What's your vise? A question (or two) about bench vises...

[kooshball]

I took a 3-week pause this winter at the expense of my walnut dresser project to reside my garage and replace all the windows and doors while the house was stripped to its frame. During this time I kept thinking to myself, "boy I wish I had a real woodworking bench for all those drawers that I need to build to finish the dresser". So I bought and read Chris Schwarz' latest book and have come up with a combination of tops and bases that I am going to combine to create my bench.

The only thing that I am not clear on is how to choose which vise(s) to incorporate into the bench. There are twin-screw vises, single metal screw vises, single wood screw vises, leg vises, and I am sure many more.

I plan to incorporate one front vise and one tail vise (the tail vise will likely be a standard veritas vise just to draw in on the bench dogs; nothing fancy or complicated) but I am having trouble choosing the front vise. I mostly do power tool work but find myself using hand planes and chisels more and more often. Soon I would like to try and put down the router and start cutting dovetails by hand, so I want a vise that can accommodate that. Other than that I am pretty much wide open; my next project is just as likely to be a round outdoor patio table as it is to be a kitchen cabinet refacing project so I need to be able to clamp and work dang near anything.

Any suggestions on which front vise I should choose and why????

As always; thanks in advance for the replies!

 

[bluedawg76]

i recently built a bench modeled in the 2005 schwarz fashion with a leg vise. I used a leg vise screw from lee valley. The vise is about 10 1/2" wide at the top, which is a bit bigger than schwarz's version. i haven't had a lot of time to really abuse it, but have done a few small projects and so far i really like it:
1) The screw is ~9" below the table top. That's a lot more room than a standard vise.
2) I can hold work all the way to the floor with good support bracing the work between the vise and leg.
3) the pegboard looks cool

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Work benches and their vises can be one of the most personal choices a woodworker makes. The "right" one depends entirely on what works best for you. Having said that, I will show you my bench and tell you what I like about it, but hopefully many others will do the same. Then you can see ideas that may work for you and incorporate them into your final design.

Here is my primary bench:

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The twin screws on this end of the bench allow me to clamp almost any shape project, include a round table top. The shop made "dogs" will swivel to adjust to odd shapes, and can be positioned in any hole along the top. Below is a close-up of one of the screws.

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This is a fairly small "quick-action" vise built into the side of the bench w/ a larger jaw added.

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End view of the bench. The vise on the right is one I made from a steel screw I had. It is not "quick-action" and consequently doesn't get used as much. The tool tray down the middle is good to have, but often becomes a catch-all for clutter. Since this pic was taken, I've built a multi-compartment cabinet to go underneath and store some of that clutter.

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HTH

Bill

 

[kooshball]

Thanks guys.

After far too much research and pondering I have settled on the following vise configuration:
-Jorgensen large cast iron quick release vise for the front (similar in style to the Record vises) which I will recess into the bench then face with wood so there is nothing but wood contacting the work
-Peachtree quick release wood faced vise for my end position

Regards