[Editor's Note - This was originally posted on a different host in August 2007]
Vise with Vices?
At the end of the last post I had built and fitted the new bench top. I had mixed feelings about using a face vise in the tail vise position and was waiting to build and fit the leg vise.
So I set about taking a chuck of hard maple and making a leg vise. The piece of 8/4 maple was around 5″ wide and 36″ long. 5″ is a bit narrow to make a decent vise of so I half-lapped a piece of 4/4 maple onto the top to make a wider face with this result.
What I won’t show is how ugly the half-lap actually is. I decided to cut it entirely by hand. Bad move. Hard maple doesn’t work so easily with hand tools. It took a long time and was a little ugly by the time I was done. Note to self – use a dado stack on the table saw next time and then tidy up with hand tools. To be fair though if I ever did a large half lap like this again with hand tools I would approach the problem differently. The hole for the vise screw was also drilled.
At this point I had to deal with the leg of the bench. The legs were never designed for a large hole of a vise screw to go through them. Neither were they designed to be slotted for the parallel guide that goes at the base of the leg vice.
To solve that problem I made a false leg with the hole for the screw and the slot for the parallel guide in it. This was carefully made 4 square with hand tools. I then glued this to the leg, which wasn’t ever made 4 square in the first place.
Having learned my lesson from the half lap incident I chucked up a 3/4″ straight cutter in the router table and cut the mortise in the base of the leg for the spacer on the router table. The end was squared off with a 3/4″ chisel.
The parallel guide was ripped from some 3/4 maple and jointed on the tail vise. This tail vise is growing on me, although I could have done this with the leg vise, had it been fitted.
It was face planed to a nice, tight fit. This is one of those little moments where planning stops and bench dogs come into play.
I’m beginning to really like this arrangement!
The initial fit of the parallel guide.
The setup for drilling the holes for the parallel guide. Note the Veritas surface clamps holding the piece down for drilling. About this time I decided it was about time to get a drill press
I then drilled the leg vise for a couple of dowels to hold the parallel guide into the leg vise. This way I could easily replace the guide if I needed to. The dowels were just driven in without glue. The fit of the parts is good enough that this gives a very solid joint.
And then I took a piece of 1/4″ hardwood dowel and shaved it down a little with an old Stanley spoke shave. This would form the moveable cross pin for the parallel guide.
This actually turned into another one of those Ah-Ha moments. The piece is angled out towards the front of the bench. This could not be done with the wagon vice I used to have nor could it be done with the leg vise. Angled in this manner it felt very natural working the piece. Score one plus point for the face vice as a tail vice! A more traditional tail vice could also be used in this manner as well. This just goes to show that surprises lie in wait with any design.
So on to the moment of truth. The leg is screwed in and some leather glued to the face for additional holding power. Fit the pin and clamp a small off cut of pine and turn the handle. This is where I had another surprise. The clamping power of this thing is phenomenal. Compared to a face vise this clamps with much less effort.
Releasing a part and re-positioning is fast and easy. The fact the screw is 9″ below the top of the vise means wide (or long pieces vertically) can be easily clamped.
I was pretty skeptical about the leg vise before I started this. Right now I believe this has great potential and that it can work very well. The question now is will it work well with my style of woodworking. Time will tell.
One aspect that has captured me already is that it can be removed completely in the time it takes to undo the screw completely leaving a very clear bench. Although the leg vise is quite narrow and probably won’t need to be removed much a twin screw face vise would be another matter. I think that any face of leg vise I use in the future will also be completely removable. This takes expensive items like the Veritas twin screw vise out of the running.
The final addition to the bench for the moment will be the crochet at the end, and some holes in the legs for the holdfasts so I can run a batten between the legs to support long boards for jointing.