I am building a bench for my son, which will include a face vice. On all of the basic work benches I have owned or built, this vice has been mounted on the right front side of benchtop, which has always made sense to me: I am right handed, and to clamp a board in the vice and saw off the end, this arraingement works best.
Yet I see that on all of the fancy-dancy cabinet makers benche$, the face vice is mounted on the left front side and a tail vice on the right side, on the right hand face of the bench top.
Can anyone explain this to me (without being toooo condescending)?
Thanks, wsf
Replies
wflather,
Not positive at all, but I believe it is better when planing. I'm left handed and set up my vise on the left side, my heavy bench will still rack when I put stock on the left side and plane. I would be better off to have th vise on the right side and planing into the vise. That's my guess...also, when sawing it would leave my right hand free to grab the cuttoff.
When sawing across the stock the board doesn't need to be held in a vise. Typically is is just set on a lower bench and stabilized by the sawyer's knee. For small stock a miter box or bench hook is used. As the other poster suggested the vise on the left is a set up for edge planing.
John White
Both replies make sense. My son is 5, for him, the hand-eye coordination required to saw following a line is hard enough without having to concentate on holding the board in a miter box or bench hook, even though those are both great aids. Having the vice on the left where it is for planing also makes sense, so I'm sill not sure which side to mount a vise on.
wsf
You can clamp the stock in the miter box or to a bench hook or onto a low saw bench so your son won't have to control the stock. You can always get two vises as another possibility, but holding the stock in a bench vise is a very awkward way to saw and not a practice I would want to encourage.John W.
My Dad's bench, the first one I remember, had a vise on the left end that looked like a Record iron vise.
The right side had a vise he used for sawing, that I have never seen duplicated. The right leg was about eight inches wide, and flush with the edge of the bench. There was a vise on that leg that was in essence a huge hand screw clamp, with a jaw that was eight inches wide and three inches deep. There were two screw assemblies, and you could move the bottom and top both in or out to get the face parallel to the face of the wood you were clamping.
I always figured that the side vise ended up on the opposite end of the table from the end vise, just because there wasn't enough room for both mechanisms at one end. I personally think that having the side vise on the right would work just was well for planing as having it on the left, and on thin stock could work better.
The right hand vise sounds like a leg vise. Did it go all the way to the floor? I have two of those, but unfortunately neither in a usable mounting location right now. They were used on old traditional benches, often with another leg that slid along the front of the bench housed between the top and bottom rail. This leg usually had a peg that could be positioned in holes in various high or low positions to support a long, wide piece of wood where one end would be held in the vise. Come to think of it, on a bench I have in storage (waiting for restoration) that leg vise is mounted on the left front side of the bench.
I'm not sure if it went to the floor. If it didn't it was close.
Any ideas on where I can find double acting screws, to try and duplicate it?
"double acting screws."
Do you mean screws like in a hand screw? Of course you could take one from a hand screw but there is one of these catalogues that lists just the screw so you can make one using your own wood. I must have it in a catalogue here some place.
JnF,
The leg vises I have seen did not have a bench screw on the bottom of the leg, they have a bar with notches or a bar with holes that could be set with a pin so that the bottom of the leg could be set out from the bench to about the same distance as the top of the vise that worked with a bench screw, if that makes any sense.
You can buy bench screw hardware from Woodcraft:http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=305
Shop Fox:http://www.right-tool.com/shfod3besc.html
and many others.
There are leg vise plans and examples out there:http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/Leg+Vise+Farewell+To+The+Parallel+Guide.aspx
http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/The+ToDo+List+Sliding+Leg+Vise.aspx
http://structuraldamage.blogspot.com/2008/03/leg-vise.html
http://www.woodcentral.com/shots/shot625.shtml
http://www.dabullfrog.com/wolfpackwoodworks/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=1
Thanks for the information.
My Dad had a leg vise on his bench when I was about five or six, that had two screws, similar to a really big hand clamp.
I hadn't thought about it for years until I read this thread. Now that I remember it, I want to try and put one on a bench I'm in the planning phase on right now.
I found a guy on eBay that is selling 36-inch long, 1-inch diameter threaded rod with a five pitch Acme thread, and has the matching nuts to go with it. If need be, I can buy a couple of pieces and some nuts, and make up my own screws in the shop at work. But, it would be easier to buy bench screws if I can find some I can modify to work.
I'll probably start a new thread tonight instead of hijacking this one, and see if anyone has sources. It is doubtful but, worth the try.
Sawing with a hand saw? My 8 yr old has quite a bit of trouble sawing to a line. He's more in hammer mode. I say put the vise wherever you wish and make it so you can remove it. Also, make the bench lower than you think you should. I find children can't plane well. They lack the upper body strength and mass, sometimes even for a smoother. Getting more of their weight over the bench helps (helps me too). If fact, he may be more comfortable on the floor. Good luck with the bench and the son.Adam
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