Thread: My Xmas Bench

This is the copy of board jack I saw years ago.

IMG_5057a.jpg

IMG_5058a.jpg

Hmm, no good asking for that wood back now, is there Ck?

I'm really pleased to see it found such a good home & was put to such good use, and it's the kind of build I revel in - adjusting a few things here & there to fit the material available. There is no perfect size for a bench, I've discovered, there will always be some job that won't fit between the dogs at maximum stretch & you have to figure out some workaround, but with a bench this size, such occasions are very rare. I think you mentioned at one point that you would be able to hold something between the front dogs about 50mm longer than I can clamp (just a touch <2M). Anyway another 50mm would have done nicely for me the couple of times the piece I wanted to hold was a touch too long, but since it has happened only 2 or 3 times in the nearly 40 years since I made the bench, I think it has hardly been a problem!

I can't take credit for the ball-catch idea, I saw it in the "handy hints" section of an early FWW. Prior to that I'd tried a few other methods to make dogs stay put, with limited success. I tried wooden tongues set in the side or the front as a spring, or just making the dog a firm fit in the hole. The latter worked ok for short periods, depending on the MC of the benchtop, but most of the time they were either too tight or too loose, while the springs were hard to make just right so they would hold without being too tight or too loose and the wooden tongues didn't want to stay 'springy' for long.

I was a bit concerned the balls would wear tracks in the dog-holes & stop working after a few years, but that hasn't happened at all and my bench top is maple, which is about 1/2 as hard as the stuff in your bench top, so I don't think there'll be too many problems in your lifetime, Ck....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by auscab

IMG_5058a.jpg

That's a nifty jack, Rob. I made a sliding support for my bench originally with just a series of holes for pegs, but it became a liability when I decided to put some storage cupboards under the bench - something I had not planned to do originally, but decided a few years down the track that there was a lot of potential storage going to waste under there! I very quickly got tired of having to move the slider out of the way whenever I needed to access the cupboards, so it got the flick in short order. Now, I either kick a short stool under the board if it's a very wide one, or hold a peg-board in the tail vise. Neither method is good, I end up hitting my shins on the stool because it's sticking out too far, and half the time, the board I want to edge is about 40mm too short to reach the peg board in the tail vise.

Project #(something) for 2024 - make a jack like yours....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

That's a nifty jack, Rob. I made a sliding support for my bench originally with just a series of holes for pegs, but it became a liability when I decided to put some storage cupboards under the bench - something I had not planned to do originally, but decided a few years down the track that there was a lot of potential storage going to waste under there! I very quickly got tired of having to move the slider out of the way whenever I needed to access the cupboards, so it got the flick in short order. Now, I either kick a short stool under the board if it's a very wide one, or hold a peg-board in the tail vise. Neither method is good, I end up hitting my shins on the stool because it's sticking out too far, and half the time, the board I want to edge is about 40mm too short to reach the peg board in the tail vise.

Project #(something) for 2024 - make a jack like yours....

Cheers,

Ian . I use the sliding fitted board jack on my Jarrah bench all the time and prefer it just because its always there . But it is always going left or right just to get to a drawer. The free standing one was one I used before I built the Jarrah bench and became the one the other guys used on the other three benches in the work shop. It works just as well as my Jarrah one but can also be placed in a lot of places the Jarrah one can not go like supporting things out left of the vice.

Like I was saying above . Its just a fast copy of a metal one I saw at a mates workshop. His one came from the Vic rail workshops and is a 19th century blacksmith made. Its a STUNNING example from memory. I remember gawking at it every time I visited him. I rang him the other day asking for a picture. While I was talking to him I did 6 laps of the workshop looking for the timber one for these pictures! I found my one in a pile of upright boards of similar height with just the top of its post visible eventually. The downside to a free standing version possibly is losing it. The original is all metal with a saw tooth ratchet where my inserted rods are. The mate says he will send a picture and I'll put it up here just to show how nice they can be. That's going from my memory again and the last time I saw it was over 30 years ago. My one could be done neater . like the two flats on the support could be rounded . The rods could have been trimmed back a bit. They would even have been OK even with a screw or coach screw for each rod. It has stood up well over the years . The base is cross halved jointed and the post is mortised in of course which you would have figured out. Quite quick to make.

Rob

Yeah, the construction is pretty straightforward - the pic tells most of the story. As soon as I saw it I thought "an obvious & elegant solution - why didn't I think of it?"

Know what you mean about portable things going awol at the drop of a hat - I spend more time looking for tools than using them, lately. But the jack is a good size & won't find too many places to hide in a small shed. (I hope)....

Cheers,

Here it is called a "bench slave". Not sure if that is still a political correct name. [emoji849]

Bench Slave - Australian Wood Review

I am thinking to make one with the left over wood. I should still have enough.

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Originally Posted by IanW

Hmm, no good asking for that wood back now, is there Ck?

Nope [emoji16]

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Thanks, Ck, I knew I'd seen something similar to Rob's jack/slave/stand (whatever ), somewhere, but couldn't remember where (that article was in issue #66, so quite a while back already!). I did vaguely remember that what I'd seen was an all-wood affair & I think I like the idea of an all-wood stand like Peter's better, even though the steel straps & peg system of Rob's stand is probably sturdier. The movable jaws on my bar clamps are all-wood and have stood up to pretty heavy use with no problems so far:
Bar clamp rear jaw.jpg Clamp bar red.jpg

So I would not have any qualms about using wood straps, but I wouldn't use a through-pin for the stand, of course, it would be a fiddle to adjust, so the scalloped back edge idea will be the way I'll go ....

Cheers

Originally Posted by Cklett

Here it is called a "bench slave". Not sure if that is still a political correct name. [emoji849]

Bench Slave - Australian Wood Review

I am thinking to make one with the left over wood. I should still have enough.

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That looks good . The shorter foot on one side I like . I think the support block would be better held with a steel Yoke as Peter calls it not a timber one . It would be Ok though if looked after in timber. It wouldn't have lasted in my situation though.
And the stub dowel, round or square into the base, Id be putting right through and wedging it from the other side. My one started loosening up after a few years of hard use down there and needed attention. Sharing it around with all the guys in the workshop really put it to the test of endurance.

Ck, I've only just come across this thread and seen your bench. What a great job you have done. I like everything ... well, except for the attached tool well, but even that has a great feature for clearing shavings. It looks to be a stout and stable bench with excellent work holding .... and damn pretty to boot! May you have much pleasure using it to build over the years to come!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Cklett,

Awesome bench! Did you cut dovetails on all four corners of the bench top?

Originally Posted by johknee

Hi Cklett,

Awesome bench! Did you cut dovetails on all four corners of the bench top?

No. There are half blind dovetails only at the front left corner and the two rear corners.


The end cap where the tail vise is does not have dovetails. There is only a bolt with a nut which is inset into the bench top from below. The end caps are also kept inline with the bench top by a 12mm plywood spline.

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Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Gorgeous CK! Do you have any photos of the construction of the tail vise?

Sorry for the late reply, MA. Holiday commitments got in the way ;-). It turned out I did not make enough good pictures from the build, but I will try to summarise.

I basically followed the plans / instructions from Chris Gochnour, "How to build a heavy duty workbench". I only used his instruction for the tail vice with some adjustments.

How to Build a Heavy-Duty Workbench - FineWoodworking

But this also seems a good guide:

Tail Vise Install | Kilted Craft Works
[Other link]

I used a tail vice kit from Beladonia, which is very similar to the Lee Valley hardware kit. Funnily enough manufacturers do not bother to provide instructions....

Basically, you first build a box that will house the guideplates in some rebates and then build the rest of the vice jaw around it. Whereas only a base plate is being screwed to the workbench. The guide plates engage to the base plate, and the screw nut is fixed to the base plate as well. It looks very simple to begin with, but it is still a lot of work.

Here you can see the core box in pine sitting in the finished vice jaw.



Following IanW's advice, I first built the core box for the vice and then established how long my cutout in the workbench needs to be.



Then I first worked on the front of the workbench with the dog holes and, at the same time, also prepared the front of the tail vice with the dog holes in there. For the workbench dogs, I chose a 100mm spacing and fir the tail vice jaw a 50mm spacing.

Knowing where the tail vice cut out length is, told me where to start the strip of dog holes in the bench top.

This is before making the cutout.



After I prepped the dog hole strips , I could figure out how deep the cutout in the work bench needed to be. After I glued the front strip to the bench top , I cut out the space for the tail vice. The cutout was such a way that the core box plus the front plate would then stick out about 1mm. That way, I still had some room to fine-tune later.




The bench top is not thick enough to accept the hole base plate. To compensate, I added an extra block of wood where the base plate will be. The extra block is fixed with three lag bolts and sized such a way that all 6 screws of the base plate will be only screwed into that extra piece. That was very handy later. I tried to predrill for the screws as carefully as I could. And still, the base plate was not perfectly prallel to the top of the bench. Luckily, I could correct that by planing a little bit of the extra block and screw it back on to have everything aligned well enough.

A groove needed to be cut into the side of the bench top. The guideplates of the vice have a groove that engages with the top and bottom edge of the base plate. Therefore, a groove is needed where the top edge of the base plate will be. The groove will need to be wide enough so the base plate can be slid into the groove and then dropped onto the base plate edge.




I did not have a router bit to do that. Instead, I used a biscuit jointer and cut the slots with that. That worked quite well.

For the lower edge, no groove was needed. I made that extra block of wood just tall enough so the bottom edge of the base plate clears sufficient for the lower guide plate to engage.



Now, I could put the core box onto the base plate and see how everything lines up and how thick the top plate will have to be in order to be flush with the bench top.

To proceed, I made a temporary top plate from pine. That was just temporarily fixed with 3 screws into the core box. Now, I could finalise the tail vice and had a reference to where the top of the bench top would be.

At that stage I also added some smaller countersunk holes to the top guide plate. I used them to screw the plate directly onto the core box to make sure it doesn't shift in the rebate. It already had some 8mm big holes, but in my opinion at the wrong spots to be helpful.

Next was to make the dovetail connection between the front of the vice and the endcap. After that, I could place that to the core box and align to be flush with the top of the temporary top plate. I figured out where the big hole for the screw needed to go in the end cap and drilled that.

I fixed the front with some screws to have an easy alignment and help for later glue up.

Then, I prepared the final top plate from some more spotted gum. I found a section of the rest pieces I still had, which aligned well with the grain of the bench top. When the vice is closed, the grain patterns match up close enough to look like they came from the same piece.

Here I devoated also from the plans. I decided to link the.top plate with the end cap with dovetails as well. Not only for looks, but to have a mechanical connection too.

After everything was fitted, I made some of al adjustments. E.g. I had to take a little away from the front of the core box so that the front plate aligned with the front of the bench and the dog holes aligned perfectly. There was a slight tilt in it, which I then could adjust for.

Then I could glue everything up.




After that was just a few fine tuning of the sides of the top plate towards the bench top to have an even gap and planing the top plate off to be flush with the bench top.


The final was then to add a thin 6mm plate at the jaw and install some rubberised cork liners.



To install the vice it is simply hanging the jaw into the upper guide plate and then bolt the bottom guide plate on and tighten the bolts from below just enough to have no racking but not so tight that it doesn't move. Put the vice screw in and secure the collar with two screws to the end cap.

Hope that gives enough explanations together with the links above. Let me know if there is anything inclear.

Here are some pics from various angles.




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I reckon you covered that very well, Ck...

These metal-slide tail vises are often touted as being much easier to build than the traditional all-wood vise, but after reading what's involved, I'm not entirely convinced of that!

I freely admit though, that the 'traditional' vise had me intimidated when I first considered building one. but once I plucked up the courage to start, it all fell into place and I soon grasped the logic of it all. I've ended up making or helping to make about a dozen of the things now & have it pretty well sorted - I know where you need to be ultra careful in order to get a vise that slides nicely and remains level with the bench top, the two main requirements. Here are a couple of shots of one under construction:

cap done.jpg tail vise a.jpg Tail vise under.jpg

If you are worried about the durability of an all-wood tail vise, mine will celebrate its 40th birthday this year & is still solid & true. I have replaced the sacrificial jaw covers & leather liners (twice!) over the years, they cop a real beating, so it's well worth taking the trouble to include those, as Ck has done. The wooden screw has developed a loud rattle lately, due to wear in the retaining system. There are a couple of ways to retain the screw so it pulls the jaw open as well as closing it, & my preferred method is to capture a 'garter' in a rebate under the boss of the screw:
V5.jpg

The retaining plate is then screwed to the back of the vise so it's all neat & well-protected from dust & dirt:
V12.jpg

The garter runs in a groove in the screw and the contact area is relatively small, so it's it's a high-wear part which I expected would need replacing much sooner. It still works fine, with only a bit of extra backlash, so it's not yet a high-priority job, but the rattle it makes when I'm winding it in quickly is becoming louder & more annoying, so it might move up the 'to do' list before much longer.

As I said, an all-wood vise does look a bit complicated at a casual glance, but it really isn't, you just need to be careful you keep it all nice & square when assembling it. For me there's much satisfaction in being able to make the whole thing from wood, it seems so appropriate for a woodworking bench, but it's probably going a bit overboard making all of your vises from wood as I did on this small auxiliary bench I made a few years ago:
Bench under.jpg

I did cheat & used lag screws instead of trenails, so it's not completely metal-free......

Cheers,