My bench is not a real woodworking bench. I made it a long time ago, before I had any idea there was such a thing as a woodworking bench, and I use it for all sorts of stuff. It's made of the finest Home Depot pine two-by-sixes, with a number of 1/4" flat-top screw heads flush with the top surface. The top is 1.5" thick. The area is about 67" by 30".
Now that I am making a semi-serious effort to fix up my shop so I can do woodworking as well as random tool tasks, I would like to make some changes to the bench. I am not going to replace it or put a fancy top on it right now, because I don't expect to stay in this location very long.
There is a heavy 5" mechanics' vise on the front left corner of the bench. I can't get rid of that. It's too useful. But I can move it. I am thinking I would like to put a front vise on the bench fairly close to the current location of the mechanic's vise. It seems like the front left corner is the standard location.
I am thinking the least-bad location for the mechanic's vise is the front right corner. I wouldn't be able to have a tail vise, but I feel like that's something to put off for a future bench anyway. I figure I can use holdfasts and a batten Will I have big problems if about one square foot of space in the right front corner is permanently unavailable? I can move it temporarily if absolutely necessary.