Thread: Fitting a tail vice in a tricky spot!

Are there any photos?

Sorry Mike, I couldn't get the pictures up from my phone immediately. They're up now.

Could something like the Veritas insert vise do the trick?

That was my first thought- Unfortunately, the existing holes are too close to the edge to get the inset vice in line with them- They're only 20mm from the edge.

Cheers,
P.

Have you thought about fitting an HNT Gordon tail vice I just did to my bench a boy it is a very handy accessory for the bench.
http://www.hntgordon.com.au/bench-vices.html


Cheers
Steve

Originally Posted by McPete

That was my first thought- Unfortunately, the existing holes are too close to the edge to get the inset vice in line with them- They're only 20mm from the edge.

Cheers,
P.

Could you glue another length along the front edge to increase the width? Or, cut off the existing dogholes, and glue a new strip along there with the appropriate width.

Originally Posted by fineboxes

Have you thought about fitting an HNT Gordon tail vice I just did to my bench a boy it is a very handy accessory for the bench.
http://www.hntgordon.com.au/bench-vices.html

+1 on that. If you can pack up the bottom of the top (?) to about 50mm it might work. They are a great little tail vise. I use mine with T-Track rather than dog 'oles.

My current thinking is that I'll patch the original dog holes and drill new ones ~40mm from the edge, and do the standard 19mm round ones... Keeping to a standard makes life easier!

You certainly need a lot more than 40mm overhang for a traditional tail vise, and I don't think any of the metal-gutted types will fit in the depth of top you've got to play with, so it would seem you are pretty-well restricted to using one of the surface-mounting travelling-dog type arrangements, unless you rebuild the undercarriage, which I imagine you would be very reluctant to do. To get the current dog holes into a slightly more convenient position, you could simply glue another piece of wood along the front....

Cheers,

Well how's this for a coincidence? Yesterday, I picked up a copy of 'Popular woodworking' (April 2014), to read while waiting for the boss at the audiologist. She was out before I had time to do more than glance at the first few pages, so I only got to have a serious look last night, & there on page 42 is a home-made "tail vise". They have a bit of blurb on it here, on their website, but you'd need the mag for full construction details, of course.

It isn't a tail vise in the traditional sense, but a travelling-dog system (aka 'wagon vise'), but what caught my eye was how skinny it is. He used ply for the sides, which keeps the bulk down, & it's made as a self-contained unit the screws onto the bench front. It's a clever idea that I think could be readily adapted to your situation. Depends how much you enjoy mucking about making your own gear, but the basic idea is good, and could be modified in various ways to suit a particular bench. You could make one for very little cash outlay, too. For example, you don't have to use an Acme thread as shown in the article, a bit of garden-variety 3/4" all-thread could be made to do the job, etc. Anyways, it might be worth a look.

Cheers,

Thanks Ian,

I can see some rather oblique references to that around the web, but nothing much to work with. I guess I'll have to stump up for a copy, if the ACT guild doesn't have it already!

EDIT: Just found it on Zinio... Google Newstand, for some inexplicable reason has geoblocked Australia for Popular Woodworking. Just lost my business

EDIT 2: That's the business. I have an inkling of how I can do that with my bench- I'm going to have to use up the space on my apron rail above my drawers, but that'll work nicely. Much obliged sir!

Cheers,
Pete

OK, Pete. So you have the full article now? It's a lot more helpful than the website entry, but it still makes some leaps of faith. However, there's more than enough there to give you the general idea, and if I were making it, I would probably modify a few things, anyway. For one thing, you could stick to just one dog slot, or at the most, two, to keep it compact. As long as the dog can travel a bit more than the space between the dogs on the bench, it will do the job.

Let us know how it goes, if you do end up making something similar. It would also be worth posting it in the 'home-made vises' thread in the Workbench section, for others to take inspiration from.....

Cheers,

Hey Ian,

Yeah, got the full drawings- I'll look at doing that over the next few months. Still thinking about how I'm going to get it flush-up with the benchtop, but my local woodies, the WWF crowd and a machinist or two I know should be able to nut it out.

Sorry for the slow reply- It's been an 'interesting' few weeks at work.

Cheers,
Peter