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One of the most common saws (not the toothed type!) in woodworking is "one can never have enough clamps."
Until now!
The Veritas Spider Vise is about to spark a revolution in work-holding technology. Traditional vises and clamps work fine for linear thinkers, but force application along only one axis at a time is incredibly limiting. Try clamping a triangular frame with a single clamp and see how that works. In fact, the prevalence of standard linear clamps is what has regimented furniture and cabinet design into endless variations of the square. Sure, some people have worked hard at dressing it up, changing proportions or adding a bombe front, but they're still basically a construct of squares. Cubes, squares, rectangles ... blah.
The Veritas Spider Vise provides unprecedented flexibility in work holding. The system is built around a 72-tooth central gear-driven hub. Up to 12 clamp arms can be located in any of 24 positions around the hub. This allows workpieces to be clamped at the best angle for the craftsman, not just at the single angle built into the vise or clamp. Make your own jaw heads to further increase the scope of customization. Use as many arms as you want and slide each quick-release jaw (of whatever form you choose) to whatever point along the arm suits.
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At 14-1/2" long, 1-5/8" tall and 2" wide, the clamp arms have all the heft of a regular vise, but in a much smaller package. Each clamp incorporates a quick-release carrier. Depressing the brass button disengages the clutch from the main screw, allowing the carrier to be positioned anywhere along the 8" of travel.
Each carrier has a grid of jaw-mounting holes. Using the basic jaws shown, it can hold any object from 9" to 25" across. You can make custom jaws to grip workpieces as small as 1/4" or as large as a dining-room table. You can even make lipped jaws of any length, to extend the capacity of each arm to virtually any length.
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The clamping heads are all simultaneously driven using a single handwheel. The 12-tooth pinion drives the circular rack through 60° with every turn of the handwheel. This motion is translated into a single revolution of each arm screw, moving the jaws 0.0769230769230769". Unlike with some kludgy vises, the handwheel doesn't protrude above the work surface. As the central hub drives the main screw of all clamp arms at the same rate, your chosen clamping "envelope" remains constant while equal force is imparted through each jaw face. In a conventional vise, only one jaw is being driven (though it does exert the same force as itself ... !).
As the clamp is gear driven, turning the handwheel in the opposite direction imparts outward force for disassembling complex joints (we dare you to try taking apart a crokinole board with a bar clamp, something the Veritas Spider Clamp spreader function does quite handily!).
Image left: Central hub drive the main screw of all clamp arms at the same rate, maintaining clamping "envelope".
Jaw mounting made simple, just attach jaw to carrier mounting holes.
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When not in use, the central hub can be quickly removed from the bench, leaving a clean and unobstructed work surface. The hub attaches to the main drive using a triple ball-socket mounting stem, which is released by depressing the brass button in the top of the hub. The clamping force from the handwheel is transferred to the hub via the six 1/4" dowel pins.
Remove hub for a flat work surface.
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This radical advance represents the crossover between the round world of turning and the square world of box making. It's the proverbial "chocolate-in-your-peanut-butter, peanut-butter-on-your-chocolate" collision of diametrically opposed specialties in the craft of woodworking. For the first time ever, woodworkers can begin to explore the craft of n-sided carcass-making – even incorporating eye-pleasing asymmetry!
As you add arms to your vise, its full power is unleashed. Starting with three arms, you can moonlight making drafting squares and custom billiard-ball frames. Add two more, and get into making stars, models of large military compounds, and tables for families with three children.
Increase the count to six, and the possibilities really begin to open up. Gazebos, stars of David, game boards for Chinese checkers, Settlers of Catan and Trivial Pursuit, model honeycombs, color wheels, benzene rings, basalts ... these all become possible with the Veritas Spider Vise.
For the retired woodworker who can never remember what day of the week it is, the seven-jaw Spider Vise is the solution. You can make pointers or wheels to indicate the day or build a seven-sided case to organize your daily requirement of pharmaceuticals.
Holds any project steady while you add those special finishing touches.
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If you're not into prime numbers, go with the eight-jaw Veritas Spider Vise. It's among the most versatile of the entire line. This is the vise to use for making stop signs, crokinole boards, cupolas, poker tables, rummy boards, picture frames and compass stars. You can even make pizza serving trays.
Like baseball? The special nine-jaw version of the Spider Vise makes it possible to build that nine-sided picnic table you've needed. If darts is your game of choice, the ten-jaw Spider Vise is for you; it's also useful for metric-based constructions and professional poker tables.
There is an eleven-jaw Spider Vise. But we don't know what it's for – probably cricket, soccer or football teams. The deluxe vise includes all 12 arms and is just the ticket for clockmakers. Never again will you be short an extra hand to hold anything!
The Veritas Spider Vise is, by far, the most flexible clamping solution ever developed. It provides the woodworker with unmatched freedom in work-holding options. It will be the first vise you go to and the last vise you ever buy.
Optional vise stand sold separately, shipped truck collect (220 lb). Extra hubs and drives available, for multiple installation locations. Made in Canada.
