I've used my first bench past the "wow this is cool" phase, through the
"hmm, if I had this to do again..." phase and well on into the "this
bites" phase and it's time to start a new. One of the short comings of
my old bench was vertical clamping. At the time I made the bench I was
still on the dark path to normism. Since getting more into handtool
work, I find myself wishing I had a different vise setup.
I'm leaning toward putting a Veritas Twin-Screw Vise as an end vise. My
thought was that I would end up using that for most vertical work
instead of using the front vise. How does the twin-screw hold up for
work like dovetailing? From looking at it, my thoughts are it would be
pretty nice.
Since I would end up using the end vise for pretty much everything
except edge work, I was thinking about just putting in a simple
european-style (wood jawed, single screw, two rails) vise in as a front
vise (vs a record steel jawed type vise). Any recommendations on whether
or not this is a bad idea? If I make the jaws 2-3" thick and not expect
it to hold a 4' board on it's own, will I miss having steel backed jaws?
Part of my reasoning is that I really want the inside jaw to be the
front skirt and it always seemed silly to embed a steel jaw in the
middle of the bench. I don't really care about quick release so that's
not an issue.
I had kicked around the idea of using the Veritas as a front vise, do
people do that? It would add $ to things, and with my current design it
wouldn't give me much throat depth, but it has the nicety that the main
work area is on the side of the bench instead of the end.
Also I'm keen on running a set of bench dog holes straight up the center
of the bench to give 2 points of holding on mediumish pieces flat on the
bench and to make jig attachment cooler. Anyone do that and regret it?
Thanks for the input.
Dave R.