¿Vise mounting onto maple top?

[AAvK]

I have my antique woodworker's vise 95% cleaned up of rust, done by hand with NJ, wd-40 and steel wool. But I thought of maple being a tough bitch so I am wondering if I should use some fat steel wood screws or* nuts & bolts and counter sinks on_top_of_the_maple_top? Maple being so tough for screwing into I wonder if any company makes hand twisted thread taps that match wood screw threading at all? The mounting holes go in_under_the_top about 3"- 4" and I wonder about bolts being in the way of the dog holes, any ideas?

Thanks all,

Alex

[Tyke]

I used lag bolts to attach my woodworking vise to my bench top which is home made two sections of MDF glued together with 1/2in ply as a filler to make the bottom the level with the 2in stock glued for the edges.

I recommend pre-drilling using a drill which is a little smaller than the inner diameter of whatever screw you use.

Dave Paine.

[mac davis]

I 2nd the carriage bolts... less hassle and less chance of splitting the maple...

[AAvK]

Yeah that looks logical, you can use a ratchet-socket. The depth of the vise is like

4" or less, a 2" thick maple top so spacers are needed. I have the matching metal spacer that came with the vise, but it is 1-1/8" thick so I'll need a hard block of wood to fill the rest. Then from all those measurements added-up I'll need to figure the length needed for lag bolts, looks like around 6" if the top of the vise jaws are to be flush to_the_top_of_the_bench_top. As far as the holes being slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the bolt, don't you think maple is a bit too tough for that? I can see it for MDF... but maple is super tough.

Alex

[AAvK]

Seeing what they look like, I do concur Mac.

Alex