Benchtop Bench/Moxon Vise - attaching inner bench face to rest of tabletop?

[David Fegen]

Hi,

I'm following Jeff Miller's 'A Benchtop Bench' plans (FWW #176), and I just wanted to run this by some woodworkers more knowledgable than me to make sure I am not forgetting something (the article does not really give details on this)!

I need to connect the inner bench face to the rest of the tabletop.

The tabletop is roughly 30" wide and 16" deep, made of 1 3/4" thick Ash (pic).

The inner face I made from laminating three pieces of Ash after turning them 90 degrees. It is 2" thick and 4" wide (pic).


To attach the inner bench face, I have #8 wood-screws, 3" in length.

I was thinking:



putting the screws halfway through the top-lamination strip, about 5/8" down from the top
drilling counterbores about halfway through the face, such that 2" (so 2/3) of the wood-screws bite into the actual tabletop
straight line across, a screw in every 1 1/2" - so over 30", this would be about 15 screws (should I go every 1" here?)



So overall, does this seem like a good way to attach the inner bench face to the tabletop?

It seems like a critical step so I just want to make sure and not do anything boneheaded!

Thanks!

[Gary Ragatz]

I took a look at the FWW article, and I honestly don't understand why they used screws there at all. Seems to me the glue joint should be strong enough by itself. With the aprons on the trestle legs butting up tight behind the bench face, there shouldn't be much racking force from the vise trying to break that joint (and if there were, it would probably break the wood of the bench face before it broke the glue joint, anyway).

If you want suspenders to go with your belt, put 4-6 screws across the face, countersunk just enough to keep the heads from marring anything you clamp in the vise (or you could line with leather or cork).

[Phil Gaudio]

No need for screws: long grain to long grain joint with glue is sufficient: its what I did here:

https://i.postimg.cc/cHKqwqQc/IMG-3378.jpg (https://postimg.cc/fthgQrq3)

[Jim Koepke]

Another vote for glue.

Someday you may want to drill some dog holes.

jtk

[James Pallas]

I say glue also. If you feel more comfortable with more shear support glue four 1/2” wood dowels straight thru from the outside. I definitely would not want 15 pieces if metal in it.
Jim

[David Fegen]

Wow, so glad I posted - thanks everyone!

I followed the advice and went with glue instead of screws as recommended in the FWW article. The top now looks great:
491809

The glue-up was a little rough. My spring joint looked great on a dry-run, but something happened during the madness of the actual glue-up & the glue-line is a little larger than I would like:
491810

I guess the wide glue-line is hard to appreciate in this pic.


Anyway, thanks again!