Moxon vise design "review"?

[Derek Cohen]

Mike, I have just posted the attached design on the Power forum. I am interested in the possibility of using the Moxon to hold a board and also to be able to rout out waste with a trim router.

I am about to build a new Moxon, first full one in 10 years, using iron wheels (ala BC). This is what I have come up with ...



In this design, the front chop has a rebate. As the chop is set up in the design above, there is full support on both sides of the board when sawing. Now reverse the chop, and the rebate on the outside becomes a rebate on the inside, and this provides space for the router bit to clear the pin board.

At the rear of the vise is a hinged spacer. This has three purposes; firstly, it lifts the tail board above the chop, which would be cut up by a knife when transferring marks if coplanar. Secondly, it is easier to align tail and pin boards if there is space around them (which is why I dislike the designs which have a continuous shelf at the rear of the vise. Thirdly, the spacer becomes a ledge to which one can attach clamps (if needed).

Most of these ideas (the exception being the rebate in the chop) I have been testing for at least 10 years, in which time I have hand cut many hundreds of dovetails.

What do you think?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Brady]

Derek:
I think that if you decide to use the very heavy and wonderful Benchcrafted hardware with that design you should be very aware that removing your clamps or holdfasts requires care or even removal of the cast iron spin wheels prior. Since you asked for an opinion, I would stay with the wood screws with that design for the aforementioned reason. If you are wanting to utilize the premium iron hardware I would suggest a wider and deeper overall design that would be geared to those wonderful wide panels you have been dovetailing lately.

Ps: You were robbed of first place at that wood show.

[Derek Cohen]

Mike, thanks for the kind words about the competition.

The rear of the Moxon vise has a wide ledge, which is held by hold fasts ...



Does that make a difference when using the cast wheels?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Brady]

Nope. All of the mass of the screws and wheels will be outboard of the front of bench. I don't mean too overstate the issue, but if you had the metal screws and wheels on that vise in the picture; and then removed the two clamps at the ends of the vise, that entire assembly will be at or on your feet. That's just the physics of the situation unless you have some mass behaind the vise that offsets the weight of the metal parts. Don't ask me how I know this.




I also would like to correct my post: When referring to the center of gravity of the metal vise components be in front of the main work bench, I should have said that it is the weight of the metal vise components combined with the mass of the wood vise jaw that creates a hazard for the vise toppling to the floor when unclamped.