So leg vise pointers please.

[Scott Winners]

I am ecstatic with my leg vise. I am moving the Lake Erie screw and nut to my next bench, and keeping the AYS chain system too.

Sometimes when I am dealing with say end grain on a 30-40 inch piece of stock I have the work piece firm up against the vise leg, but when I tighten the vise chop there are sometimes some issues with work holding.

Is this unavoidable even with my card deck built up from 1/8 inch ply?

I can kick the parallel guide into submission no problem if that is the best answer.

I am still running a Doug Fir chop (going away) against a DF leg and a DF top slab. Is this an area where I really need some crubber or leather glued in?

Above the screw I can vise down just about anything, it is when my workpieces extend down the leg past the vise screw I am having heartburn.

Thanks.

[steven c newman]

Hmmm..
Dovetail Work, Moxxon vise.jpg
For doing dovetails

[Warren Mickley]

Sometimes when I am dealing with say end grain on a 30-40 inch piece of stock I have the work piece firm up against the vise leg, but when I tighten the vise chop there are sometimes some issues with work holding.

Here in Pennsylvania we use a slanted leg vise. This solves the problem of holding a board vertical in the vise.

[Jim Koepke]

Above the screw I can vise down just about anything, it is when my workpieces extend down the leg past the vise screw I am having heartburn.

This may be due to the physics of the leg vise. The lower screw is working to push the vise leg out to increase the pressure at the top of the jaw, using the vise screw as a fulcrum.

What you might consider is not only a way to counter the side to side racking but also a bottom screw to make your leg vise more like a vertical Moxon vise or a twin screw vise. This could be as simple as a hole in the vise jaw and the bench leg to insert a pipe clamp.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

Scott, I designed and built an anti-racking feature into my leg vise (which uses a wood screw and has the very first chain adjuster): http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...tiRacking.html




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

I designed and built an anti-racking feature into my leg vise

That looks like a great device for countering horizontal racking.

My impression is of Scott experiencing vertical racking when trying to hold his work over the length of the vise, not just one side.

That was my thought in suggesting the idea of temporarily disabling the parallel guide (the counter to vertical racking) and adding a second screw or clamp to use the leg vise like a vertical Moxon.

jtk

[Scott Winners]

Appreciate the input. I don't have time to fool with it tonight, but I will check back here for other comments when I am about to head out there.

[Scott Winners]

I love it when chores take less than budgeted time. Here is some pics.

#1, empty vise. The top of the chop is just touching the bench top, I still got a quarter inch gap at the bottom (got that tip from Derek Cohen)and it works great. A quarter turn tighter from here and this vise is not letting go.

#2. From the back side of my bench, looking over my bench planes onto the floor I stand on when using the vise. I got a piece of poplar with a bit of shiny finish on it clamped between the vise chop and the bench top, but the shiny poplar is not touching the leg at all. Every things works great like this.

#3. When I move the work piece in closer to the vise screw, this is where I get trouble sometimes. In pic three I am clamping the shiny poplar to both the bench top and the bench leg with the vise chop and this get a little sideways sometimes.

My best guess is the face of the vise leg that faces the vise chop has gone out of flat somehow.

I did just move to a new shop, with better climate control than the old place. According to the Roman numerals I carved in the front stretcher (MMXVIII) I built the thing in 2018. The biggest pieces are Doug Fir 4x6 from the homestore, mill marked s-GRN, so run through the planer at the mill as soon as MC measured 19.999%, but considerably drier than green standing already 5 years ago. My old place year round EMC was about 11%, in the new place I am trying (with pretty good success) to maintain temp and humidity for 8% EMC of all my stored lumber.

My best guess is to take off the vise chop and associates and check the front legs and the front of the top slab for flat group. If they are found to be flat I am going to be really confused.

I do like Derek's built in anti wrack. I am concerned about it wearing a divot into my current Doug Fir chop, but I am also planning on a hardwood chop for the next bench.

Pics.

20230924_210726.jpg20230924_210747.jpg20230924_210815.jpg

[Derek Cohen]

I do like Derek's built in anti wrack. I am concerned about it wearing a divot into my current Doug Fir chop, but I am also planning on a hardwood chop for the next bench.

Scott, the chop has a mating steel plate to resist divots.



WhatI did was to epoxy in a recessed steel magnet. A cut-off bolt would work as well.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Prashun Patel]

My leg vise works best when the jaws are not completely parallel but when the antiracking point is a little wider than the work-holding point.

I have the same issue. My antiracking device is a stack of shims on the floor that I just kick into place. When this happens, I use an extra shim so the bottom is forced wider than the top. This solves it. If you are not doing a lot of below-screw workholding, then you might just keep a stack of floor shims as I do, so you can force the bottom a little wider than the width of the piece.

[Warren Mickley]

If you can learn to use a slanted leg vise, you can avoid a lot of gizmos and rigamarole.

[Joshua Lucas]

I second Warren's angled leg vise recommendation. I've had an angled leg vise on my bench for about 3 years now using a wooden screw and the AYS chain and it works great for holding work vertically.

[Prashun Patel]

Perhaps mine is not slanted enough. I have a slanted leg vise and there still times (like when holding a chair leg or a spindle) where it doesn't solve the issue.

Also, I suspect it's not an option for him to change his entire bench at this point.

[Derek Cohen]

Just to put matters into perspective, I use a leg vise to plane the edges of long boards held horizontally rather than vertical panels. The number of times a panel is clamped to the bench vertically on its own is very small. A vertical leg vise works perfectly well for my work. The anti-rack mechanism is for the few occasions when the leg vise clamps at its very edge.

Here is an example of a panel held horizontally. One end in the leg vise and the other clamped to a deadman ...



Small panels are no test at all ...



Here's a decent panel (prepping for planing a stopped rebate) ...





Mountains and molehills.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[steven c newman]

In order to have a tilted leg vise....one would need to also have the leg angled to match the leg vise's chop....

Will not work for those benches with straight, vertical, legs. Would be rather awkward, wouldn't it...like...where to place the screw for the vise? Ah, in mid-air, right?