Thanks for the welcome to the board and the good advice. I apologize for being slow in responding but I had a little health trouble (not the back.) I just finished the moxon vise project and am pleased with the result.
i don’t own a drill press and used an electric hand drill to create the 3/4” holes. I did use a Milescraft drill guide in an effort to keep everything straight and true. Doubtless due to my own lack of skill I got the holes slightly off line and had to adjust the holes with rasps. An aside: I wish I had laid out the money originally for a higher quality rasp. My half round rasp, bought from Lee Valley and manufactured by Ajax in Czechia, was frustrating in the very hard maple I used. I also had a small rounded rasp, also bought from Lee Valley, manufactured in Japan by, I think, Iwasaki. That worked much better. On the other hand, I got a deep sense of satisfaction out of cutting the hexagonal mortise for the bolts with a chisel.
I certainly would not want a veteran woodworker to look closely at my work, including the mortises, but the thing works well. Now to put it to good use!
The name Rob Cosman has come up in the thread. When I was first thinking about the project, before RC was selling his version of the Moxon vise, I put in an online query to the Cosman website help function. I got a personal phone call from Col. Luther Shealy, whom you can see in some of the Cosman videos. He talked with me for 20-30 minutes about the project in considerable detail. He recommended laying out the extra money for the Benchcrafted kit. Great customer service!