Bench Accessories

Made a few things to help out on the bench.

First, I took down my large metal working countertop a month or so ago, so I didn't have a place for my metal vise. So, I built a fixture to mount it on. The fixture can be clamped in both my leg vise and tail vise.

The second accessory was a bit more fun. More or less a bench on bench with a twin screw vise.

Walnut and maple, Mahogany (I think) Hand wheels.

25" between screws, 12" tall, 14" deep and 32" wide. Nice square, flat reference surfaces.

And, it fits with about 1//4" to spare below the bench dogs on its storage shelf below the bench.

all in all, halfway decent addition to the shop.

Those are pretty nice. Good looking bench, too.

Its called a Moxon vise.

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Originally Posted by Robert Engel

Its called a Moxon vise.

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Yes, but his has a benchtop as well. I really like it. This would be a great addition to the sailboat we are wanting to buy. I could have a little portable bench to (a) do woodworking while aboard, and (b) take to the source when doing repairs to the boat. I'm thinking you could also build a little table extension of some sort so that you could clamp up a decent sized board for planning. It would make a great place to do knotwork. Consider it stolen!!! Arrrrgh!!! (pirate voice)

I am very much considering putting t-tracks on one half of my bench top in order to mount my metalworking vise and other portable tools. Still undecided, but certainly considering it. If not on the top, I thought about on the face of the benchtop, and then the attachments would have a dog ear that hangs down with a t-bolt fitting to lock into the bench. That way the t-track isn't on top of the bench so when you resurface you don't have to redo the channel, and it doesn't get in the way or hold sawdust.

Matt:

Nice projects, love the detail work, I'm one of those who thinks all my projects should look good, but sometimes let the get it done bug get the best of me, well most of the time ;-) my stuff is rarely done with such detail.

Also that's a great looking bench....one note, made my Moxon just a bit larger than yours, and quickly grew tired of moving it and the bench area it consumed. Ended up mounting it to the wall with two large legs, a dedicated joinery bench. Left mine open underneath because of my disabilitys, but would love to have some drawers under it....

Thanks for sharing the projects,
Andy

Nice!

That's a pretty severe cantilever on the mounting for the metal vise. If you're only doing filing and hacksawing on it, that may not pose a problem; but I wouldn't use any hammer heavier than about eight ounces on work held in it.

Very nice accessories. What is that knob on your leg vise? Is this some cheat so you don't have to stoop down to move a pin in your parallel guide? Tell us more about that little accessory.

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Originally Posted by Malcolm Schweizer

Yes, but his has a benchtop as well. I really like it. This would be a great addition to the sailboat we are wanting to buy. I could have a little portable bench to (a) do woodworking while aboard, and (b) take to the source when doing repairs to the boat. I'm thinking you could also build a little table extension of some sort so that you could clamp up a decent sized board for planning. It would make a great place to do knotwork. Consider it stolen!!! Arrrrgh!!! (pirate voice)

I am very much considering putting t-tracks on one half of my bench top in order to mount my metalworking vise and other portable tools. Still undecided, but certainly considering it. If not on the top, I thought about on the face of the benchtop, and then the attachments would have a dog ear that hangs down with a t-bolt fitting to lock into the bench. That way the t-track isn't on top of the bench so when you resurface you don't have to redo the channel, and it doesn't get in the way or hold sawdust.

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Couldn't have said it better myself.

I miss working on sailboats. I miss sailing too.

I think t tracks might work, but with a caveat. Do they make steel t-track? Most of the aluminum tracks I've seen are pretty thin, and seem like they would wear out pretty fast with metal vise usage. Not sure, since I haven't really used much t-track. Another option might be 20/20 aluminum extrusions. Heavier, and available in a ton of sizes. And, you can still use t-bolts.

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Originally Posted by Andy Nichols

Matt:

Nice projects, love the detail work, I'm one of those who thinks all my projects should look good, but sometimes let the get it done bug get the best of me, well most of the time ;-) my stuff is rarely done with such detail.

Also that's a great looking bench....one note, made my Moxon just a bit larger than yours, and quickly grew tired of moving it and the bench area it consumed. Ended up mounting it to the wall with two large legs, a dedicated joinery bench. Left mine open underneath because of my disabilitys, but would love to have some drawers under it....

Thanks for sharing the projects,
Andy

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Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Bill Houghton

Nice!

That's a pretty severe cantilever on the mounting for the metal vise. If you're only doing filing and hacksawing on it, that may not pose a problem; but I wouldn't use any hammer heavier than about eight ounces on work held in it.

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I agree. The main use will be having it clamped in the tail vise rather than the leg vise. (see picture)

I made the mounting block just the right length to be pretty much over the leg in that clamping position. Also, once I drill a few holdfast holes the holdfast can be used in conjunction with the vises to add an up/down axis clamping force to the stability.

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Originally Posted by Joe A Faulkner

Very nice accessories. What is that knob on your leg vise? Is this some cheat so you don't have to stoop down to move a pin in your parallel guide? Tell us more about that little accessory.

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Joe,

Thanks!

That knob is actually the locking pin for the internal garter. I took a few more pictures of that to show how that works.

The vise has a St. Andrews Cross mechanism, so no need for pins down low for parallel guide. (bending over to move that pin gets old pretty fast!)

All very nice work. The internal garter is interesting. So that works like a quick release?

My idea for the t-track is have it on front and the mounting plate is a bench hook with locking knobs. No abrasion there except normal wear from the bolts.
Attachment 354823

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Originally Posted by Malcolm Schweizer

All very nice work. The internal garter is interesting. So that works like a quick release?

My idea for the t-track is have it on front and the mounting plate is a bench hook with locking knobs. No abrasion there except normal wear from the bolts.
Attachment 354823

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Malcolm,

The pin is more of a quick release for the garter. The screw is free from the front chop at that point, but still in the same place in the nut, so the chop can move freely. I'd still have to dial the screw in or out to get it to stay at a new position.

T-tracks. That might work. As with most things, give it a go and see. I think that, depending on your use of the vise, those would work really well. Pounding, sawing filing, I would imagine that should be perfect. If you use your vise to pull things apart or bend a lot of material, that could be an issue, since the wider board at the top that the vise is mounted on will act as a lever, putting a lot more pressure on the track. Id be more worried about pulling the tnuts through the track than wearing them out through abrasion.

Search the Web for unistrut, its available in steel and a variety of sizes. The unistrut nuts are spring loaded on the back side, very strong and should be able to hold just about anything your bench is capable of supporting.