Sawdust on the Floor

If I were to ask  if you had any vises,  I’m not sure of the replies I would get. But if I were to ask about your choice of woodworking vises, then I’m sure I would hear a lot of pro’s and cons about your choice of vise.

Most woodworking benches will have a good woodworking vise installed. The secret to that statement is the word good. I have looked at a good number of vises, most are simply too light weight to work, or the machining is too rough to work smoothly. Look for a vise where the screw runs smoothly in and out of the tailstock, also look to see how parallel the jaws are. Close the vise completely and make sure that the front face and rear face contact completely and not just at a couple of high spots.

The vise is normally installed at the end of your bench and is used to hold wood that is being worked.   A good vise will have pre drilled holes to add a wooden liner. Most of the upper end vises will have an integrated Bench dog.

If you were to look at a woodworking bench at the local woodworking store, you will probably find that the bench was built to use bench dogs. Bench dogs are simply posts that can be inserted into the surface of the workbench. You will normally find that there are several holes pre drilled at various distances from the Vise. Select the correct hole for the size of the piece you want to hold down and secure it between the vise and the dog. When you don’t want to use the dog, simply remove it form the surface.

Most of the better woodworking vises allow the woodworker to install replaceable jaw liners. These are nothing more then pieces of wood that are bolted onto the insides of the front and rear faces of the vises. They are there to protect your wood from the metal surfaces of the vises. When you install the faces, don’t just grab a piece of scrap lumber, and install it. The jaw liners should be flat and squared off.

When the vise is properly installed onto a workbench, the top of the vise should be held below the surface of the bench top. The jaws should be sized so that they just extend beyond the top of the bench. In order to get the vise installed in this manner, the rear face may have to be mortised into the face of the bench. Some applications will require you to add spacers between the mounting flange for the rear face and the bottom of the bench.

Sure its a lot of added work, but believe me it’s worth it. A good woodworking vise that is properly installed is like having that extra hand in the shop. It will make woodworking more enjoyable, and may just add that extra bit of safety to your woodworking, now that your project is secured to the bench.

On the other hand if you are a purest, you might want to consider making your own wood working vise. I ran across Jeff Greef’s site, Jeff has a great article on building a wooden vise complement your work bench. http://www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc/ShopProj/woodvice/index.html

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5. Woodworking Tools – Clamps