Re: Face Vise Capacity Issue Solved
William Duffield, on the Cohansey
>I use a system that works in a similar manner for holding complicated things down on the top of my bench. You can find explanations and diagrams in the WC articles. You might find the homemade wooden alternatives for the speed handles particularly interesting. I have not yet adapted it to holding simpler things to the front of the bench. Your system of making and mounting the nuts is very robust. I took the easy way out, and just installed threaded inserts into the top of the bench surface. If you have a hardwood top, I'm sure that would be more than sufficient, in either the top or the front. I've been using mine for about seven years in a top made mostly of particle board, and have not yet had one pull out. I am, however, still expecting a failure any day now, which I would have to fix with some epoxy.
The only reason I have not yet installed the threaded inserts in the face of the bench, other than being terminally lazy, is that I have pipe clamps, lots of them. One side of the panel gets clamped in the face vise, and the other gets clamped with a pipe clamp laid across the top of the bench. If I needed clearance across the top and end of the work, and the pipe clamp would get in my way, I could put the clamp under the bench top, where it would hold the panel just as well, but would require a little more sinisterity (you right-handers might be more comfortable with "dexterity") to get the clamp tightened.
