Thread: Benchcrafted Leg Vise

Zac

I think several forum members have the Benchcrafted leg vice and it is well regarded. Not a cheap bit of gear, but well made. I have looked longingly at it myself, but really I have to build the shed first . Hopefully somebody will respond for you.

Regards
Paul

I haven't gotten round to making the bench yet but did import the gear....there is a thread about the customs nitty gritty here somewhere, do a search......
But it took about 2 months off the top of my head - and whilst not cheap, I still think it will be worthwhile (once I get round to it)

Cheers
Gab

Hi Zac,

While I do not personally own it, I have used them at the woodworking school. Number of people there have made workbenches with them and they look and work great. If I were to make another workbench (already have two) then definitely it will be Roubo style workbench with benchcrafted leg vice and tail vice on it. You need decent heft in the legs and ideally in the top as well.

You can ship them yourself from benchcrafted directly. Just checked, shipping is US $194 but vice is well worth it.

Cheers,
Salim

Originally Posted by saladonion

......You can ship them yourself from benchcrafted directly. Just checked, shipping is US $194 but vice is well worth it.

Cheers,
Salim

Hi Salim

just googled Highland Woodworks prices:

• US$439 - Benchcrafted Glide M mechanism,
• US$195 - Postage (above)
• US$634 - TOTAL
• AU$830 - Converted to Oz$
• AU$115 - Customs & GST => Unless it arrives before concessions expire on 30-6-18.
• AU$945 - GRAND TOTAL !

And the vise isn't even gold plated.

Terry Gordon's rather interesting looking new face vise is around half that cost.



Cheers

Graeme

I have a Roubo bench with a wooden screw leg vise and the BenchCrafted wagon end vise. BC make beautiful tools. I would argue, however, that a leg vise does not require the precision of an end vise. Its main task on my bench is to clamp boards for edge planing, particularly long boards. If you worked with short boards only, such as making boxes, I would likely go for Terry's rather stunning face vise, which excels at holding short pieces and not racking. However, for general furniture making, I would rather put the money into the BC wagon vise.

Regards from Perth

Derek

There is a development with Terry's face vise underway. I sourced a 160mm diameter handwheel (sans handle) that weighs 1.2kg. It has been fitted to a vise, which also has a wider face (300-350mm). When I was able to inspect it a week or so ago it was not fitted to a bench, but we were able to rig it up so that it approximated being on a bench.

The idea is to give it a spin and let it travel under its own momentum - bringing a semblance of quick release speed. The tests were very encouraging. There is room to go up to a 180mm wheel with it's extra weight, but it may not be necessary.

Thanks everyone for their time and considered responses. A thousand dollars is a lot for a vise, but will be the only expense in the whole build, as I sourced the wood for free. For those who are interested, I'm building an 8' x 3' version of Richard Macguire's workbenchfrom recycled Karri 8 x 2's. I'll post some pics when I'm done.

I have the original Benchcrafted benchmakers package which included leg vise, tail vise, plans and 2 Gramercy holdfasts. I took a gamble and asked on American forums if there were people with the gear who for whatever reason were not going to get around to building the bench. This was when the Aussie $ was above the usd. I’ve had good luck in buying used LN and LV tools in this way, but buyer beware I haven’t been caught out yet. Make sure you keep the forum ad and transaction details if you go this way as customs will ask for evidence on occasion and will hold your package until you do.
You may see some benefit in shipping using a third party shipper like Shipito but postage too has risen significantly.

Originally Posted by Fergiz01

A thousand dollars is a lot for a vise, but will be the only expense in the whole build, as I sourced the wood for free. For those who are interested, I'm building an 8' x 3' version of Richard Macguire's workbenchfrom recycled Karri 8 x 2's. I'll post some pics when I'm done.

You must have an acreage for a workshop!

Now Derek is going to disagree with me strongly here - and a caveat - I have never used a leg vise. BUT, I have grave difficulty seeing the benefit in them, except for very specific types of job holding such as doors and the like.

Another caveat - I'm happy to be convinced of their virtues (coz they do look very cool)......gotta be a strong argument though....

A leg vise allows for a bit more depth before the job is sitting on the screw. A regular face vise might allow 125mm or so down to the thread (Terry's is 160mm??) and a leg vise might be ..I dunno really...250mm? But you are also restricted to 200mm width, where a face vise can be 300-400mm. It just doesn't seem like a great big gain for all the fuss of a leg vise.

The only other benefit I can see is that you can grab the whole width of a door (for perhaps 3 inches of its length) - as long as the face doesn't rack.

But do you need to grab the whole width of a door? When I was planing the edge of a table top (so, a short door) recently at fletty's place, a simple $150 device was pretty good, with no bench in sight. In a face vise it would have been quite rigid.

5. Planing out table saw marks on the edges.JPG

For holding deeper things, I would personally prefer to have a wider Hovarter Twin Screw quick release, mounted on the other side of the bench to one of Terry's face vises (in conjunction with a sliding Dead Man).

I defer to others who are vastly more experienced than I, and I have asked this question about leg vises a number of times before. Most recently I asked Evan Dunstone (who made Terry's Bamboo top bench). He considered the question for a moment, and then "Nup". I'm yet to hear a convincing argument....
so go for it! Shoot me down!


Have a look at the video on Terry's home page. fletty and I happened to call in a few hours after they shot that, and we can confirm that the dust on the shaft was real!

Now Derek is going to disagree with me strongly here - and a caveat - I have never used a leg vise. BUT, I have grave difficulty seeing the benefit in them, except for very specific types of job holding such as doors and the like.

Brett, you desperately need to come to Perth for a stay at my home and play in my workshop! Book your flight now!

There is no right or wrong about vises - they are do well in different areas, which is what I indicated earlier.

When I was building my current bench several years ago, my original choice was the Veritas twin screw for a face vise. Up until then I had used a Record 52 1/2, which is essentially the same style as the HNT Gordon. My decision at the time to go to a twin screw was to be able to hold boards for dovetailing.



Here's my old bench with the Record ...



Then the Moxon dovetail vise began to surface through the writings of Chris Schwarz. This was a game changer. I built one and realised that it made the twin screw defunct for my purposes. What I needed a face vise to excel in was the holding of long boards for planing/jointing edges. The advantage of the leg vise was its simplicity and rapid action. It did not matter if it racked (although I designed an accessory to prevent mine doing so). It opened and closed significantly faster than a Record quick release (and the HNT Gordon). Mine has 12" to the top of the bench, and a chain drive so that it does not require manual setting of the parallel guide. For holding long boards, it was the best way to go for me.

With a sliding deadman I can plane a long surface quite easily ...



As I mentioned earlier, if one was focussed on small lengths, such as boxes, then I reckon that the HNT Gordon would be the bee knees. At the same time, Terry's vise can hold long boards with the assistance of a sliding deadman, but it would be more time consuming to use for this task than a leg vise. We all could live with any vise - we would simply adjust to the idiosyncrasies.

There are just so many ways to hold work on a bench. One does not even need a vise - I've posted about this recently. When one analyses what one does most of the time, we will probably come up with different priorities because we focus on different areas of woodwork ... hence a different emphasis on types of vises.

Now about that trip to Perth ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

Fergie I forgot to mention that I ended up buying the crisscross and fitted it because as I also did not want to be bending down and setting the parallel guide.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Brett, you desperately need to come to Perth for a stay at my home and play in my workshop! Book your flight now!

Derek that would be a HUGE amount of fun, I know. What's more, I can prolly even rustle up some very recent and glowing references, to say that I am at least moderately well behaved! (despite all other reports you may read from time to time). Bushmiller and IanW can provide references, although the former, and likely the latter, were heavily influenced by the choice of wines that were brought along. Influenced by the choice, not necessarily the wine itself, you understand. Refer the faFFing around - Tour de SEQ.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

There is no right or wrong about vises - they are do well in different areas

Yeah of course - it would be great to be able to incorporate them all, but somewhat impractical. IanW, for example, can't imagine life without a shoulder vise. The problem is that we have to make a decision on what to use, without ever necessarily using one, let alone living with one for a decent amount of time. How long can I stay? 3 months? Pretty sure you wouldn't last that long!

Originally Posted by derekcohen

What I needed a face vise to excel in was the holding of long boards for planing/jointing edges.
The advantage of the leg vise was its simplicity and rapid action. That's because of the large pitch of the wooden thread?
It opened and closed significantly faster than a Record quick release (and the HNT Gordon). This is the purpose of the handwheel - to speed up big openings/closings
Mine has 12" to the top of the bench, That is a decent amount of depth.
and a chain drive so that it does not require manual setting of the parallel guide. Yes, saw that - noice!

With a sliding deadman I can plane a long surface quite easily ...

So that pic brings us to the nitty gritty. "but it would be more time consuming to use for this task than a leg vise."
With the handwheel, and familiarity - critical, I believe they would be comparable. If that was the case it would then come down to cost, and construction complexity and in that particular race Terry's would win hands down.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

We all could live with any vise - we would simply adjust to the idiosyncrasies. Yes.
There are just so many ways to hold work on a bench. Yes.
Now about that trip to Perth ... You may live to regret that.....are you suggesting a faFF Tour de WA?

Derek that would be a HUGE amount of fun, I know. What's more, I can prolly even rustle up some very recent and glowing references, to say that I am at least moderately well behaved! (despite all other reports you may read from time to time). Bushmiller and IanW can provide references, although the former, and likely the latter, were heavily influenced by the choice of wines that were brought along.

Well, "moderately well behaved" may be a problem. We don't tolerate "well behaved" in WA, but "moderately" does leave some room to manoeuvre

So that pic brings us to the nitty gritty. "but it would be more time consuming to use for this task than a leg vise."
With the handwheel, and familiarity - critical, I believe they would be comparable. If that was the case it would then come down to cost, and construction complexity and in that particular race Terry's would win hands down.

Au contraire ... my leg vise cost zip. So there! OK, it cost wood .. which was in my wood storage, so that doesn't count.

What does a commercial wooden screw cost? I believe someone is importing them into Oz. David Eckert?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Au contraire ... my leg vise cost zip. So there! OK, it cost wood .. which was in my wood storage, so that doesn't count.

What does a commercial wooden screw cost? I believe someone is importing them into Oz. David Eckert?

Yebbut the OP is talking about a grand$ worth of Benchcrafted leg vise.....

Mind you, a commercial wooden screw from Lake Erie is a bit less, and maybe less to post I imagine (would probably fit into one of the standard USPS boxes?):
https://www.lakeerietoolworks.com/co...ise-screw-kits

I guess the thread pitch is about double that of a metal thread, so twice as quick to travel but with less.....uhhh.....something.....(but is that something important?).