I've used my first bench past the "wow this is cool" phase, through the "hmm, if I had this to do again..." phase and well on into the "this bites" phase and it's time to start a new. One of the short comings of my old bench was vertical clamping. At the time I made the bench I was still on the dark path to normism. Since getting more into handtool work, I find myself wishing I had a different vise setup.
I'm leaning toward putting a Veritas Twin-Screw Vise as an end vise. My thought was that I would end up using that for most vertical work instead of using the front vise. How does the twin-screw hold up for work like dovetailing? From looking at it, my thoughts are it would be pretty nice.
Since I would end up using the end vise for pretty much everything except edge work, I was thinking about just putting in a simple european-style (wood jawed, single screw, two rails) vise in as a front vise (vs a record steel jawed type vise). Any recommendations on whether or not this is a bad idea? If I make the jaws 2-3" thick and not expect it to hold a 4' board on it's own, will I miss having steel backed jaws? Part of my reasoning is that I really want the inside jaw to be the front skirt and it always seemed silly to embed a steel jaw in the middle of the bench. I don't really care about quick release so that's not an issue.
I had kicked around the idea of using the Veritas as a front vise, do people do that? It would add $ to things, and with my current design it wouldn't give me much throat depth, but it has the nicety that the main work area is on the side of the bench instead of the end.
Also I'm keen on running a set of bench dog holes straight up the center of the bench to give 2 points of holding on mediumish pieces flat on the bench and to make jig attachment cooler. Anyone do that and regret it?
Thanks for the input.
Dave R.