Work holding cheaply and budget benches

[Jacob s white]

Looking to build a workbench and large vises are expensive and out of my price range so am looking for a way to effectively hold large peices of wood vertical

[Harvey Miller]

Two ways I can think of are pipe clamp vices & using veneer press hardware for making moxon vices.

[Derek Cohen]

Looking to build a workbench and large vises are expensive and out of my price range so am looking for a way to effectively hold large peices of wood vertical

Jacob, it depends on what you want to hold. It is quite possible to get away without a vise, but I would recommend a leg vise, which can be cheaply made.

If hand planing, I would highly recommend an end stop for the bench ...





Hold downs are essential, and simply require a 3/4” hole drilled in the top. Note that most hold downs are better suited to tops under 4” thick. Below is a Gramercy, which is holding down a Doe’s Ear, itself a fantastic work holding method ...



The Gramercy hold downs are fantastic value. More expensive, and easier to use, are these by Veritas ...



The Doe’s Ear is simply a board with a right angle cut out. It can take the place of a tail vise. But it needs to be used in conjunction with a bench stop. The most convenient bench stops are dog holes. Mine are rectangular, and I built them in when I built the bench. Others simply drill a series of 3/4” holes along the edge, and use dowels.



Regards from Perth

Derek

[stevo wis]

Looking to build a workbench and large vises are expensive and out of my price range so am looking for a way to effectively hold large peices of wood vertical

Check out Mike Siemsen on youtube doing something called Noviseatall. he uses cheap bench and holdfasts. Tools for working wood are very reasonable for holdfasts.

[Michael J Evans]

Check out Mike Siemsen on youtube doing something called Noviseatall. he uses cheap bench and holdfasts. Tools for working wood are very reasonable for holdfasts.

Agree
I built my Nicholson style bench for around $180 all in including my holdfasts from eBay and used that for a couple of months before I got a QR vise as a Christmas gift. I had only built a couple of side tables using M & T joinery but did try mike's vise method and while not as nice as a actual vise, it did work.
I still use a does foot and planing stop and think I will be copying Derek's end planing stop in the future.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Did I miss something, or did the OP say "vertically?" You could take a regular bench and clamp an L shaped bracket to bench and clamp wood to L. I have piece of 3 X 3 aluminum angle I use for this

[Ben Ellenberger]

Here’s what I use. It’s made from Home Depot lumber and a cheap face vise. One day I’ll make a nice bench with fancy vises, but I can do everything I want to with this one. I got this vise from rockier or woodcraft or one of the other sites like that. I’m pretty sure it was less than $50. I’ll second the recommendation for the gramercy holdfasts.

you can also do quite a bit of work holding with f-clamps on the bench, or just running screws in. Mike Peckovich has a great YouTube video of different jigs for work holding that let you do pretty much anything you want with just a face vise.

4C249667-0232-4659-9B54-5A9E684719FE.jpg

edit: specifically for holding wide boards vertically, I catch one edge in my face vise. I put a block in the other side of the vise to keep it from racking. Then I use an f-clamp to hold the other edge of the board against the face of the bench.

[Jim Matthews]

Here’s what I use. It’s made from Home Depot lumber and a cheap face vise.

4C249667-0232-4659-9B54-5A9E684719FE.jpg

edit: specifically for holding wide boards vertically, I catch one edge in my face vise. I put a block in the other side of the vise to keep it from racking. Then I use an f-clamp to hold the other edge of the board against the face of the bench.

I use the same approach, with a permanently mounted Moxxon instead of a face vise. My only detail to raise is that the front legs and benchtop should be flush; all in a single plane.

Ben's bench is built in this manner.

[Ben Ellenberger]

It actually isn’t clear from my picture, but my legs aren’t flush with the front. But, the front board is about 3” deeper than the rest of the top. So I can just clamp the workpiece to that front apron. Thus is nice because you can use a small clamp. If you make a bench without an apron you could always just use a longer clamp that catches the back edge of the bench, or if the legs are flush you can clamp against the legs too.

[Doug Dawson]

You can do _anything_ you want with “portable” clamps and a doe’s foot or two, maybe a couple of scraps of wood for bracing the board vertically. I would be more concerned about the weight of an inexpensive bench, you may have to brace it against something so that it doesn’t move.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I just checked Craigslist in my area, and found two decent small woodworking vises under $150 each. Ebay has some nice smaller used 6" vises for under $100. Alternatively, I've seen pipe clamps used. Then there are the traditional hold downs, which once you buy a few holddowns, less than $100, you're set, just drill or rout a bunch-o-holes.

[Eric Schmid]

How large of pieces? And what do you mean to do with them once clamped vertically?

Take a look at Josh Finn’s torsion beams in Fine Woodworking (older article). You can build his saw horses or any two horses will do. You don’t even need a torsion beam if you can prepare a pair of sufficiently sized solid beams.

I’ve used this two beam design for at least past decade as a mobile/tear down bench. It’s a very flexible design. Clamping can be done on any side, vertically or horizontally, using regular clamps. On larger pieces you can sandwich the workpiece between the two beams and clamp.

One of my favorite features is these two beams can be brought close together or spread wide apart depending on the project. This makes them flexible for everything from large door assembly to planing thin stock.

[Jacob s white]

Where can you get gramercy holdfasts

[Jim Becker]

Where can you get gramercy holdfasts

Tools for Working Wood in NYC is where I got mine. These things are the "best thing since sliced bread" and VERY versatile!