Anybody NOT use a bench vise?

[Tony Shea]

Recently my girlfriend has been doing some Woodworking with me in the shop, building herself a dovetailed walnut box. Happens to be her first attempt at WW and I am absolutely shocked at how well her dovetails came out, I will have to show them off in another post.

The point is that she usually has no vise to work with as I am always on mine, or almost always. And she just sets herself up with a large wooden double screw clamp, clamped to the top of the bench. She overhangs it so the back jaw is flush to the edge of the bench and she can clamp as large a board as she needs, especially with some support below on the face of my bench and another on the other edge of the board. IMO, I think having at least two of these clamps and a couple C or F clamps can get you by for a long time without a face vise. Add some leather or cork (what she used) to the faces of these wooden clamps and they really hold very well.

[Jerome Hanby]

She may be doing so well for the same reason it's easier to teach someone who has never handled a gun to shoot well, no bad habits to unlearn...

Recently my girlfriend has been doing some Woodworking with me in the shop, building herself a dovetailed walnut box. Happens to be her first attempt at WW and I am absolutely shocked at how well her dovetails came out, I will have to show them off in another post.

The point is that she usually has no vise to work with as I am always on mine, or almost always. And she just sets herself up with a large wooden double screw clamp, clamped to the top of the bench. She overhangs it so the back jaw is flush to the edge of the bench and she can clamp as large a board as she needs, especially with some support below on the face of my bench and another on the other edge of the board. IMO, I think having at least two of these clamps and a couple C or F clamps can get you by for a long time without a face vise. Add some leather or cork (what she used) to the faces of these wooden clamps and they really hold very well.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Having a vise makes life a lot easier. Not having one should not be crippling. I value my vises on my benches, but every year for 12 or 13 years I have done demos of hand tool woodworking at both the League of NH CRaftsman's 9 day Sunapee Craft Fair and at Wood Days at the Canterbury Shaker Village. At Canterbury only last year for the first time did I have a bench and a vise. Normally I was working on a 3/4" thick door placed on 2 sawhorses. I've made bowsaws, dovetailed boxes,and other things with just a few wooden C clamps to hold the work. I would advise drilling for round dogs. The holes can be used for holdfasts, a stop can be made by attaching a small thin square of wood to the top of a dowel sized to fit the holes, and you can of course use holdfasts in them. Creativity can't always trump the expenditure of money, but it can come pretty close to leveling things.

[Sean Hughto]

Anybody NOT use a bench vise?

The japanese.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/...on-woodworking

[Jake Rothermel]

A hearty [and only SLIGHTLY bittersweet] thanks goes to to you, Sean for posting that article. I'd never seen a bench like that before. Now you've got me rethinking my entire bench project! I know I'm moving at least once more and likely more times than that; I know my bench is going to have to break down easily. Now I'm looking at Andrew Hunter's set up and wondering if I can use the two 'saw horses' idea and leave the top free-floating... Thanks, just when I thought I'd figured it all out!!!

Seriously, though - this is why I love this forum: So many good craftsmen with so many good ideas. Probably TOO MANY good ideas; I mean, I can only build ONE bench!

I know a bench is supposed to reflect how you work and I've been all over the friggin' map [partly because of what Jerome said above about not having many bad habits to have to ditch...]. I have some western planes but I like japanese saws... maybe my bench can also reflect that. Maybe in a month I'll realize I'm nuts and go back to square one...

[Peter Scoma]

Bet you could find a way to make one of these work...

Wow. Why would anyone pay 150$ let alone 300$ for a portable twin screw instead of installing one on their bench.

To the OP. Get a dirt cheap vise screw and make a leg vise. I am a grad student as well and I get being on a limited budget, however, if you can't spare 20$ for a piece of hardware, I don't see you being able to do much WW'ing at all with or without it.

PJS

[Jim Matthews]

I'm in the process of refitting my cheapo bench with storage cabinet.

I have two essential processes for my bench, edge planing and surfacing on all six sides of a board.
My front vise has been more hinderance than help, so I've migrated to using a crochet.

The deadman rides on a piece of leftover hand rail, and fits into a retaining strip with a groove under the bench top.

I believe some form of front vise clamp is essential, at least at my skill level. Even the Nicholson, English style benches use holdfasts for the purpose of clamping.



My intention is to build a leg vise using pipe clamps. As much as I admire the Hovarter and BenchCrafted designs - they're nearly $400.
So far, the biggest challenge was in relocating the top to give enough room for the leg vise and crochet.

Pictures to follow...

[harry strasil]

My demo bench has a leg vise on the end, but I use bench dogs and wedges mostly. So it is possible to work without a vise if you really want to, kinda makes you wonder what they did before someone invented the vise.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ighlight=bench

It also has a crochet vise now, (not shown in that thread), but its identical to the one on my nu bench.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/album.ph...hmentid=179609

[Bob Winkler]

I'd never seen a bench like that before. Now you've got me rethinking my entire bench project! ..

I second the thanks for the link. Like Jake, I'm rethinking the legs of my workbench to be like the monster saw horses shown in the link. They remind me of a past FWW article about building horses with 2 moveable beams for flexibility- except these are much more substantial. Since I already have the thick, heavy top completed, I'm thinking about building these bases and just resting the top on them. Love the idea that I can change the design in the future and still use the practical horses for something else.

Bob

[James Owen]

Other thing not mentioned was that it depends on your tools. I expected a certain creeker to respond immediately to tell us about how the Japanese don't use bench vises and everything they do is superior. Hmm, go figure. If you use western saws not having a bench stinks. ....

Interesting. I find using a back saw to cut joinery (tenons, dovetails, etc) on a standard height bench pretty comfortable and "easy." Using a full-sized hand saw or panel saw on the same bench to rip or cross-cut is much less comfortable and often less accurate. For me, a low (knee-height) saw bench is a lot easier and a lot more accurate to use for cross-cutting and ripping using full-sized/panel saws than trying to do those same operations on a standard height workbench.....