On Mar 14, 12:06 pm, "Stephen M"
wrote:
The top will be a 1" Oak butcher-block table ($40 at second hand
store) on top of two layers of MDF. I think I will attach it this
way:
Drill slightly oversize holes in one sheet of MDF then screw that
piece to the Oak using Liquid Nails as glue since the Liquid Nails
stays flexible.

I don't have a good feeling about this part. You can expect seasonal change
in width of a 30" wide oak to to be on the order of 1/4". The MDF should
stay fairly consistent. I don't think liquid nails is going to allow a layer
of the sandwich slide like that.

I think your top needs to be all solids or all sheet goods.

I'm concerned about that as well, what about this approach

Screw and glue it down tight along the center
Elongate the holes and screw with no glue going out towards either
side
Glue the frame only to the top Oak layer
Put a return on the frame so it wraps under the bottom layer of MDF

Going at it this way and using the 1/4" you metion would cut the
movement in half and make it a max of 1/8" over 15"



I don't know what a Nyquist vise is, but the rest of the design seems
doable. If you have not read it yet, get a copy of "the workbench book" by
Landis. It's about $20 and worth every penny. The Landis book explores all
sorts of benches: Euro-traditional, Japanese, plywood ...even a chapter on
the workmate.

A Nyquist vise is similar in shape to this
www.thenewchinkyworkshop.com/TailViseSide.jpg
except the part at the end of the bench closes at the same time as the
part on the front of the bench. The front part is also solid not a
box like a tail vise that uses this hardware.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...36&cat=1,41659

The vise is detailed in "The Workbench" by Lon Schleining
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5208