On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:02:57 -0400, "No name" wrote:

My first impression from the pictures is that I'd replace the maple faces with
ones that were about 5 or 6" longer... Then, besides protecting your work, they
add a bit of holding and alignment..
My vise has a slide-up metal dog but I prefer holes in the top of the
sacrificial face with round dogs..

I'm pretty happy with my shop-made dogs, though I don't do much flat work..
I started with 1 1/4" square stock, cut to about 3" long, and chucked them on
the lathe and turned a round taper on the "bench" end.. Gives an easy, self
aligning peg that has a flat face for better holding.. YMWV

Dear Rec,



I have attached three pictures to illustrate my questions. I think I have
made them small enough for easy download, but I can't be sure until after I
post them, so..sorry if they come out big.



I have a 10" wide, quick acting woodworking vise that I got from my dad. I
currently have it mounted on my workbench, but I am planning a bench upgrade
(better, flatter top) and I want to remount the vise to give me the maximum
benefit of its features.



As you can see in the pictures, I have attached maple the jaw faces. If you
will note, the moving jaw has a lip on the top that extends full width and
stands proud of the top by about 5/16". The thickness of the lip is about
half the jaw thickness.



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?



4. Are there any other mounting/use options I have overlooked?



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.



Thanks for your input,



Bill Leonhardt



mac

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