Vise jaw thickness

[Nathan Johnson]

First things first... I have been a lurker for a while, but finally decided to sign up. I am brand new to hand tool woodworking, but for maybe the last year or so I've been acquiring various tools and restoring them while doing lots of reading and watching of videos. I've done some furniture restoration previously, but never really built anything, either with power or hand tools. That all said, I've lurked for a while now and have accumulated a lot of information from this forum, so I appreciate that.

So, I have begun my workbench build as my first hand tool project. Outside of the box store cutting the lumber in half to fit in my car, everything is hand tools after that. I'm working on a modified version of Paul Seller's bench from his youtube video series. Modified as in just shy of 6 feet long, lessening the depth of both the tool well and the rear benchtop section, and slightly shorter aprons. I eventually settled on the Eclipse quick release front vise, which is on the UPS truck now.

TL,DR, What would be the optimal vise jaw thickness for this particular vise, if there is one? Or maybe it doesn't really matter? I have some 1" thick red oak laying around that I figured would work fine, and also leather scraps for liners. Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Nathan and Welcome to the Creek.

With a steel faced vise the thickness of the wood isn't likely as important as with a vise one is making with the full face chop of wood.

My thought was oak may not be the best choice until you mentioned leather for a liner.

Paul Sellers likes to have his vise proud of the front of the bench. This allows him to have his hand between the board and the bench while tightening the vise. For me there are so many more advantages to having the back face of the vise flush to the front. One is being able to use a clamp or holdfast to hold a workpiece on the front of the bench or a leg. it makes the ability to get my hand between the work and the bench superfluous.

Of course as always, YMMV!!!.jpg

jtk

[Nathan Johnson]

Thanks for the reply. This is kind of one of those questions where I think to myself, "Maybe this is a dumb question," but it's also one of those I-don't-know-what-I-don't-know things too. And I've often made assumptions to find out later I've missed considerations, so I figured I should ask.

I'm sort of split on whether the vise should be proud. I haven't committed either way yet.

Hypothetically, you're installing this vise on a bench... what's your first choice for the wooden jaws?

[lowell holmes]

My bench has a 1 1/4 X 12 face board on it. I buried the back face of a metal quick release vise behind the face board. I have a 1 1/4 x 17" maple face mounted inside the vice front face.

This allows me to have the benefit of a full face wooden jaw vise without complicated hard ware. It is a quick release vise. The bench top and face board are maple.

I do lose 2 1/2" of capacity on the vise, but in the 15 years I've had it, I never missed the 2 1/2". I would not want any wood other than maple for my bench.

[Jim Koepke]

Hypothetically, you're installing this vise on a bench... what's your first choice for the wooden jaws?

That would depend on a few things. First choice would be either what scrap is on hand or left over from the bench build. Second would be what woods are available locally.

As Lowell suggests, maple would be great. In my local there is some birch, maple, alder, many firs or cherry. Birch is a bit more prone to splinter than the others. The firs might be too soft for some folk's liking.

jtk

[Nick Stokes]

1" thick is fine. Thickness doesn't matter unless you want it to extend past the size of the face vise. If that's the case, then you can go 2" past each side or so without much problem if it's 1" thick... Leather glued on each face is a good idea.

Vise sticking out past the apron is a no brainer for me, for all of the reasons PS states. In addition, I make almost all of my cross cuts in the vise... as well as shoulder cuts for dado's or tenons. So I like it to stick out a bit to help my saw clear the bench.

[David Eisenhauer]

My vise chops are 1-1/4" thick Walnut that stick out 3-1/2" wider than the metal vise chops. I chose walnut (at 3-1/2" wider per side) because I had a piece of Walnut about that size and small-sized, thicker-than-3/4" leftovers are not in great evidence in my shop. I mounted it PS style (proud of the side) because I was not sure that was it's final resting place, too much in a hurry (or shall we say lazy? Nah, never) to let it into the side of the bench and like to be able to grab stuff with one hand like PS describes. I have used let in vises and like them too just fine. The vise has worked well for many years. The best thing I did for the vise was add in some suede leather to the chops and that made the grip 100% better. Welcome to the forum and congratulations on starting your bench. Keep us posted on your progress as we like bench photos.

[Bill McDermott]

Nathan, Maybe you should just think of this vise pad as a warm up. You can easily remove it and upgrade. The perfect piece of scrap wood will present itself to you at some point. Also, Make it a bit too tall, so that it is proud of the benchtop. You can plane it down to match perfectly when everything is tightened up. I find it useful to have the top edge of the bench and the top edge of the vise jaw meet tightly. It allows me to grab and work pretty surprisingly small pieces. Glue the leather well. If the top edge peels, dust gets in there and starts catching, then it quickly gets out of control. Anyway, install it asap so you can use it. You will love having your bench and vise (version 1).

[Joe A Faulkner]

An advantage to having wood as your jaw liners is to have something that is forgiving to the errant saw blade, chisel edge, plane sole, etc. For this reason, I'd line both faces and might even try to do the install so that the top of the wooden jaws are at least a 1/2" proud of the top edge of the metal jaws. I use the same species as you are using for your bench. The big investment here is your time. Whats a few more dollars on lumber especially over the working life of the bench. Check out: http://www.finewoodworking.com/2015/...talling-a-vise

[William Fretwell]

Nathan, welcome! The wood won't matter much if it's flat. Even Baltic Birch plywood will do.
I would mount it as per Paul Sellers for saw & finger clearance, he still has grooves in his bench either side of the vise! You can make an L shape to hang over the bench spaced the same as the vise to clamp wood to the apron.
You want it protruding each side to make the vise bigger without spending more money. Baltic Birch has a more porous surface than oak and may be better for glue adhesion. Contact adhesives have gone downhill try & find some of the old stuff.

[James Pallas]

Nathan I like the rear jaw away from the bench. I made the fixture in the photos to help me out with some of the issues with the rear jaw away from the bench. I don't use it often but would not be without it now.
Jim

[Nathan Johnson]

Appreciate all the comments.
This project, as it is the first project I've attempted with hand tools, has been quite the learning experience. Diagnosing plane issues, reading grain, working with knots, squaring edges....quite the education. I think my favorite thing so far though is how my basement smells during and after a planing session.

James, I like that fixture. Looks very useful and I'll have to remember that.

[Nathan Johnson]

Progress has been very slow on the bench recently as life gets in the way. I've basically spent my infrequent shop time learning how to layout and create mortise and tenon joints, so at least I've got that much.

I did order my first high end hand tool today though. Basically everything I have is restored older tools, but I bit the bullet and ponied up for the Veritas Router Plane. I absolutely cannot wait to test drive this little fella. And I know this is not a big deal to most, but no one I know can appreciate the excitement of such a thing, so I have to share it online with you.

[David Eisenhauer]

That tool has been deemed a winner by all and I am sure you will be very pleased with it's performance. One use that I employ my router plane for is to true up (to parallel) and shave down tenon faces with. Sounds like you are definitely getting into it and I agree on the shop smell after a planning session.

[bridger berdel]

Thanks for the reply. This is kind of one of those questions where I think to myself, "Maybe this is a dumb question," but it's also one of those I-don't-know-what-I-don't-know things too. And I've often made assumptions to find out later I've missed considerations, so I figured I should ask.

I'm sort of split on whether the vise should be proud. I haven't committed either way yet.

Hypothetically, you're installing this vise on a bench... what's your first choice for the wooden jaws?

My first choice is something soft and cheap. Beat it up and replace often. Pine 1x6 is about right.