1 Chop or 2

[Stew Hagerty]

I bought a big chunk of heavy leather to line my vises. In the past I only had some rather lightweight leather available, and a rather small amount of it. I just used some spray adhesive to attach it to the outer face and left the inner face bare wood.

My question is, would both faces be better? I don't know about grip, but I would think putting it on both sides would be easier on whatever I happen to be clamping.

Also, is 3M 90 a good choice for an adhesive? I think I used 77 with the lighter leather, but I now have a can of 90 on hand.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I plan to do both chops, and I was going to use epoxy- not the gooey smelly kind in the tubes, but real West System epoxy. I see System 3 as more of a temporary thing.

[Jim Belair]

I put leather on one face, 1/2" of soft wood (clear cedar) on the other. Glued both with hot hide glue for ease of replacement. Not sure how well the cedar will stand up. I would have used poplar but had the cedar kicking around. I used 3M spray (77 I think) in the past and found the leather would creep under side pressure.

[Clay Parrish]

I thought about making ears or hinges in the leather, that fit over the front of the vise, then tacking them into the front face of the wood.

[Stew Hagerty]

I plan to do both chops, and I was going to use epoxy- not the gooey smelly kind in the tubes, but real West System epoxy. I see System 3 as more of a temporary thing.

System 3 epoxy is temporary???

I put leather on one face, 1/2" of soft wood (clear cedar) on the other. Glued both with hot hide glue for ease of replacement. Not sure how well the cedar will stand up. I would have used poplar but had the cedar kicking around. I used 3M spray (77 I think) in the past and found the leather would creep under side pressure.

Hmmm, I like the soft wood idea. But, the inner jaw of my face vice is flush with the front of the bench and I want to keep it like that.
The 77 that I used the first time around did let the leather creep. I assumed that it was because the leather was too thin and supple. It was about like glove leather. I hadn't thought of using hot hide glue. I might just do that.

I thought about making ears or hinges in the leather, that fit over the front of the vise, then tacking them into the front face of the wood.

You know, like i said, i did get creep the first time around. I thought that the combination of much heavier leather and the 3M 90 would be much better. I do like Jim's suggestionsof hide glue, but I also like your ears/tabs that get tacked around the edge. Except that as the leather stretches out, the ears/tabs would need to be re-tightened every so often.


Thank you guys. I might give the hide glue a try, but maybe some other peoe will chime in kn this.
Also, since i don't want to add on some soft wood which would make the rear jaw project from the face of the bench, i still am questioning the use of leather.

[Mike Cherry]

I actually just got a big hunk of leather in the mail and I think I'm going to line both inner faces. I used contact cement on my strop, probably use the same thing here. Worst case, I can remove one of the inner liners if need be.

[Daniel Rode]

My rear jaw is the bench edge, so I choose to do only the moving jaw. I use leather that's about 1/8" thick with the smooth side out. I adhered it with simple yellow glue. I've been using it that way for about a year now. The grip is MUCH better. Mounting it with the suede side out might provide even more grip but I'm pretty happy as it is. IMO, a thinner leather would have worked just as well. I used what I could get at the time.

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[Gerry Grzadzinski]

System 3 epoxy is temporary???

I would consider System 3 to be comparable to West System. Both are top of the line epoxies, at the top of the epoxy price range.

I wouldn't consider any quality epoxy to be temporary, if it's the right product for the application.

[Matt Evans]

I've used 3m 90 to decent effect on leather for vise chops. I'd rather use that or hide glue than epoxy. in heavy use it will creep slightly, but it is slightly repositionable. The epoxy seems like it would be too hard to remove if you ever want to replace the leather, whereas the contact adhesive or hide glue are simple to remove or redo in just a few minutes.

One thing I will say with the contact adhesives. . . leave a board clamped in the vise overnight. Using the vise right away seems to weaken the bond a bit, and creep will definitely occur in the first 12 hours or so if you use it before then.

[Jim Belair]

The other thing I did when attaching my leather face is to clamp a board across the face while the glue dried rather than using the pressure of the vise itself. It may be overkill but the top of the vise face makes contact while the bottom does not, or at least not to the same degree.

[Reinis Kanders]

Hide glue works well. I only line moving jaw, bench is the other jaw and I like to leave it clear, if I need some extra grip I just put something there, shelf liner or whatever is around.

[Josh Nelson]

The other thing I did when attaching my leather face is to clamp a board across the face while the glue dried rather than using the pressure of the vise itself. It may be overkill but the top of the vise face makes contact while the bottom does not, or at least not to the same degree.

I did the same. I also line the board I used with plastic shopping bags to there wasn't any embarrassing "I glued the wrong surface" issues.

[Frank Drew]

I used leather, rough side out, on both faces of my shoulder and tail vises, applied with spray adhesive (3M 77?). No problems at all with adhesion, and I found that the rough side of the leather gripped with work better, and with less vise pressure, than smooth side out (which I'd used on a prior bench). YMMV.

[Rob Luter]

I had bad luck with leather. I took it off and used adhesive backed cork instead, applied only to the moving jaw. It grips much better.

[Stew Hagerty]

I had bad luck with leather. I took it off and used adhesive backed cork instead, applied only to the moving jaw. It grips much better.

What was the problem with the leather? I would certainly think that leather would hold up far better than cork. But then, I don't recall having ever spoken with anyone about using cork before.