"No name" wrote in message
Dear Rec,
I have a 10" wide, quick acting woodworking vise that I got from my
dad.
Currently, I have the vise mounted so the lip extends above the plane
of my workbench top. I have also drilled a set of dog holes opposite
the vise with the thinking that I can use the vise in combination with
dogs to clamp larger pieces to the bench top. This works OK although
the 5/16" lip doesn't have all that much of a grab face. The down
side of this set-up is that if I'm moving pieces around on my bench
and they stick out over the sides, they invariably hit the vise lip
and I mar the piece.
I would like, therefore, to solicit from the collected wisdom of this
group with the following questions:
1. Have you ever seen a vise like this before? How was it mounted
relative to the workbench top?
2. Would you recommend I mount this vise to continue to use the lip
with the dogs or do you feel I should mount it lower to get the lip
out of the way?
3. If I mount the vise lower, should I retain the current maple jaw
liners or should I make a set that would extend up to the bench top,
perhaps routing away part of the wood so it tucks up against the lip?
You are the best one to answer these questions, not us. How often do
you use the lip and bench dogs to hold stuff? Most vices like this have
a sliding metal tab that you can use to hold stuff. Mine does, and I
rarely use it. To me, it doesn't look like it would do much marring to
make eliminating it worthwhile. If I HAD to get rid of it and HAD to
have the dog, I would put two dado's in a thicker wood face and have 2
pieces of oak that fit in them when needed.
As I said, I got this vise from my dad. I imagine I could probably
find a better one, but I want to keep this vise (and al the tools I
inherited) as working tools that are part of what I create in my shop.
I'd never get rid of any tools I inherited from my father. They give me
pleasure just looking at them, and I use his stuff all the time. I
doubt you could find a better vice.
--
Jack
http://jbstein.com