Thread: Mounting a woodworking vise

A nice shed and bench Ian, congrats. If you used the coach bolts from underneath and later found that that they were unsatisfactory you could replace them with the cup head bolts without making the existing holes any larger. You would need to drill out at 10mm and countersink. So nothing lost in trying the coach bolt first.

Considering the abuse a vice will get over its life I'd recommend through-bolting the vice to the bench. An alternative is to use a larger spacer plate, say 150mm x 300mm, which will suit the thickness of the bench top and bolt the vice to this instead. Then the larger surface of the spacer plate can be glued to the underside of the bench.

I tend to detest coach screw/bolts because they have a nasty habit is splitting the timber they're screwed into if it's too near an edge.

Thanks to you both for your responses.

Fencepost, yep it's shaping up to be a nice place to work and I take your point

Kman, unfortunately, with a jaw height of 55mm and a bench top thickness of 45mm, I only have 10 mm to play with so the plate idea has it's problems.

A thought just ocurred to me that maybe the metal should be a tad below bench height to keep it from damaging blades etc - rather than flush with the top. I would fit the timber jaws to be flush but set the jaws down a bit - any suggestions?

I did a bit of experimenting with a 8mm tap holes and I think the coach bolts will suffice, and I didn't get any splitting, even a 19mm bit of Tassie Oak so I reckon I'll be OK.

I have a 150 mm Dawn engineers vice to go on the right hand end of the bench so any abuse will be directed at that. The Groz will only be the more genteel activities

Regards

Ian

55mm!?!?

Would you mind pointing me to the vice you're talking about, I'm not sue we're talking about the same thing.

Ian,
You are right about keeping the metal jaws a tad below the top. Fit wood cheeks then plane them after fitting to be level with the top. I would be leaning more to through bolting as a more secure fix but the coach bolts will probably do .

Regards
John

Kman - the vise is on the Carba-tec site - http://www.carbatec.com.au/store/ind...=60_7890_19263
The 55mm is from the top of the rear jaw to the top surface of the mounting plate

Thanks Orraloon -will do. Yeah I had a bit of a fiddle with the coach bolts and if the positions are pre-drilled they go in pretty well and a bit of dry-lube helps as well - they seem to cut a nice deep, smooth thread and it is into hardwood so they should be good enough

Regards

Ian

Can I come and work in your shed/

I can't get around mine at the moment!

Artme - you know the rules - the amount of carp expands to fit the space available - I give it 12 months and then I'll have to go out side just to change my mind

Ian

Looks a lot bigger than that, but it's enough to work with. The top of the vice can up to 30mm lower than the bench top providing you have nice sturdy wooden jaws fitted. Any more than that and the jaw thickness might start impeding on the max opening too much.

Mine are 20mm below the bench top which would give you a 30mm spacer plate; ample for through bolts then glued to the underside of the bench. That's how I'd do it anyway

Good luck with it all, which ever method to choose.

Dave.

I fitted a vice like that one, using coach screws up into the underside of the benchtop. Make sue your pilot holes are the right size and splitting wont be an issue. I like the idea of a fixing that can be accessed to tighten up after a while, and some of the stresses going into a vise are pretty strong.

Thank you all for your responses. I'll get back to you when I've done the deed


Regards

Ian

I said I'd get back when I'd done the deed - thank you all - so in case you missed it take a look here - http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...231#post740231

Regards

Ian