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View Full Version : Your bench vise setup...cutting dovetails.



Rick Cicciarelli
03-16-2009, 3:45 PM
I figured this would fit in this subforum best...though I could be wrong.
I am curious how most of you folks who are hand cutting dovetails manage to hold onto you boards. What setups are you typically using to be able to work on the end of a wide board. I would think something like the Veritas twin screw vise (or some hand made equivalent) would be best for holding wide boards/panels while one works on the end. But I am curious if perhaps I might be missing another approach....

Carlos Cabrera
03-16-2009, 3:49 PM
hope this works..

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss120/neorisc/102_4113.jpg

Sean Hughto
03-16-2009, 4:18 PM
Rick, I just use my front vise and this little sled that mounts in a T-track recessed in my benches front edge. This is an idea that came from Rob Pocarro (and published in an issue of PWW). With really large cabinet sides like this, I sometimes add some support from a saw bench, stool or just some stacked up boards to fill the space from the floor to the workpiece.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2864599314_7466bf3ac2.jpg

John Keeton
03-16-2009, 4:24 PM
Sean, that is slick! Thanks for posting the pic. Any possibility of a closeup pic without the dovetailed boards to see a little more detail?

Sean Hughto
03-16-2009, 4:42 PM
Sure thing, John.

Let's see if this works as attachments:

Hank Knight
03-16-2009, 6:01 PM
I've posted this before, but it has been a while.

I imbedded four stainless steel machinist's "T" nuts in my dog hole strip when I built my bench:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/DSCN0473Small.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/DSCN0481A.jpg

Using 1/2" X 13 threaded studs and aluminum speed handles, I can clamp 8/4 hardwood jaws or "chops" of varying lengths to the face of my bench top. With these I can clamp panels up to 30" wide vertically to my bench top for dovetails or any other work that needs to be done on the end of a panel.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/IMG_0087A.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/hankknight/IMG_0083.jpg

Lee Valley has a relatively new product called "Bench Anchors" that makes this approach available for existing benches. All you need is a couple of 3/4" holes in the face of your bench. These bench anchors can be used in any 3/4" hole and they accept 1/2" X 13 threads. Easy. I wish they'd been available when I built my bench.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=59754&cat=1,41637



Hank

Dave Lehnert
03-16-2009, 9:17 PM
I've posted this before, but it has been a while.

I imbedded four stainless steel machinist's "T" nuts in my dog hole strip when I built my bench:





Using 1/2" X 13 threaded studs and aluminum speed handles, I can clamp 8/4 hardwood jaws or "chops" of varying lengths to the face of my bench top. With these I can clamp panels up to 30" wide vertically to my bench top for dovetails or any other work that needs to be done on the end of a panel.





Lee Valley has a relatively new product called "Bench Anchors" that makes this approach available for existing benches. All you need is a couple of 3/4" holes in the face of your bench. These bench anchors can be used in any 3/4" hole and they accept 1/2" X 13 threads. Easy. I wish they'd been available when I built my bench.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=59754&cat=1,41637



Hank

Thanks for taking the time to post. Great idea.

John Petsche
02-03-2019, 2:11 PM
Great tips, I like the t-track idea.

Steven Mikes
02-03-2019, 4:31 PM
A pair of holdfasts in horizontal holes on the side if the bench should work well too.

James Pallas
02-04-2019, 2:49 PM
I built this as a prototype in 2015. Always intended to make a fancier one but this one works just fine. It raises the work to a stand up height. One way slanted it works great for half blinds. Flipped over it puts the work at about 90* for tails or thru pins. Turned around it works as a bench hook. For wider panels I clamp it to the bench and use the vise on the opposite end. It sits right under the bench where I can grab it and put it in the vise.
Jim

Prashun Patel
02-04-2019, 2:55 PM
Interesting thread.

Comedian: This thread is so old
Audience: How old is it?
Comedian: This thread is so old, John Keeton was still doing flat work then.

Jim Koepke
02-04-2019, 3:17 PM
Comedian: This thread is so old

Well, an old thread can use an old image:

402781

This is from a cabinet build back in 2010. This is one of my reasons for preferring the fixed vise chop flush with the front of the bench and having enough apron to use clamps or holdfasts on the front.

On the end of the bench a block was made to match the over hang at the end vise. Some holes were drilled in the legs and dowels to match in the block. This allows pieces to be clamped against the end with the tail vise removed.

A Moxon vise is another way to fill this often needed ability.

jtk

ken hatch
02-05-2019, 9:01 AM
With most thing wood simple is better and of course with most things wood YMMV.

One of my shop benches is a French/English hybrid, a Roubo style base with an English style apron. In some ways it is the best of all worlds, the French simplicity of build with English workholding. Here is a photo of holding a seat blank but it could just as easy be a large panel needing dovetails.

402836

The same could be done on what I think is the best workbench for the home shop the Moravian bench with a "F" clamp across the top.

402838

Another option is a Moxon.

402839

All work, all simple to use.

ken

Mike Brady
02-05-2019, 9:57 AM
I use a twin screw chain drive vise with 18" of space between the screws. This arrangement is ideal and makes the placing of the work piece very easy and quick. What isn't ideal is that the vise is at 34" from the floor, which is a bit low for dovetailing if the stock being sawn is less than 3/4". If I am dovetailing 1/2" stock, then I may put a supporting piece of thicker stock behind the work piece to dampen vibration during sawing. A Moxon vise does raise the working height for sawing, but it is a large and costly add-on that I just can't justify having lying around.

chris carter
02-05-2019, 10:16 AM
My sole bench vise is a twin screw end vise so that's what I use. If I have something too wide to fit, then I hold it on the side of the bench with a holdfast through the leg on one side and a pipe clap vise (going across the top of the bench) for the other side of the board.

Andrew Seemann
02-06-2019, 11:19 PM
I use a shoulder vise. It works like it was made for dovetailing. Oh, wait, it was:)

A 12" or even wider board would be no trouble.

402901

brian zawatsky
02-08-2019, 8:20 AM
403020

Clamping a medicine cabinet case I made recently for final smoothing. The cheap little F-clamp is really just for moral support - the case was solid with no flex and the patternmaker's vise was capable of supporting it on its own, even under the smooth plane. I know, I'm spoiled. That Emmert was worth every penny! :D

glenn bradley
02-08-2019, 8:34 AM
I added a little t-track to my bench-on-bench:

403023 . 403022

I use the same holddowns I have for the drill press and other fixtures.

403021

steven c newman
02-08-2019, 12:57 PM
Have enough room on my end vise, I can clamp things up..
403030
Depending on the width of the board...I go as far as I can, flip the board around, and come in from the other edge.
Board in this picture was a 1 x6. I can do almost 12" wide boards like this....I can raise the boards up, to get a better view, when doing the layouts
403032
Then drop the board down, to where it is easy to saw, while I sit down on the shopstool. Bottom of the cuts are about elbow height.....nothing real fancy, more about just laying things out, and making the cuts needed, have projects to get done....

John Schtrumpf
02-08-2019, 3:32 PM
I use one or two cabinet maker's vises:

403034

Derek Cohen
02-08-2019, 8:23 PM
I used a shop made double screw vise about 20 years ago, and up until I built a new bench around 5 or 6 years ago. One of the factors that made it possible to go to my current bench design was the Moxon-type vise. It is a vise dedicated to dovetailing, and is so far superior to any vise that does double or treble duty for other tasks. This bise allows one to stand up straighter, placing the work piece at a more ergonomic level - it is not the same as just lifting the work piece higher in the vise since boards need to be properly supported in the vise.

Build a decent Moxon vise. Don't thank me. Thank Moxon :)

https://i.postimg.cc/Gt03srVt/Moxon-transfer-rest1.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek