Leg Vice

[Paul Incognito]

Work's been a little slow, so I've been spending some time in the shop.
I used a veneer press screw that I had laying around. I ground the threads off at the handle in order to fit the garter. It works pretty well.
Considering I started with wood that was otherwise destined for the fireplace, I'm happy with the bench. And all it cost me was 31 cents for the washer behind the vice handle. I'm not counting the $20 or so I spent on the veneer press screw because that's been collecting dust so long I forget when or why I bought it.
Now I have to figure out how to retrofit a wagon vice to it and drill for some dogs.
PI

[Paul Murphy]

Very nice! :) I'm sure you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

[David Gendron]

Good work! As for the wagon vise, on Shwarz blogs, you should find some infos! As for dog holes, they are pretty easy, just need a brace and bit, a few 3/4" dowels and your are in buisness!

[Bruce Campbell]

Gah! I've been sitting on an acme threaded 16 inch vise rod (with metal garter, etc...) I got on ebay for over a month now. I keep making the excuse that without the perfect chunk of ash and all that nonsense that I can't even start on making my leg vise. You just blew that excuse out of the water as I'm now looking at yours and drooling about all the things I can start doing once I have a proper vise.

Couple questions for ya if you don't mind:

A) How thick is the wood you used and what kind? Curious because I so talked myself into finding the perfect piece of minimum 2" thick hardwood that I wouldn't even begin.

B) how long is the threaded rod you used? My 16" one (threaded to 12") seems so short. Not sure what I expected, but yours kind of appears to be even shorter and yet highly functional.

C) In Schwarz's plans he calls for chamfering at least the top edge of the chop for such tasks as sawing and such and I notice yours isn't. Assuming you've used yours for such tasks, have you run into any problems?

D) Sorry, it started with two questions. Assuming, again, that you've been using it have you noticed any flex or other issues when bearing down? I think that's the reason I convinced myself I needed a serious chunk of hardwood because I saw somewhere that flex could be a problem with thinner wood.

[Paul Incognito]

Couple questions for ya if you don't mind:

A) How thick is the wood you used and what kind? Curious because I so talked myself into finding the perfect piece of minimum 2" thick hardwood that I wouldn't even begin.

B) how long is the threaded rod you used? My 16" one (threaded to 12") seems so short. Not sure what I expected, but yours kind of appears to be even shorter and yet highly functional.

C) In Schwarz's plans he calls for chamfering at least the top edge of the chop for such tasks as sawing and such and I notice yours isn't. Assuming you've used yours for such tasks, have you run into any problems?

D) Sorry, it started with two questions. Assuming, again, that you've been using it have you noticed any flex or other issues when bearing down? I think that's the reason I convinced myself I needed a serious chunk of hardwood because I saw somewhere that flex could be a problem with thinner wood.

Answers:
A) It's oak. It ended up about an inch thick. As I said in the op, almost everything was free. The top and legs came from porch posts and the stretchers and the vice came from scraps from my brother's saw mill that were destined for the fireplace. I would have used a thicker piece that came from the porch posts, but I already squandered all my extra wood making hammers. :)

B) http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2004362/8952/Veneer-Press-Screw.aspx Here you go.

C) I just finished the vise and haven't used it for that purpose yet so I can't answer this. To be honest, I built this bench more for practice than because I needed a bench. I work out of a small shop that's mostly dedicated to the production cabinetry I do, so there's not much room to spare. Someday I'll have a bigger shop that can accomodate all my needs.

D) In testing the vice, I noticed that it will rack when something is clamped on the side. As far as sheer holding power, I can clamp a 1x4 in it and pick the whole bench off the ground with it.

Hope this helps, if you have any more questions, fire away.
PI

[Josh Bowman]

I ground the threads off at the handle in order to fit the garter. It works pretty well.
How did you do the garter? Is it a washer that just fits over the threads?

[Paul Incognito]

How did you do the garter? Is it a washer that just fits over the threads?
I ground off about 1/4" of threads at the handle and made the diamond shaped cutout to fit over the screw shaft. The washer is just to keep the wood from getting crushed when the vise is tightened.
I can take some more pictures if needed.
PI

[Josh Bowman]

So the wooden dimond is the garder?

I ground off about 1/4" of threads at the handle and made the diamond shaped cutout to fit over the screw shaft. The washer is just to keep the wood from getting crushed when the vise is tightened.
I can take some more pictures if needed.
PI

[Paul Incognito]

So the wooden dimond is the garder?
Correct.
And that one word answer is under the minimum character requirement, so I'll type a little bit more.
PI