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Thread: Laying out my bench top

  1. #1

    Laying out my bench top

    My first bench had bench dogs and a record type vise ( home made) that didn't have a quick release on it. And depending on the length of the piece being clamped, in many cases, the vise was either all the way open or nearly closed and because the dogs were equally spaced there were many time I had to put a spacer piece in so I could clamp the piece. In other words it was a pain.
    And then I say Frank Klausz use his bench with a tail vise and I never looked back. My next two benches had tail vises and the bench I am building now will have, guess what, a tail vise.

    I started laying out the top at the right front corner. The main reason is I like tail vises. And the vise hardware controls the size of the vise.
    Now I looked at Lie Nielsen's hardware and Lee Valley's hardware, and some vises from Dieter Schmid's fine tools over in Germany. I looked at about all that I could find.


    I chose the small tail vise hardware from Wood Craft. because of price $64.99, I got it on sale a while back and the fact that my used that vise on my last bench and I liked it just fine. I like everything about the Veritas quick release sliding tail vise from Lee Valley feature wise but I am a traditionalist and it just wouldn't look right. Lee Valley also sells it for $79.99 and a shoulder vise screw that I might consider for a leg vise in the future.
    Anyway I started laying out the bench top from the front right end because of the vise. I took some measurements from my old bench before it left.


    I taped some paper on the top and laid out the tail vise. A tip, use really good masking tape that comes off easily. I changed some dimensions on the vise and the ones I took from my old bench didn't work out. The spacing on the dog holes didn't work out. They were not even in the vise jaw. Now they don't have to be perfectly even but they have have to look right because the eye will pick up the discrepancy. Have you ever walked into a room and looked at a picture only to see it is not level. You do not want an untrained eye to catch the incorrect spacing. I taped another paper over the old one and redrew it.


    Another tip it is far easier to redraw on paper than to try to correct it once it is cut in the wood. Anyway here are some pictures of the process, and the tools used. The first picture shows an add on because it is part of the tail vise and not part of the bench


    DSC03130.JPG

    Next is the tail vise drawing

    DSC03091.JPG

    Next is the rest of the bench layout. The dimensions didn't come out so I started adding 1 /16 to every 4.5 inch spacing . I din't change every one down the road but the eye can't pick up the spacing variation.
    DSC03117.JPG

    The end results

    DSC03128.JPG

    out of order
    DSC03118.JPG

    And the tools used were a 24 inch steel rule, a square, a marking knife, a marking gage and a sharp pencil. I will cover the marking knife and pencil latter.

    DSC03147.JPG
    Tom

  2. #2
    Even though it is to cold yet to glue up, needs to be 55 degrees to get a good glue bond. I did get started by cutting a 4 X 11 piece of cherry 11 feet long for the legs. It only weighed 95 bounds.

    DSC03150.JPG DSC03151.JPG DSC03162.JPG DSC03164.JPG
    Tom

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    South West Ontario
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    Hi Tom, tried to understand your tail vise layout from the dimensions, not so easy! Your bench holes are spaced 4.5" and tail vise holes 3.5" roughly? Your dogs are 1&1/4" square.
    This gives you some differential spacing as your workpeice end marches down the tail vise. At 5 turns per inch you can save 5 turns at the shorter end but having more of the workpeice over the tail vise is not always ideal.
    I opted to keep most of my work on the first tail vise dog hole. At 4 inch spacing you leave the vise wherever so on average it's 10 turns. As you often work on multiple identical pieces it's no big deal.

  4. #4
    Actually the spacing on the bench is 4 9/16 And I think the holes in the tail vise changed a little but if so not much. Usually I also use the first hole, the rest get used much less often. On my last bench I found that I liked the offset spacing, it got rid of having to open the vise a great deal. Usually I don't have to turn the handle more that a couple of turns. I never check to see what the threads per inch are on the vise screw. But I do believe 10 turns is a little extreme for an average amount of turns. I would like to believe that if I had to turn it 10 times each time I used it I would have changed the spacing. But 10 turns is not out of line in all cases. I will be making a lot of drawers and that is when I have to open the tail vise several turns

    I will start making the tail vise as soon as it warms up. And I will play around a little bit before I do the spacing. William, You might be on to something though and since you took the time to write I would be remiss if I didn't evaluate what you are saying and evaluate my tail vise spacing. I do know I will be making a lot of drawers and that is when I have to open the tail vise several turns.


    I am sure a lot of you may end up wondering how William game up with his turns. Anyway the lead and pitch of a single lead screw are the same. Lets use a 1 inch 5 thread. 1 divided by 5 is .200 so the jaw would move .2 on every turn. I read a lot of advertisements and they talk about a how there product is engineered to move something 1/16 with every turn and in reality it its is a 3/8- 16 NC thread. I checked out Bench Crafted and if I remember right he uses a double lead screw. Back to the 1-5 thread. in actuality it is two 2.5 threads per inch cut on the shaft 180 degrees apart. So now the piece travels .400 instead of .200. Don't get confused it is still a 1"-5 thread not a 2.5 thread, but double lead. The pitch is still .2
    Last edited by Tom Bussey; 03-13-2017 at 5:12 PM.
    Tom

  5. #5
    All that holds all the blocks, that make up the dog holes, in place is glue. And I have noticed that there was a little opening of the glue joint on my last bench. So this time I am going to put a couple of screws in the pieces for added strength. I will use Kreg screws counterbored in. That is why the spacing is maybe a little large for some but if you are doing an 8 foot long bench and plan on putting a wooden dog in each hole 4.5 spacing is not out of line.

    I am going to be putting a wagon vise on the other side of the bench and because of the jaw and bench make up, 3 widths, I am narrowing the dog holes from 1 1/4 to basically 7/8s wide.
    Last edited by Tom Bussey; 03-13-2017 at 7:47 PM.
    Tom

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    South West Ontario
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    1,502
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bussey View Post
    All that holds all the blocks, that make up the dog holes, in place is glue. And I have noticed that there was a little opening of the glue joint on my last bench. So this time I am going to put a couple of screws in the pieces for added strength. I will use Kreg screws counterbored in. That is why the spacing is maybe a little large for some but if you are doing an 8 foot long bench and plan on putting a wooden dog in each hole 4.5 spacing is not out of line.

    I am going to be putting a wagon vise on the other side of the bench and because of the jaw and bench make up, 3 widths, I am narrowing the dog holes from 1 1/4 to basically 8/7s wide.
    Hi Tom,
    Have you thought of making shouldered dog holes by routing out the dog holes with a pattern. The wood between the dog holes is not blocks held in by glue, the dogs don't fall through;-ever!
    It is rather easy to do and you can angle the dog holes a little. I recommend 2 degrees tilt. If you have sloppy dogs you might need 3 degrees but I doubt it.
    It also means you can have the dog holes a little closer together without worrying about a glue line.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    N Illinois
    Posts
    4,602
    Tom, building your own bench is one of the joys of WWing in my opinion...
    Jerry

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