Brendan Falkowski
02-10-2020, 5:07 PM
I'm a beginner apartment woodworker in San Francisco who volunteers at City College of SF's woodshop as an assistant (last 2 years) for shop access. At home, my kitchen counter peninsula is my bench, so building a Moxon vise is making more and more sense.
Note: the CCSF woodshop is machine-oriented with 6-inch iron vises only. I've never used a twin-screw vise outside a Lie-Nielsen demo day (and I liked it).
I tried to reverse-engineer the practicalities from all the commercial kits and plans for twin-screw / Moxon setups from:
Lie-Nielsen
Veritas
Benchcrafted
Acer-Ferrous
Tools for Working Wood
Lake Erie
Texas Heritage
YouTube makers
Christopher Schwarz
There's one persistent dimension: 24" between the screws, but more than a few guides mention 16" is more practical for all but large casework. Looking at all the casework around me (dressers, kitchen cabinets, drawer boxes, bathroom vanities, console tables) nothing is actually deeper than 20", and most are 3-8" drawers or 12-18" carcasses.
I have the space to store one mega Moxon at home, but probably not a 24" and 16" version. I'm thinking 20" between screws would fit all furniture in my world that conceivably has dovetails. I don't see much commercial furniture deeper than 20" either.
So why is 24" the norm? I'm guessing it's either:
Option A — deep armoirs and waterfall desks are the outer limit.
Option B — there's another practical workholding use for long Moxon vises that escapes me (beyond edge planing).
Option C — you don't want the workpiece side too close to the screws, so 24" gives 2" gap on a 20" case.
Option D — "go big or go home" prevails only so you won't need two kits.
Heading off the "it depends" answer — I mainly want this vise for hand joinery work on chair/bench parts and small boxes, but I would like to try building a hand-cut dovetail nightstand this year, and a full size dresser next year. So eventually, an 18-20" width will be used.
Appreciate the ideas. Looking to be told if you think 20" between screws is enough just do 24" because XYZ. I'm guessing Option C is that argument, but I've never used a vise like this before.
Note: I already bought the 8/4 maple and ordering Benchcrafted kit. Just deciding where to cross-cut it for the nice face grain.
Note: the CCSF woodshop is machine-oriented with 6-inch iron vises only. I've never used a twin-screw vise outside a Lie-Nielsen demo day (and I liked it).
I tried to reverse-engineer the practicalities from all the commercial kits and plans for twin-screw / Moxon setups from:
Lie-Nielsen
Veritas
Benchcrafted
Acer-Ferrous
Tools for Working Wood
Lake Erie
Texas Heritage
YouTube makers
Christopher Schwarz
There's one persistent dimension: 24" between the screws, but more than a few guides mention 16" is more practical for all but large casework. Looking at all the casework around me (dressers, kitchen cabinets, drawer boxes, bathroom vanities, console tables) nothing is actually deeper than 20", and most are 3-8" drawers or 12-18" carcasses.
I have the space to store one mega Moxon at home, but probably not a 24" and 16" version. I'm thinking 20" between screws would fit all furniture in my world that conceivably has dovetails. I don't see much commercial furniture deeper than 20" either.
So why is 24" the norm? I'm guessing it's either:
Option A — deep armoirs and waterfall desks are the outer limit.
Option B — there's another practical workholding use for long Moxon vises that escapes me (beyond edge planing).
Option C — you don't want the workpiece side too close to the screws, so 24" gives 2" gap on a 20" case.
Option D — "go big or go home" prevails only so you won't need two kits.
Heading off the "it depends" answer — I mainly want this vise for hand joinery work on chair/bench parts and small boxes, but I would like to try building a hand-cut dovetail nightstand this year, and a full size dresser next year. So eventually, an 18-20" width will be used.
Appreciate the ideas. Looking to be told if you think 20" between screws is enough just do 24" because XYZ. I'm guessing Option C is that argument, but I've never used a vise like this before.
Note: I already bought the 8/4 maple and ordering Benchcrafted kit. Just deciding where to cross-cut it for the nice face grain.