the larger projects he would go out to the shed er workshop, sorry Dad just could not resist one last poke ;-) Here he had a large vice built into the bench. That's still there so if I was insane enough to need it I could go over and use that on.
 

Convincing other dice it's time to roll what I WANT!
I was going to charge a few quid to crush players naughty dice with the money going to charity but at the time we could not find it and assumed it had gone with the rest of his tools after he had died. Ever since when I thought about it I was a little sad, but obviously we have a happy ending.

So if you have a problem with bad dice in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call?





DICEBUSTER!

9 comments:

  1. Glad you found it Ian. As you say, you can think of him every time you use it.

    All I got from my dad was my stumpy body. Bloody shortarse!

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  2. Great post; I'm glad you are using this. I've carried the same pocket knife since 1977; a gift from my Dad.
    I like the dice "motivation" technique; I'll try it.

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  3. great post and I hope that the little beauty will crush naughty dice for years to come.

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  4. Good memories, eh , priceless.

    "The Crusher"!

    I still have my Dads key rings, and allways will

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  5. Thats a hefty piece of kit!

    My dad was (is) the same - vices all over...he's pretty good with wood though not so with metal...

    He's getting on a bit now, not sure how much he still tinkers away, though I do know he still enjoys having a 'consult the shed' moment.

    Fond memories for you.

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  6. Great post, really gets me right in the nostalgia. I have a few of my grandmothers art supplies including an easel, she was an excellent painter of portraits and and landscapes. I think she was the one who really got me into art as a hobby. Can't bring myself to use them though, I was always awful when it came to putting paint on canvas.

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  7. I've warned my dice about your vice, they promised to behave from now on, coz they know where they'll be posted to if they don't!!!

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  8. Thanks for the comments guys, some made me smile, others nod in agreement and Ray made me laugh!

    Cheers
    Ian

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