I'm in the middle of rebuild my shop and need some advice. My main bench is roughly 12 feet long and completely fills one wall of the shop. I'm going to install a woodworking vise (didn't have one before) and am wondering whether to put it in the middle or towards one of the ends of the bench (and if so, which end). Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Left or right handed?
Hi Doug,
I built a "mobile bench" about 10 years ago. Shortly after, I added a woodworkers vise with dog. Not knowing better, I centered it on the bench (about 24" wide). After a few months of casual use, I realized the error of my way!
I had a nice 8 inch (or so) overhang on my work side. That's where I should have put the vise. You have more direct access for planing, routing etc. If your dogs are in the center, it's not very useful.
Put it on the side of your work - either end.
Lou
I'm right handed. Should have put that in the initial post.
Typically righties mount a standard vise at the right end of the bench so cross-cutting doesn't interfere. W/ so few using hand tools for much of anything any more, that's not as big a deal as it once was. But that's "traditional"
conventional placement is: for right handers put the face vise to your left and the tail vise at the right end. for left handers put the face vise to the right an the tail vise on the left end.
but you don't have to do the sheep thing. I worked at a bench with two face vises a few times. it's a nice layout.
The wisdom behind 'following the flock' would be that with a tail vise on the right side (for righties), the pressure from your planing stroke is into the dog that's mounted in the non-moving bench, not into the vise.
My $.02 worth.
Joe
Maybe I don't understand your situation since no one else commented on this. Your bench completely fills one wall - ergo you have a wall on each end of the bench? If so, then putting the vise on either end will not facilitate crosscutting very well except for very short pieces.
Art
I'm right handed so I prefer my vises on the left side front of the bench. Saw with right hand, hold and catch the piece falling off with the left. I prevents a good deal of splitting off the main piece when being cut.
12' is a pretty long bench. with no ends available, an end vise is out. if you put one vise in the middle, you'll have 6' on either side. this is ok for boards up to about 7 feet long. I think I'd put it about 4' from the left wall. that will be good for boards up to about 9' long with room to stand past the end of the board. you'll need something to handle the long end.
spend a bit of time reading:
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