Roubo Build Nearing Completion

[Jason Lester]

The chatter is what I struggle with when dovetailing wider boards or carcases too long to stay above the screw.

[Christopher Charles]

John, great looking bench. Mine’s coming up on its fifth birthday and I can’t remember life without it.

Re. Leg vise, I use mine all the time, though use my wagon vise at least as often. And it is not ideal for dovetailing wide boards but is fine for any less than about 4”. Also will eventually do a moxon or similar.

[Joe A Faulkner]

For dovetailing, sometimes I'll place scraps in front of and behind the work piece, and hold them just below the scribe line. With this configuration, I'll raise the end of the board 6-9 inches higher than the bench surface to saw the pins and tails. Sometimes I might use a small F clamp or quick release clamp to clamp the "sandwich", again adding to the stiffness. This is my temporary work around until I get around to building a moxon. At times, I've regretted the leg vise because I have to stoop a little to reach the handle, where as on a twin screw the handles are higher - not a big enough issue to motivate me to rework it though.

[David Eisenhauer]

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Following some slight thread drift, I include a couple of photos of my Moxon that works well for dovetail and similar work that like some elevation above my Ruobo bench top height. I ordered a 3' length of Acme thread rod, a couple of Acme nuts and the two handwheels from Internet vendors as a less-expensive version than kits assembled by Moxon-specific vendors'. I also added some suede leather to the inside of the chops for improved grip.

[Luke Dupont]

Looks really nice!

What do others think of the leg vises? I put one on mine, but not really happy with it. It's kind of awkward and the screw interferes with a lot of clamping operations. I'm thinking of replacing mine with either a twin screw or building a moxon add-on.

I assume that you have a lot of long wide work that you want to clamp vertically?

I've always made do with vises much shallower and much less in width than a leg vise. For what you seem to want, though, a twin screw moxon vise sounds like the perfect solution. They're easy to make, too. Just make sure the holes for the front jaw are made as slits so there's a little play and the vise doesn't lock up when adjusting one screw and not the other.

[Mike Brady]

There are two reasons I prefer twin screw vises....the two screws. No seriously, not having the single screw impeding the placement of the workpiece in the vice is priceless. In addition, the workpiece can to the floor whic means in can dovetail a 48” board with a width capacity of 18 inches. No Moxon needed in my shop.

Lastly by vise handle is at waist level, not down around my knees.