On 21 Nov 2003 12:30:44 GMT, (Chuckburkett)
wrote:

I'm thinking of building a new bench with a tail vise. I've never used one,
though I currently have a traveling dog.

What sort of tail vice ? I've got the Tage Frid bench design;
Scandanavian style vices with a big dog-leg shoulder vice on the left
and an L shaped tail vice to the right.

My observations:

- The shoulder vice is near useless. It won't hold anything less than
4" square in section. Handy for large part-assembled pieces, but not
for stock you're first working on.

- The travelling dog is wonderful. This is my main means of clamping.

- The end of the tail vice (the notch in the front edge of the bench)
is useful, but not large.

- I don't use the "tail" of the tail vice at all. As Frid points out,
this is a moving dog, not a clamping device. Stressing the back corner
of the vice frame strains the rectangular alignment of it.


My thoughts on tail vices:

- You don't need it. The dogs will do most of the work.

- The L shaped wooden vice isn't designed to take a force on the back
edge. Just don't do it.

- A tail vice of any sort is useless, if your bench is against a wall
like mine is.

- Two rows of dogs would be worth having, and that needs a vice
design that can take a skewing force on the back corner.

- If you're really after a tail vice (and I'm sure that some tasks
will find them useful), then look at a two-screw metal vice design
like the Veritas.


Hindsight:

- If I built this bench again, I'd keep the tail vice, but I'd set up
two rows of dog holes, not one. I did a small round table top recently
- it was a real nuisance to hold, but two rows of dogs would have made
it easy.

- I'd skip the shoulder vice in favour of a cast iron face vice.

- I'd make hardwood dogs, rather than buying metal ones. These were
the commonplace chromed rectangular dogs; they're hard on an edge if
you hit one, and the chrome plate was rubbish that flaked off in razor
shards.


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Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods