Workbench end vise question

[Bill Leonhardt]

Been reading a lot about workbench construction and, in particular, the construction of end vises. I note that most of the ones I have looked at use wood for the "tracks" and other support members.

Has anyone ever considered using heavy duty drawer slides (either a pair or one really wide one) for guiding the jaw in and out? The slides, of course, would be buried in the bench so that only wood would be visible. Where I work there are lots of "standard 19" electronics racks and they use some short, really heavy duty slides to slide electronics crates in and out. Thought they might als be useful in an end vise.

Opinions??

Bill Leonhardt

[dpb]

Hadn't thought of them for the purpose, no...but if you protect the slides from collecting sawdust so they don't get difficult, sounds like a clever use. Some of the rack slides indeed are solid enough. I'd like to have a cheap source for heavy storage slides...

[Larry Jaques]

I doubt that sheetmetal glides, even heavy-duty ones, would handle the pounding and angular torsion a vise gets, Bill. You'll notice that most vise glides are 5/8"+ solid steel bars with steel plate mounts

1/4-3/8" thick. I'd strongly recommend against it.

-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin

[Dr. Deb]

One of the problems with an end vise, and the reason I did not go that route, is they tend to droop after awhile. Instead I went with a "wagon vise"

I made mine from a Jorgensen large veneer press screw and stabllized it with a 1/2" board the same length as the movable piece/jaw and an inch and a half wider. I captured this board, which is centered on the bottom of the movable jaw, in two runners on the bottom of the bench, mounted next to the opening the movable jaw travels in. You will want to use 1/4" bolts to fasten the veneer press screw to the cross piece on the end of the bench.

There are several advantages of this vise over the traditional end vise, cost (unless you buy a premade wagon vise from someone like Benchcrafted), the fact it will not sag. It holds extremely well and is easy to adjust.

Deb

[Dave]

one, I figured it would be easier to go with some bench dogs and one of these. vvvvv

[Leon]

Just bite the bullet and be the envy of every guy in your neighborhood.

out the video

my personal favorite

watching these, your going to want one, or two!

[Dave]

On Wed, 05 Dec 2012 08:44:56 -0600, Leon

Tools fetish that most of us have..

[Leon]

not sell it in the US thru LV.

[Dave]

On Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:32:07 -0600, Leon

You're right! I selected United States as my purchase base and it disappeared. Wonder why that is? I'm guessing weight and the cost to ship it for making it unfeasible.

[Leon]

Hard to say why as weight does not seem to be an issue with their other similar heavy products. Maybe an agreement with the manufacturer. LV may be the Canadian distributor.

[Larry Kraus]

There are several dealers in each country, but no single dealer in multiple countries.

[Bill Leonhardt]

and I am aware of the very nice hardware from Benchcrafted, Lee Valley, etc. Nice stuff indeed.

In the end, I'm looking forward to building "the ultimate bench" which might include some of this type of hardware. For now, I'm just trying to prototype the various ways one can employ "work holding" to see what works best for me. My thought was to inexpensively mock-up a tail vise to see how it might suit my needs using drawer slides. I have an Acme screw and nut from Lee Valley. Besides draw slides, I also have my eye out (while dumpster diving) for a slide assembly like:

again, Bill

[Larry W]

of course not as smooth to operate and cruder construction, with parts taken from an old scissors jack.

[tiredofspam]

That's my bet too.

[tiredofspam]

Well, if you want to know about a traditional unit build one. If you want to know about how an end vise works, take a regular vise and mount it. I don't use the bench dogs on my vise, I put wooden faces on and use the bench dogs I drilled in. see

see the shop images. I have 2 holes in the face, one on top, and one on the side (not used right now).

I am sure you will love a traditional, which has the added capability of holding a piece perpendicular to the bench face. I love my version, it's the first time I have had a solid (really solid) top and dogs. they are used all the time now.