This is my first post.
I recently got my father's old bench top. It's a fine thing -- hard maple, 8 feet long and 4 inches thick. So I'm building a base for it (a Tom Caspar torsion box design -- ugly functionality) and setting up a basement workshop around it. Hopefully I'll work up to projects like re-facing cabinets and building furniture and picture frames.
The bench top was constructed with front and back rows of square dogs holes. Great, right? But the dog hole rows are set in about 1.5 inches from the front and back edges. Apparently my father never got around to installing bench vises, so I don't know what his plan was.
What's the best end vise solution to let me use at least the front row of holes? I like the idea of using a face vise on the end. Would it make sense to build out the front right corner of the bench so the vise lines up with the holes? Should I see how I do without an end vise, just a bench dog and a holdfast or a clamp?
I'm aware of two options that I'm not excited about, namely (1) veritas twin screw ($225 too rich for me and some mixed reviews) or (2) install a standard in-line tail vise (not eager to hack into the bench and a little intimidated about installation).
Thoughts?