Problems with my vise location....

[Ron Stadler]

Ok, I built this workbench and didn't plan for enough on where the vise or how the vise would mount. As you can see I mounted the vise, but is this gonna work? Also this bench was designed for the only spot I have left in this small house. And another question I have is how to install soft jaws on this vise, whoever had this vise last has a piece of wood mounted on the front half but I don't know how it is mounted, almost looks glued to it, I don't see any mounting screws on holes there. The other side does have two holes in it which I used to hold the vise in place while I put the mounting bolts in place through the top of the bench.
???
1. Is this setup going to work?
2. How to mount soft jaws and what materials to use?
3. How far can I extend jaws horizontally from the vise?
4. and should i make soft jaws flush with top of bench?
thanks in advance to all the help I can get on this project.
my vise.jpg

[Kent A Bathurst]

1. Is this setup going to work?
> Sure - as good as anything else would work. You don't have room for a tail vise.. Clever design for a small space.

2. How to mount soft jaws and what materials to use?
> Me - I'd drill holes thru the vise faces, and use those for wood screws and machine screws. Countersunk wood screws through the soft face, thru the back vise face, into the table. Countersunk machine screws through the wood face, thru the front vise face, washers and nuts with blue LocTite.

3. How far can I extend jaws horizontally from the vise?
> Depends on the material and the thickness. I don't know the throat/opening of your vise - don't want to take up too much of that capacity. I'd use hard maple - durable and relatively stable. If you can only afford 1/2" thick, then I would not extend at all. If you can afford 3/4" thick, then I'd go a 2 - 3 inches either side.

4. and should i make soft jaws flush with top of bench?
> Maybe, maybe not If they stand proud of the table surface, you will be cussing it within 2 days. However - Caveat - if I had 3/4" or greater thickness on the HM faces, then I would think about having the moveable face only stand maybe 1" proud. And then, drill holes in the table surface to hold bench dogs, and the HM can act as a clamp to hold work pieces against the dogs.

thanks in advance to all the help I can get on this project.

> My thoughts and opinions - influenced by what I use my bench for, and I don't know what your projects will look like. Not gospel by any means. Each item can be done pretty easily, take it for a test drive, and they are all easily reversible. I tend to take my first, best, shot without over-driving my headlights. Then, after some time in service, I usually figger out what I REALLY should have done, and adjust as needed..

my vise.jpg

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[Ron Stadler]

Thanks Kent, Yeah I'll have to see what a piece of Hard maple will run me, I think HD only sells the soft maple. Like your idea on mounting the soft jaws and maybe making the moving one taller, I can always cut it down if I don't like it, and as far throat distance i'm not even sure myself but I'm guessing about 10 inches, I'm not home right now to measure though. Thanks again for your thoughts and experience on this.

[Kent A Bathurst]

HD will have red oak. That will work fine also. I just happen to usually have HM laying around.

With 10" to play with, I'd go for 3/4".

[Ron Stadler]

ok, sounds good.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Lemme know how it works out.

FWIW - your photo is very reminiscent of what my first "workshop" looked like.
Had to cram it into an oversized cubbyhole in the basement. With appropriate amount of determination, I was still able to make it work for what I was doing.

Then - eventually took a deep breath, and went through our "stuff" in another room. Culled the herd. Built multi-tiered shelves in the cubbyhole, and took over the former storage room, with the remaining "stuff" in the cubbyhole. The amount of stuff we kept was determined by the size of the cubbyhole..........set priorities on the stuff, and whatever did not make it into that storage space was gone. Never missed one bit of it.

New area was still a small shop by any standard, but man-o-man - I had elbow room.

PRess on regardless, is my advice.

Regards.

[Ron Stadler]

ok, I will. I just finished a lathe bench, then this bench and today I was working on a cabinet to put my grinder on. Everthing looked fine on this cabinet until I looked at where the middle shelf would go, way crooked, oops looks like I missed measured one of my supports by 3/8 of an inch, will cut this loose tomorrow and figure a way to support it. That measure twice cut once gets me every time, ugh. Anyway, I might get back to the vise tuesday. And yep know what your talking about, if this wasn't a rental house I would do away with the carpeted area downstairs and make it my workshop,