Need advise on vise location...

Re: Need advise on vise location...

Jamey Amrine

>Your thinking is correct, but rather than hold the piece in a vise, use a benchhook or similar sawing stop. The traditional locations of the vises are for right-handed planing. You want to plan away from the tail vise, generally.

Of course, you can go any way you like, but the eveolution of benches has nudged the design toward the way it is today.

Personally, big crosscuts on my bench are done with the face vise, and I saw with the waste to my left (unless the off-cut is actually the workpiece and not the waste). For finer work, I use a bench hook.

Re: Need advise on vise location...

Dean J in MN

>Good Question! My face vise is on the right hand side of my bench. But I don't use it to hold the wood to make cuts off the right hand side of the bench. I just use bench hooks to hold the wood for crosscuts, so that line of argument doesn't hold for me. I use my face vise to cut dovetails and tenons, so it really doesn't matter which side you have it on. I moved mine over to get it out of the way when I plane. I have a crochet on the front left to hold stock for edge work which is small enough to not hinder me when I face plane.

Mind you, my face vise is a large twin screw, so having it on the left front would really be a pain, I'd be hip checking the screws all the time. If you have a long enough top you can set your planing stop back from the left edge far enough to keep a smaller face vise out of the way. Then it is just a personal choice. Keep in mind you need some way of holding your work for edge work, if you don't have a vise/crochet on the front left you have a pretty limited bench.

Have I been improperly conditioned?

On benches? IMO, yes, very much so. Do you even need a vise? Tail vise? A flat top, a few holes and some holdfasts take you a long long way. Tack on a crochet and you're done. If I had to do it all over, I'd look long and hard at a leg vise, and stick to as close of an exact copy of Roubo as I could pull off.

-Dean

Re: Need advise on vise location...

Norman (Metcalfe, Ont.)

>Stephen,

It has to do with whether you plane left or right-handed.

Also, do you use the left or right hand on the tote when planing.

I am left-handed and plane left to right with the tail-vise on my left. Always plane away from the tail-vise towards the bench-dog.

Therefore, if the tail-vise is at one end, in my case the left end, I would want the face vise at the opposite or right end.

This is reversed if you are right-handed or prefer to plane right to left. You would want the tail vise at the right and face vise at the left in that case, which happens to be the standard configuration.

I have oriented my benches for left-handed operation, one of my

benches can be used on either side, has the twin-screw vise as a tail vise with bench dog holes running along the front and back of the bench

Norman (woodworker in progress)

Another reason

Don in Northern Arizona

>Having the face vise on the left if you are right-handed makes it easier to reach for hand tools on the bench while your work is clamped in the face vise, and it gives you more room to safely lay down those tools if your bench isn't already chock full of stuff like mine usually is.

It is a one-step process to reach for the saw/chisel/mallet/trim router/block plane or whatever with your right hand rather than reaching with your left and changing hands, missing the exchange because it�s December and your hands are cold, thereby dropping the block plane on your toe, and subsequently expressing a deleted expletive.

Don

Re: Need advise on vise location...

Bjenk Ellefsen

>If I can offer you my view and experience on the subject :

I have put my vice on the right side because the left side has a wall right next to it. I thought I would get too much cramped to work there. But, the problem becomes obvious when you plane if you are right handed. The vice is in the way. Normally, the tail vice on the left clamps the board on the bench between bench dogs or with hold downs and your body is turned towards the left of your bench.

A guy I know is left handed and has his front vice on the left and tail on the right. Of course, if you use japanese hand planes youd want the same setup as a left handed because you pull them.

Im no expert though.

Re: Need advise on vise location...

Stokes

>Thank you for your input! Don your thoughts on using your right hand to reach tools, etc. makes a lot of sense. I had not thought of that.

Left it is!

Thanks again,

Stokes

Re: Need advise on vise location...

John Snyder, Pocono's PA

>I've built three very heavy laminated joinery benches ... always mount the face vice on the right. I reason it comes down to how you flatten boards ... I do this with electrons, so I don't use the tail vice nearly as much as the front vice; therefore, the front vice occupies the place on my bench where I can do edge work with planes & saw easiest ... ON THE RIGHT !!

JS