Snowbee fly mate clamp style vise

[flytier07]

My wife just recently purchased me the Snowbee "Fly Mate" clamp style vice as an early Christmas present. I like the pedestal style as I have a regent lever action pedestal based one that I,ve upgraded. but she wouldn,t pay out the extra £10. I had heard good things about this vice and as I,m no professional this should do me for the rest of my fly tying life. Just curious about how it performs from forumites who have either owned one or currently use one. Thanks.

[Spider]

Nice wife !

[jetta1967]

I'm currently using the Snowbee FlyMate vice. I find it an excellent vice for the money paid. It is also the clamp model and I havn't came across any problems. I was advised on the Forum not to get the "ball joint" type as users had a lot of trouble with that model. I find the rotation feature very handy and the jaws hold the hook very well. It will probably do me the rest of my days as I don't tie a lot of flies - maybe 2 or 3 per day and I don't see myself spending the money on an upgrade that I don't think I could justify as the FlyMate does everything I need in a vice.
Hope this helps,

John.

[mancfly]

The Fly mate is a decent vice, and i used one for a few years. However, i found it useful to fit an approx 1" thick piece of wood between the top of the clamp and the desk, just to bring the jaws nearer to eye level. Then i got fed up with having to clamp it to the desk anyway. Then i got fed up with having to deal with 2 screws to adjust the jaw gap. Then i got fed up with the O ring wearing out and snapping. All that said, it is a decent, true rotary vice, when you swivel it the hook remains level.

I rectified the clamp issue by buying a separate pedestal, i think from here:
Yorkshire Game Angling VICE ACCESSORIES
The one shown on the link is not the one i bought though. Mine was a heavy cast metal base, and slightly ill fitting! It's all back in the box now but somehow i still feel the need to keep it!

Alan