My First Workbench Build - A Journal

[Eric Schubert]

Man... planing across the end grain of these tenons is just killing my blade! I had to re-sharpen again after a brief session yesterday.

I got a bit done this morning before work. One of the legs is now flush with the edge of the bench top. Three more to go... I'm hoping I can get these done before my parents arrive for a visit tomorrow. Still have to clean the house, though...

[Eric Schubert]

Put in time before and after work today to get this bench done. I got the legs planed flush with the edges of the bench top slabs. And then I installed the retractable casters to lift and roll the bench around. It's nearly complete, aside from installation of the vise. Probably won't be able to get to that part until next week, though. I have family coming into town for the weekend.

[Pat Barry]

That looks very nice Eric. I'm sure you will appreciate the efforts you put into construction as you use it. Any idea what the weight is? Whats next: Vice, leg vise, dog holes, start using it for another project??

[Robert Hazelwood]

Congrats, that's a nice stout bench!

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, guys!

As for plans, I have a quick-release face vise I plan to mount to the bench. The jaws won't initially be flush with the bench top, but they are hard maple. Debating if I just try them as-is, or fabricate new jaws that are flush with the top.

[Eric Schubert]

I keep going back and forth about how to mount this vise to the bench. It's a typical quick-release face vise, similar to a Record. I could just mount it with the inner jaw protruding from the bench. I don't think that will be great in the long run, though. So, my other choices are: Cut a notch in the bench top and set the vise into it with the maple jaws that I have. Or, cut a rectangular mortise into the bench top, set the rear jaw inside of the bench top, and use the actual edge of the bench top as my vise jaw. But, being made of Douglas Fir, it's fairly soft. So, I'm a bit torn about doing that, as it will probably get damaged quickly if I'm not careful.

Any suggestions here..? Keep the maple jaw and just set it into the bench top? Or use the top itself as the rear jaw? Something else..?

[Chet R Parks]

Eric, I don't know if your a fan of Paul Sellers but he mounts his QR vise so that the face of the rear jaw with a maple face is far enough away from the bench to get his fingers between the work being held and the bench.
See here https://paulsellers.com/2014/01/flush-vises/ scroll down to the 8th and 9th picture. I can't speak from experience but to me it makes sense. A LOT depends on the work habits of the user.
Chet

[Eric Schubert]

Chet, thanks for pointing me to that page! I definitely enjoy watching Paul work. And that's a good idea, leaving room for gripping the work pieces. I may have to look at trying his suggestion of mounting the vise a bit proud of the bench face in such a way that I can push it back to flush if I don't like where it is.

[Chet R Parks]

Eric, would it be possible to mount a temporary "false front" to the bench so that you could try the vise flush and proud before committing to a final design??? It seems like all it would take is a board temporarily mounted to the bench front on each side of the vise to bring the vise flush to the false front. Just a thought?? BTW a great looking bench and educational build, thanks for taking us along

[Eric Schubert]

That may work. I'll see if I have anything that could work for a false edge to try it. I have that 1" piece that I cut off to widen the center gap that I might be able to use.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I installed my QR vise like you are talking about, Eric:

IMG_20171123_092957.jpg

The rear jaw is sunk into a mortise in the benchtop edge, so that the jaw is recessed behind the surface about 1\2" or 5\8". A Doug fir filler piece is installed over the rear jaw, and planed flush with the bench top front edge. The non-slip jaw liner is covering that in the photo.

I installed it like this so that it could have a lot of the functionality of the usual Roubo leg vise, by clamping to the bench front and so being able to utilize all of the coplanar surfaces, legs, sliding deadman, etc.

I am happy with it, and the inner jaw and bench top edge (all Doug fir) seems to hold up well so far. I always have a non-slip liner on the jaws, so that may help avoid dings.

[Eric Schubert]

I finally removed the face vise from my old "workbench". Now, I have to decide where to mount it.

Normally, a Roubo would have a leg vise. But, since I have a face vise, I need to mount it inside or outside of the bench. I'm considering reasons to go one way or the other. Any advantages to either of those positions?

Robert, I see you have your vise mounted flush with the end of the bench. What made you go that route?

[Robert Hazelwood]

Having the left side of the vise flush with the end is handy for sawing things in the vise. You can crosscut anything up to the width the vise can handle, and you can do very short and tiny pieces as well. You can rip shorter boards and panels by clamping them vertically in the vise with the cut line just hanging off the left side.

The right side of the vise jaw is still pretty close to the leg though, so that the leg could be used as an additional clamping surface if necessary.

I would definitely mount the vise outboard of the leg- it would seem very awkward to me were it inboard. I would keep the right side of the jaw fairly within a few inches of the leg, or even overlapping the leg. So if the overhang on that side of your bench is long, then favor it towards the leg rather than flush to the end.

[Eric Schubert]

Makes sense to me. Especially for cutting pieces, I can see that being really handy. I've gouged the old bench several times trying to cut things in the vise because it wasn't along the end of the bench.

As for placement on the outside of the leg, I can put it on one overhang on the end of the bench that's shorter than the other. It's approximately 16" wide. Jaws will probably be at least 10" wide. But, I also want to stay away from those mortises if I set the jaw back into the bench. I'll have to come up with a plan...

[David Eisenhauer]

A second vote for the vise being towards the outboard end of the bench for sawing use. I have mine mounted such that the end of the vise chop is flush with the end of the bench so that I can saw anything in the clear, but a few inches short of that can't hurt. I purposely did not install mine with the inside chop flush with the side of the bench so that I could move it somewhere else more easily if I wanted to. I don't mind using it that way at all.