Veritas twin screw, Bench front QR Vise & Tail QR vise review. (pics)

[ian maybury]

Pardon my taking it off on a tangent - but I'm not that keen on the idea of fitting a twin screw horizontally at the end. Not unless the bench is free standing and well away from any back wall. Likewise I'm not so sure about one fitted as a face vise - it'll take up an enormous amount of real estate along the side of the bench. The rear jaw when face mounted is also likely to mess with the layout of the bench leg at that side/end - in the case of a Roubo anyway.

It's a common enough view, but it seems like a Moxon vise covers the same taper holding requirement - in a form that can be at whatever height is required and which can easily be removed when not needed. A leg vise meanwhile has the depth above the screw that's missing on a twin screw - and sidesteps the issues of a thick top causing problems re. placement of the screw and sag.

The one requirement that's less easily covered is if you want a row of dogs along the top of a long moving vise jaw - for clamping frames or whatever. It's possible though that this can be got around using a beam that mounts off the top of the moving jaw on a leg vise.

I bought a veritas TS to mount horizontally, and am still debating the option for my own bench (still to start after 18m of looking at the wood) - but there's the possibility of mounting a Veritas Twin Screw as a self adjusting leg vise. The lower screw would only be required to adjust the parallelism of the jaw, and would only need a small hand wheel, short T bar or similar fitted....

ian

[michael osadchuk]

I thought about countersinking the threaded part under the bench to recover some of the capacity. The end of my bench is 12/4.

Bill

I've countersunk the nuts without an adverse consequence in the dozen or so years after the installation of the vise..... my benchtop rests on several 4.5" wide wood pillars that run the full width of the benchtop, including one such pillar on the vise bench end; together with a 1.75" wood inner vise jaw, the vise screws run through 6.25" of wood (the instructions simply say the rear jaw should be at least 1.75" thick); I countersunk the screw nuts into the back of the rear wood jaws and bolted the rear wood jaws to the wood pillars and benchtop.....however, I don't think I've ever used the resulting 12" jaw opening (smiley)

....the vise hardware is quite robust..... the front jaws on my installattion are quite high (partially for aesthetics, given that the 3.25" hight benchtop and 4.5" wood supporting pillars were about 8" high) so I made the distance between the top of the jaws and steel dowels that keep the wood piece off the vise screws fairly deep - about 5" - again without any adverse effect....

btw, I found I did not need any plastic "rub" strips on the underside of the bench, for the bench screws to rub against to prevent sagging of the front jaws

.... the one item in the instructions that I would change would be to reduce the taper in the front jaws from 2 degrees to 1 degree and believe the wood jaws would still close at the top of jaws first.....

....I agree with Brian (below) on the outer jaw not benefitting from being thicker than 8/4 which is the thickness I used... I routinely use the dog hole drilled into the outer jaw, within a couple of inches of front edge of the bench, together with matching dog holes along the front of the bench, to hold workpieces, without any issues of racking, etc. However, some people have modified the installation so that the chain/sprockets are embedded in the outside jaw, leading to a thicker than 8/4 outer jaw.


good luck

michael

[Brian Tymchak]

I was also wondering, I see some benches with very thick jaw faces. I want to do that but how thick is too thick? I have 2 pieces of 8/4 Bubinga I was going to double up, is that too much or should I take it down a bit?

I'm certainly no expert in bench design, but I can't see ever needing anything thicker than 8/4. Maybe it depends on what you intend to clamp? But I don't see where you get added benefit. I doubt if I can generate enough clamping pressure to cause any significant deflection in an 8/4 chop. Maybe? if you are going to rack the vice a lot? However, I would be looking into other clamping methods at that point that allowed a square clamp up. And of course, with the extra 8/4 board, you will also lose that amount of travel in the vice.

[michael osadchuk]

Pardon my taking it off on a tangent - but I'm not that keen on the idea of fitting a twin screw horizontally at the end. Not unless the bench is free standing and well away from any back wall. Likewise I'm not so sure about one fitted as a face vise - it'll take up an enormous amount of real estate along the side of the bench. The rear jaw when face mounted is also likely to mess with the layout of the bench leg at that side/end - in the case of a Roubo anyway.

It's a common enough view, but it seems like a Moxon vise covers the same taper holding requirement - in a form that can be at whatever height is required and which can easily be removed when not needed. A leg vise meanwhile has the depth above the screw that's missing on a twin screw - and sidesteps the issues of a thick top causing problems re. placement of the screw and sag.

The one requirement that's less easily covered is if you want a row of dogs along the top of a long moving vise jaw - for clamping frames or whatever. It's possible though that this can be got around using a beam that mounts off the top of the moving jaw on a leg vise.

I bought a veritas TS to mount horizontally, and am still debating the option for my own bench (still to start after 18m of looking at the wood) - but there's the possibility of mounting a Veritas Twin Screw as a self adjusting leg vise. The lower screw would only be required to adjust the parallelism of the jaw, and would only need a small hand wheel, short T bar or similar fitted....

ian

Ian

hmmm.... mounting a Veritas twin screw vise VERTICALLY... that is quite a tangent and I think deserves its own thread and would, without doubt, attract lots of advice and comment....

my two bits..... I don't see why not ....and have you queried Lee Valley about anyone having reported doing it (I didn't find any reports of such an installed when I googled "veritas twin screw as a leg vise, mounted vertically, etc.)

michael

[ian maybury]

Hi Michael. Pardon if it was too much tangent. I posted the thought before some months ago. Maybe it was just bad timing, but it didn't seem to draw much interest.

Which surprised me since all the chat about X type/peg less sliding lower jaw supports for leg vises and the like was just getting going.

There are some possible issues regarding sag and thread clearances that would be interesting to discuss - especially if some have purpose made leg vises with which to compare...

ian

[Bill Wyko]

When I discussed my bench plans with the wonderful people at Veritas, they did ask if the bench would be free standing or against a wall, in this case it will be free standing. I also do a lot of unconventional woodworking in my audio business like custom consoles, woofer boxes, custom door panels and more. Because of this I'll have clamping applications not normally found in cabinet making. When building some of the stuff we do, I've given a lot of thought as to how I would clamp the pieces if I had a bench. This bench has been a long thought out process. I also really didn't look at it as building a Roubo or any other particular style of bench, I took the ideas from benches I've researched and the needs I would have and came up with this plan. It may follow one particular style more than another but that will be due to benches that influenced my design. Thanks for the tip on going 1 degree vs 2 degree, I can always take more off.

Interesting idea to mount a twin screw vertically as a leg vise.