How to fix a screw-up in my moxon vise build

[Tony Wilkins]

My rip-sawing was off-line when I was roughing out the front board for my benchcrafted moxon vise. I also didn't give myself enough wiggle room. Long and the short of it is there is a off-line part of a kerf that goes about 1/16th" or 1/8th" down in the middle of the top of board. I came back from the other side of the board and was online with that attempt.

So how do i fix this?

I've thought of:
a) leaving well enough alone
b) cutting a chamfer in the front (like some folks do to help with half blind dovetails) - this would get rid of most of it.
c) take the front board (and the back board*) down just enough shorter eliminate the errant kerf
d) start over and cut an new front board
e) something brilliant that I as a new woodworker haven't thought of

* Benchcrafted suggests the front board being an 1/8th" deeper than the back.


TIA,
Tony

[Matthew N. Masail]

I don't know the hardware, and a pic would help but if I understand correctly than a combination of B or C is probably what I would do -


That is, eliminate as much as you can with the chamfer (but don't make it wider than what you want) and go the rest of the way by planing the top\ chamfer alternately. you can plane the back board to match.

[Tony Wilkins]

Here's the Pictures:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd316/cadfael_tex/DSCF1407_zps3e61855b.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/user/cadfael_tex/media/DSCF1407_zps3e61855b.jpg.html)

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd316/cadfael_tex/DSCF1406_zps28ab169a.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/user/cadfael_tex/media/DSCF1406_zps28ab169a.jpg.html)

[James Conrad]

C. Just rip it down. It won't matter.

Or, make that the bottom inside face.

[Winton Applegate]

It is a sign from Bob.
All mighty Bob.
Praise Bob.
He is telling you, that it is not too late . . .
. . . repent now . . . and . . .
build a Klausz.

I would put a smiley face here but this is much too serious a matter to be taken lightly. You are one of the lucky ones. The chosen few. Direct divine intervention is not to be taken lightly.

You may not get a second warning.
As Arnold says "Do it ! DO IT NOW !".

[Hilton Ralphs]

Tony, here's the thing. BC recommends making the front board slightly thicker (more height) to make it easier to open the vise. This you know already.

I would cut away the bugger-up leaving a shallow V groove. Smooth this out with a spokeshave and make the edge the bottom of the front chop. If you think about it, when you have a board clamped up, you won't be able to grip the front board in the middle section anyway and it won't negatively affect any clamping efforts. If you really wanted to hide this, then glue up a thin section of contrasting wood with a complementary curve on the one edge and the other edge flat.

[Jim Matthews]

If it was me, I would just plane it down.

The rear face should be slightly larger, anyway.
If you want the front and rear chop the same size, and this piece is too small
you could laminate on a filler strip - it could even be a contrasting species.



I would say that it's more important to have an oversize set of through-holes in the front chop.

You'll need it to get non-parallel pieces mounted firmly.

*****

Chamfer all edges, to avoid breaking them out over the years.
This thing will really last, and you don't want to rebuild it due to rough handling.

Whatever threaded rod is used - keep it clean.
Even coarse Acme threads won't work if they're coated in sawdust and glue.
DAMHIKT

Consider mounting it permanently to either short end of your bench.
I've found this really handy, and I'm not wrestling it into place.
(I expect yours will be heavy, too.)

Make a series of spacer blocks.
That makes clamping small pieces a breeze.

Mine is mounted on the right hand side of my bench, where most right handers put a tail vise.
I use it to hold an "L" shaped bracket for jointing longer boards.

In conjunction with my leg vise, it's really stable.

[Tony Wilkins]

I'm leaning towards just planing it down or Jim's laminate idea. Only thing with the laminate is my laziness - the only contrasting 8/4 stock I have is Cherry I haven't touch and I've done enough ripping in the Walnut I used for the other.

[Jim Matthews]

If you plane the two pieces at the same time (match planing) the front chop and the laminated addition,
the alignment errors will cancel and you'll get a straight panel.

In practice, with a small piece like this it wouldn't much matter.

You just need to get them flat enough to glue up, and face plane down the glorified edge banding you've just applied.

*******

If you just plane it down, I doubt it will matter in clamping. This design is really fault tolerant;
even if you're badly misaligned and the piece you've clamped is out of square, it will cinch down tight.

[Tony Wilkins]

They don't glue up together. One is in front of the other with screws between them like a twin screw face vise. In reality I guess the only edges that need to be flat are the back board and the small support strip that glue up together and in use sit on the bench top.

However, I would like the tops of both main boards to be flat on the top together. I'm not sure when I would use the top of the back board as a reference but it's a quibble.