A vice is a very useful adjunct to a planing-table, especially for thin slender objects which can be gripped only at their edges, and which will not admit a holdfast plate at any part of a broad side. If poppets are fixed in or on a planing-table, to hold a thin object, by merely screwing the screw-points tight against the object's edges, the tightening of the screws frequently puts the object out of its proper position, because there is no plate to hold the piece in contact with the table's face; to avoid this tendency to shifting, a vice is highly effective, which will grip a plate or other article by its edges only, thus presenting the entire upper surface of the article to the cutting tool. With such a grip, there is no risk of moving the piece either upwards or downwards while tightening it. Vices for planing-tables should be parallel ones, and any size may be employed to suit the work and table. With vices, a large quantity of objects of various shapes can be quickly and firmly fixed; such as thin keys, screw-nuts, plummer-blocks, and thin caps, bearer brasses of various shapes, guide-bars, small crank-levers, small cranks, slide-valves, and, in fact, any object which will not admit a plate on its upper surface while being planed, if the article is not too large for the particular vice and machine to be employed.

A vice-chuck, is a sort of parallel vice, and consists of an el-chuck and a strong steel plate, the plate being connected to the remainder of the chuck by two strong fixing-screws resembling other vice-screws, having either globular heads with lever-holes, or hexagonal heads for a spanner. Fig. 737 represents a vice-chuck with screws intended for a spanner, and in the chuck an object is shown gripped for planing, the entire upper surface, and also a portion of the sides being free from any plate or poppet. In the Figure a straight fine is indicated by L, and this is one of the lines on the table's face to which the lower edge of the chuck is adjusted while fixing it; consequently, when any object is gripped in the chuck, all the planing of its surfaces which are at right-angies to the table-face, will produce planes which are parallel to that side of the object which is in contact with the chuck's face. The vice-chuck may be also fixed with its length at right-angles to the length of the table, by means of one of the short lines across the table; this adjustment also is highly advantageous for a rapid adjustment of an object to be planed.