Question for Adam C. on bench vise

Williamsbury photos

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Jack, I've got about 10 shots of the cabinet makers' interior, the race under the shop, pit saw stuff, and cooper's stuff. I'll be happy to send you copies of them. However, they're all in Photoshop and would need to be reduced for email, no big problem if you want them.

Pam

Re: Adam's Vice...

paul womack

>... nah, I'm not going there :-)

post by Adam with a picture

Adam's garterless design achieves versatility. (At the cost of the virtues of garters, of course). All design is about choices, trade-offs, and compromises.

BugBear

Mike Dunbar's Bench

Patrick Gibbons, Houston, Tx

>The first FWW special issue of Tools and Shops that they put out at the end of the year has an article by Dunbar on his bench and how to make it with drawings. An excellent article for a good bench design.

Re: Williamsbury photos

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Pam,

I definitely do want them. If you could I would really appreciate it.---Jack

Re: Adam's Vice...

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I wonder if garters could be added(and removable). Just a thought.thanks---Jack

Re: Williamsburg photos

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>OK, I'll get them done this weekend. It'll be fun to look at them again.

Pam

Re: Williamsburg photos

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Pam, is there any way I could get a copy of those pics? I'd love to see them.

Thanks!

David

Re: Williamsburg photos

john jesseph

>I am leaving to go to Williamsburg tomorrow for the FWW/CW conference and the SAPFM meeting. (Beep Beep!!) Just got a newer, better digital camera. I hope to get some good photos of the conference, the shops and tools, and some furniture, and details on their benches. I will be glad to burn discs for B and P as they say on the music trading groups. In other words, send a blank disc and a self addressed stamped envelope, and I'll burn it and pop it in the mail. No money changes hands, and it's all fair use for educational purposes only. Contact me off list.

Regarding the Nicholson bench, I hope to be building one some time, but we are moving and I need to wait. With some changes, I think the Dunbar "Federal" bench would suit your purposes well. I may use a twin wood-screw vise on mine. No tail vise. Lots of holes for holdfasts. Big Big Big.

Good Luck!!

Re: Adam's Vice...

Tom Stovell

>Jack,

I believe I can shed some light on Adam's thoughts concerning garters for your traditional wooden threaded twin screw vise.

It would go something like this:

"DON'T DO IT!"

I know because I asked the exact same question in an email to Adam last Spring. I've got an entire explanation but it boils down to it being a bad idea, and, again, 'don't do it'.

Tom--hoping he didn't overstep his bounds here.....

Re: Adam's Vice...

Jack Guzman from Maine

>It was just a thought.I'm trying to get as much info as I can before I start this project and all info is helpful.I appreciate your input.Maybe your overstepping will incite Adam to respond. I could really use his input. He has a bit of experience with the sort of thing I'm trying to do.---Jack

Re: Adam's Vice...

Andrew F in Australia

>The bench I use every day has a vice like Adam's/Mike Dunbar's

Works fine - just make sure that the head of the vice screw has the same diameter as the width of the vice board, to avoid racking.

Cheers,

Andrew

Re: Question for Adam C. on bench vise

Adam Cherubini

>Hi Jack

The timberframers working on the buildings at Pennsbury set up a sort of japanese trestle with huge timbers (10x10) on top of saw horses. This is what I would expect to see. They might be making moldings on site, so a trestle would be good for that. They would also be cutting joints on the ends of stuff- so again this massive bench hook would work for that. I don't think they would bother with vises or holdfasts. They'd probably use a nail for a stop when planing moldings. I think workbenches are really for planing wide stock and carcass building. You don't even really need one for frame and panel stuff. Carpenters certainly didn't need them.

Mixing windsor chair making in with a carpentry shop is tricky technically and probably inaccurate historically. As far as I can tell, chair makers need low benches and use them infrequently. A twin screw vise with a wide seperation between the screws is probably a good choice for a chair maker. By all means do skip the garters for this sort of work. You'll need the flexibility of a garterless vise to hold chair seats.

So I guess depending on your situation, I'd be reluctant to build a nice work bench. Does that help?

Adam

Re: Question for Adam C. on bench vise

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Adam

I'm not concerned too much about historically correct.There are alot of benches in this building and none of them are historically anything.Just makeshift displays for tools.They are tables really.Some have real antique leg vises attached but the benches are all just for show.The problem is that none of these are useful as work benches.What I was asked to build was a real bench that could be used for live woodworking demos.The fact that it has to be versatile makes it a bit more complicated.I'm going to compile a list of all the ideas I can get and come up with a compromise that will work best for all.So yes,your response is helpful.Thank you and if anything else happens to come to mind please let me know.---Jack

Re: Question for Adam C. on bench vise

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>The most versatile bench considering the varied uses may well be a laminated slab(for stability) with a leg vise and hold downs for working on the top. Add an apron with hold down holes and you should be able to do anything on it. Simple too.JR