Where to put miter vise

[Bob]

Hello:

I have enjoyed all of the information I have been getting in answer to my questions, so first off thanks.

I have almost completed my Veritas workbench (just putting the last coats of tung oil on). I am going to fit it with three vises: The Veritas twin-screw vise on the right end, the Record 51.5 on the front left about 1/3 of the way from the edge.

I will also install a miter vise, as I plan to do a lot of picture framing. My question is, where is the optimum place to put it? I was thinking of the back left corner. It is the kind that juts up off the bench and can rotate in all directions. Should I keep the knobs (which protrude out from the vise) over the bench, since the back of the bench will be against a wall? What about the side knob? If I do this it will take up a lot of room on the bench, but I may have to...

Any framers out there who have had experience with this? I don't want it to interfere with any other wwing that I do.

Thanks!

Bob

[Mike in Mystic]

I would say put the front vise a lot further over to the left (say 4-6" from the left edge). I'm assuming you'll make it able to clamp against the front edge of the bench, and this position will maximize the length of boards you can clamp by using board jacks, etc. on the far right end of the board.

As for the miter vise, I wouldn't install it permanently anywhere. Perhaps install it on a board that you can clamp to the bench surface. As you pointed out, I don't see how it WON'T interfere with other uses of the bench if you put it on the surface in a permanent location.

Mike

[Bob]

Unfortunatly, in order to center the popup dog on the vise over a row of holes and to clear the leg of the bench, it has to go that far over-- unless I forget about lining up the dog. What do you think?

Hmmm... good point. Any others concede that it is true it will always be in the way?

Also, I am a little worried that I should have flattened the bench more- there is a large area on the bench that has a .013" deviance from flat. Do you think this is acceptable? I tried to get it truly flat all over, but after hours and hours of planing- I just seemed to be taking off shavings in vain. I lack a sufficiently long straightedge, and was just using my 12" starrett in all directions and a large framing square that is not perfectly flat. I hope that is good enough as I am almost done with the finish I JUST COULDNT TAKE IT ANYMORE (sorry)

Bob

[Mike in Mystic]

Well, having the pop-up dog line up with a row of dog holes is pretty important to the utility of the front vise. If the leg is in the way, that does pose a pretty big problem. Here's a pic of the bench I made:

I had enough overhang on the left end to accomade my set up. If you can't avoid the leg on the left end, I'm not sure what you can do about it. Putting it where you originally planned is probably the best bet. You might be able to just drill a row of holes especially for the vise, though.

I suppose that depends on how large an area that represents. If you want to use the bench to do assembly, than having it as close to perfectly flat as possible is important. The bench I built above didn't come out as flat as I expected (despite using MDF as a core and masonite as the top layer). There is basically a crown almost right in the middle of the top. I just avoid this if possible, but often use my Unisaw cast iron top as a flat reference. Not real happy about it, but that's how it turned out.

With a wood top, I'd have thought you could do better than 0.013" with hand planes. You might want to make winding sticks and use those, instead of relying on a straight edge ruler, especially if it isn't very long. Mark the high spots with a marker or something, and use a #8 or #7 jointer plane to do the job. I'm not real experienced with hand planes, though, so hopefully another expert will chime in.

Mike