BenchCrafted Classic Vise Screw and 14" Crisscross

[ken hatch]

Information on this vise screw and crisscross is cross posted on my Moravian bench build thread but I think it might be of interest to those folks who could care less about building a Moravian bench.

benchViseA.jpg

The view from the front side. Neither the chop or backer board have been trimmed, shaped, or cleaned up, just the vise screw and crisscross have been installed.

benchViseB.jpg

From the back side. A couple of things are apparent with this vise kit. The first is it is a much easier install/build than my usual wood screw and parallel guide. The second is it works a treat, give the Johnson bar a push in either direction and it spins until it runs out of energy or runs into something. If it runs into something a slight bit of encouragement and it locks down tight. BTW, one of the reasons for the Classic kit is because I like a handle vs. a wheel.

It works well enough I expect I will change out the vise on at least one of my shop benches.

ken

[Stew Denton]

Ken,

I have thought about replying to your post, but have not done so, so decided that now is the time.

I am hopefully getting closer to building (or having built) a shop, and after that my first real on purpose bench, although I may build a medium size simple movable carpenters bench first. (I had a bench, sort of, years ago that was two layers of 3/4" particle board nailed to a pair of old cheap kitchen base cabinets, it had lots of limitations, but at least it was pretty darned stout and it was a whole lot better than working on sawhorses and planks...well clamping options were tougher though. I still don't count that as a real woodworking bench though.)

Because of that I am really looking at options for vises, and have thought about it a lot. I do have an old bench screw that belonged to my grandfather that I am thinking about using for a leg vise. Because of that, your note above was of great interest to me, especially the part on the crisscross. (I did look the crisscross up on the net.) Because I want the first really high quality bench, very likely a Moravian, to be reasonably portable, the crisscross really appeals. This because the leg vise can be closed and be flatter than a leg vise with a bar extended at right angles from the bottom of the chop.

I will guess that I am not the only one that had considerable interest in the crisscross set up.

At any rate, thanks, good info.

Stew

[ken hatch]

Ken,

I have thought about replying to your post, but have not done so, so decided that now is the time.

I am hopefully getting closer to building (or having built) a shop, and after that my first real on purpose bench, although I may build a medium size simple movable carpenters bench first. (I had a bench, sort of, years ago that was two layers of 3/4" particle board nailed to a pair of old cheap kitchen base cabinets, it had lots of limitations, but at least it was pretty darned stout and it was a whole lot better than working on sawhorses and planks...well clamping options were tougher though. I still don't count that as a real woodworking bench though.)

Because of that I am really looking at options for vises, and have thought about it a lot. I do have an old bench screw that belonged to my grandfather that I am thinking about using for a leg vise. Because of that, your note above was of great interest to me, especially the part on the crisscross. (I did look the crisscross up on the net.) Because I want the first really high quality bench, very likely a Moravian, to be reasonably portable, the crisscross really appeals. This because the leg vise can be closed and be flatter than a leg vise with a bar extended at right angles from the bottom of the chop.

I will guess that I am not the only one that had considerable interest in the crisscross set up.

At any rate, thanks, good info.

Stew

Stew,

BC makes several different crisscrosses. The 14" is the smallest one which makes it work very well with the standard Moravian bench. One of the others might work better for your planned bench, check BC's web site.

ken