Thread: New vises for a new bench

Lots of good choices there Derek and also lots of thought gone into other options.

I will have to keep coming back and hear what others have to say.

Where do you start?

#51 Record
At the moment I have a #51 record (which is my avatar). No quick release, no built in dog, weighs a ton and crushes anything unfortunate enough to get in its jaws. I would like to be able to open and close this thing more quickly, but I get by and am used to it. Not much good for fine work unless you are willing to exchange back-ache for it.

Vises for the new bench

Benchcrafted Moxon Vise
I ordered one of these the other day so I can use an elevated work surface and save my back during fine work. I will provide some thoughts once I have used it but the main drawback is expense, both for the vise and the shipping. Main advantages are speed and getting the work piece into the 'accurate zone' up near the chest.



Benchcrafted Leg Vise
I am still making the leg vise. This is intended to be a fast acting, rapid opening vise. I will provide some thoughts once I have used it but the main drawback is expense, both for the vise and the shipping.

Benchcrafted Wagon Vise
Get one. I was using it before I finished the bench and am still using it every time I am in the shop. It holds all sorts of objects from vertical boards to clamping long horizontal boards - great time saver. It took a lot of time to build in but the effort is easily worth it. I suggest you invest a lot of time in thinking each intended use of the vise through, step by step.

Notes.

• You do not have to clamp hard for planing, just nip it up.
• For holding vertical boards, get a variable spacer or wedge to stop fwd and back movement when sawing.
• Think carefully about the wheel placement. Benchcrafted recommend you have the top of the wheel just under the top of the bench. Usually this results in two things: the wheel will eventually foul a long planing stroke after you have flattened your bench a few times and, secondly, the rails will foul clamps placed under the bench. My solution was to inset the rails flush with the base of the (thick) top and this still allowed me to have over 1" from the top of the bench to the top of the handle.
• Make sure you walk through the installation thoroughly. The rails can foul the legs and mortises. On a short bench this may be a problem as you really want a 450-500mm overhang. It may affect the balance of the bench.
• I worked out my installation so that I could run a vertical board flush down the bench leg when clamped. This allows the option of applying heavy F clamps if necessary using the leg as a stay. I can also rest a heavy board on a stop protruding from dog holes in the leg, thus relieving unnecessary stress from the vise itself.

Most flexible vises
These are, by far, the holdfasts and well placed deep dog holes. I have holes in the front skirt so I can use the holdfasts like a Moxon vise or leg vise. It would be very easy to mortise the ends of a board to house the ends of a holdfast which would make a very cheap Moxon vise.

The horizontal dog holes are mirrored on the opposite side of the bench so I can put steel bars into them and then use the crossbeam as a veneer press or overhead clamp. The legs have dog holes so the holdfasts can be used on them too.

Clamping wide drawers. I would put a stop in the bench skirt to arrest forward movement. Then, using holdfasts, clamp two 2x4s hanging over the bench edge to sit the drawer on.
Or, make two rests to sit in the horizontal dog holes and plane on them.

Cost. The Benchcrafted vises are very expensive. They also happened to match almost perfectly what I wanted in my vises. I got over the cost of the vises by saving a few dollars a week during the build of my bench. This took so long I didn't notice the cost at all!

Thanks for the info here folks. Derek, what have you decided on?

Hey Derek,
Have a look at the Hovarter vises - Hovarter Custom Vise | Traditional Appearance

Andy

My plan currently is to build a leg vise. I have acquired a 2 1/2" diameter quality wooden screw from the US. I was going to build a wagon vise for ythe tail vise bjut discussed this with Chris Vesper when he stayed with me. Chris wised me up to the difficulties here - there are high stresses when one offsets the screw to keep the valley open. He bought he Benchcraft tail vise ... and so shall I. I am just waiting on postage costs.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,
I've been more than happy with the traditional shoulder vise on my bench. It's the one feature I couldn't live without & I would spend close to 90% of my bench time using this one. It has a wooden screw, which is 'offfset', but the design of the moving jaw takes that into consideration, and so far I have had no problems with it. After 25 years of moderately heavy use, it has developed a very slight skew on closing. I inspected it closely a few weeks ago, but could not figure out where it has worn, so decided to ignore it for the time being, as it's not serious, yet. The faces are relatively small (about 160mm square) but with rawhide coverings, they get a good grip on all sorts of odd-shaped things.

I made my own front vise using a metal vise screw and water pipe for guides. It works well enough, though I often wish for a quick-release feature. However, as it gets less than10% of the use of the shoulder vise, it isn't a big deal.

You mention wanting to clamp tapered or uneven objects in your front vise. I have been meaning to make a swivel insert for the moveable jaw for mine for more years than I remember, to do just that. I was going to use a pivoted insert like that on the LV patternmakers vise -it should be simple enough to make something similar. Only downside I can see is it will cut 40-50mm off the jaw opening, but I have a fair amount of that to play with. I only think about it on the odd occasion I need it, so I get by with a filler strip or some other 'quick-fix' & promptly forget about it 'til next tme.

My bench is a bit under 6 feet long in old money, and can clamp a board a bit under 2metres between dogs (shoulder vise wound right out). About 3 or maybe 4 times I have wished it were 200mm longer, but otherwise it has turned out to be a good choice of size for me (except when I have to move the beast, when I wish it were smaller!).

The only feature I would change if I did it again, would be to make the dog holes on the shoulder vise half as far apart as those on the bench, instead of the same distance. In retrospect, I can't figure out why I did such a dumb thing!

Benches are one tool that just has to be personalised - what suits me very well could annoy the hell out of someone else who had to use it. I guess you can do a Groggy & cater for every imaginable eventuality (pardon me for using your magnum opus as an example, Groggy), but if you do that, you'll deprive yourself of all sorts of potential add-ons and finding solutions to problems down the track.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

I guess you can do a Groggy & cater for every imaginable eventuality (pardon me for using your magnum opus as an example, Groggy), but if you do that, you'll deprive yourself of all sorts of potential add-ons and finding solutions to problems down the track.....

Ian, perhaps you should have seen some of my previous benches, they taught me what I would like in this one! Chipboard tops - check. Wobbly frames - check. Masonite - check...and so on. This time I just sat down with a book or two and mind-mapped all the things I didn't like, and all the things I did. I compared the Roubo and the Holtzapffel and chose a bit of each. The clamp storage base is unique as far as I can tell and was designed to solve a storage problem in my little shed.

I think what makes a great bench is versatility. If you build it for a specific purpose then it becomes more of a workstation.

Interesting, keeps posted

Autocorrect, gotta love it...

Should b - keep us posted

Hi Ian

I don't recall what I wrote previously. You know my bench - it is a little under 5' long. Tiny! Yet I have managed to build some large pieces on it. The next bench will be about 6'6" long and 20-22" wide. I have the wood for the 4" thick top - European Oak (light wood that will make the most of reflected light) - and this will create a nice heavy bench that will not move. The base will be made from Jarrah rafters I have lying around.

I want the design to be simple and do all the basic tasks: edge jointing and face planing. A Roubo fits the bill. So I plan on a leg vise (as I mentioned, I will build this from a 2 1/2" diameter wooden screw) and a wagon tail vise (the BenchCraft is on the agenda). Dovetailing is via a Moxon vise, which can be clamped either to the bench or to another, higher work bench nearby.

There are a few projects to do before I can get to the bench. I will be lucky to start it before the end of this year.

What's this I read that you are back at work?!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

......What's this I read that you are back at work?!

Yairs Derek, what's that old saying about being better to wear out than rust away? But with one person on maternity leave & an unfilled vacancy, my former colleagues are feeling the pinch, so what could I do? They ARE paying for my time, of course!

Groggy - I am just doing a bit of gentle winding-up, as you know. I secretly envy people who are organised enough to think things through in advance as thoroughly as you have done. My impatience gets the better of me & I just want to see shavings & sawdust on the floor.

A classic example of my style was when I decided to make the perfect toolbox, after years of remodelling an old ply monster that never worked for me. I started by doing some reading & looking at other folk's solutions, followed by laying out everything I had, & measuring it all up & trying to visualise the most convenient arrangement. I thought at that time that I owned all the tools I would ever need (), but should allow a litle bit of extra room for the odd irresistible thing that might come along. However, when I sat down to draw the magic container up, it just got too complicated! So I decided the bench planes, were probably the most awkward things, and arranged them first, then just added two banks of shallow drawers & a couple of wide ones underneath to hold everything else.

Of course, as you might expect, some more tools followed me home from various places & begged to be given a good home, and I found a couple of elements didn't work as intended. One was a major boo-boo, & I still don't know what possessed me to do it that way, but I placed the major bench planes on the left side instead of the right, making it slightly awkward to lift the bigger ones out.

So, you guessd it, that prompted the first internal changes, & 10 years & several remodelling sessions later, I have it working pretty well. A few better ways to hold & store things occurred to me during some re-fits, like my chisel holders made from chunky scraps instead of thin dividers, and the rasp & file rack which is a stack of plastic conduit lengths sandwiched into a frame. As you can see, I try to use every available space, but (almost) everything can be retrieved easily with one hand. You might also note the overly-elaborate saw buttons, so when forumites are teasing you about the flourishes on your bench, you know there are other tragics out there.

It's not quite perfect - there are still a few things I would change if I were ever to try again (which I am not going to do - read my lips! ). This may help to explain why my own bench is relatively simple, with add-ons & extras, & why I envy blokes who are organised & persistent enough to try to solve all the problems in advance.............

Avagooday,

Derek,
The Veritas twin screw comes in a shorter version than 24" - in fact I think Carbatec only sell the shorter one. The centres are 16 5/8" apart.
Chris

I meant to also point out that the 21st Century Bench from popular Woodworking allows a board longer than the bench to be clamped along the front.

That's a bewdiful tool chest there Ian. I need to redo my cupboards soon and am looking forward to making something like this