Re: Should be simple enough.
TomD
It shouldn't be difficult to secure to an existing bench. The initial attachment when you make a bench is you cut a tenon on the end of the bench, and that is easily done with a circular saw, and a guide. Though commonly it exists on many benches anyway. You could also use a fly cutter in a router to make a slot, then use a plywood floating tenon. Then you attach the end piece to the bench with some bolts that go into captured nuts. A better, usually easier, arrangement can be to hardware bond threaded rod in place of captured nuts. I have done it both ways, and prefer the epoxy bonded approach. Basically you are making a breadboard joint at scale.
Your end piece comes out to the front, where you dovetail on the crosspiece. It is a large dovetail and can be cut on a bandsaw. Obviously all the joints can be cut with hand tools just as easily. There is a re-enforcing block and a threaded rod. There are good instructions in FK's work, and in Tage Frid's book. I made Tage's bench.
I don't really see why there should be a problem with retro fitting one. The one thing that would be an issue is that the vise side leg extends out to support the vise hardware But there are all sorts of ways around that. You could simply have a leg. You could epoxy hardware bond an extension on to the existing leg. Make a new leg. You could put a timber frame like bracket there. You can also make the vise removable with two nuts, and so when you aren't using it, you can remove it so support is not needed.
Making these vises is a project under any circumstance, and one often sees small mistakes when people make them from scratch, like the threaded rod runs through a dog hole. There are some planing issues, and if you retrofit, there might be some other issues. All in a day's work.
I normally think of these vises for dovetails, though they are also ideal for securing long boards to the front of the bench.
They are great vises for dovetails, but here are 3 things you may not have come across:
1) They stick out quite far, and people have run into them, or found they took up too much shop space I don't mind that myself. There is a more complex variant where the L moves in and out that would solve the problem of space.
2) Similar issue is that they come out too far, so while it may not be obvious, the hardware that is usually for sale is normally modified. So they come out really far, and that adds to cost, and structural needs. What most of us do is cut the screw short, and make a new end on it so that it fits again into the pressure foot. But while you could probably neaten up the end on a wood lathe, a metal lathe is better. I think Rob just made his double threaded screw short from the get-go. I don't think the expense or lack of a quick release is a big deal.
I have several quick release vises and rarely use the feature, it tends to get stiff with sawdust, and I don't normally move from 8 inches to 1 inch and back again, to make it worth messing with.
3) I actually like my dovetail vise higher than my bench top, particularly after about 50 years of age. And something like a Moxon Vise, though I have my own variant that I prefer, solves a lot of problems. My current set-up is an attachable "Moxon" vise and my bench face vise is a Tucker Vise, and easily the most used thing in my shop. Often used in the horizontal position. I still have the Frid bench, though it is currently in my leather shop. If I had more space, I would have it in my woodworking shop.
