I screwed up mounting the front vice 1/4" short ... does it matter?

[Vince Lok]

Hi all! I finally ALMOST finished my new workbench (Tom Caspar's tosrion box workbench) and I mounted my face vise, but I took one wrong measurement so that the front jaw is actually 1/4" shorted than the top of the bench!!

Since I'm using the front of the bench as the rear jaw, it looks kind of silly. But does it make any functional difference? I was thinking of just slapping on a 1/4" piece of masonite to disguise my error.

My wife thinks that since I spent soooo much time working on it, I might as well just make a new vise jaw that fits. It was a pain in the butt making that jaw in the first place though.

Anyway, the bottom line is .. aside from aesthetics, what reason is there that the top of the front jaw be flush with the top of the bench/read jaw??
Thanks!

Vince

[David G Baker]

You will feel better about your work if you listen to your wife cause they are always right. :D I don't have any idea if the 1/4 inch will make any difference but I do know myself and if it ain't right I find it much easier to fix it while I am still involved in the project no matter how difficult it is to fix it.

[John Schreiber]

Typically the vice is mounted so that the metal parts are below the surface of the bench. Then wooden pieces called chops are added as the actual contact surfaces for the vice jaws. Those pieces make for a softer contact surface and are replaceable as they wear.

Sounds like you did it right after all.

[Vince Lok]

Actually the "chops" is too short by 1/4 inch then...

I think I'll just live with it while I work on a few other "Honeydew" projects and see how much it bugs me. It doesn't seem like it's a problem other than the annoying reminder that although I measured twice and cut once ... I measured the wrong thing! (The instructions that came with it had all sorts of dimensions and I read mistook one dimension for another)

Thanks!

Vince

[glenn bradley]

It will depend on how you use your vise. My front chop has 3 dog holes in it so being even with the top of the bench is nice. I am curious as to what the challenge was on the face build. Is it oddly shaped?

[Nate Folco]

Can you just add a 1/4" strip of contrasting wood and call it an accent?