leg vise by Benchcrafted : change dimension of the chop??
jovogtmd
| Posted in General Discussion on
I am building the STR Roubo Bench designed by Benchrafted using their plans ($23) and hardware.
I will be installing their tail vise and leg vise with a sliding deadman. It will be made of 8/4 Ash (about 150 BF of it!!)
The width of the chop on the leg vise is 9 inches in the plan. Has anyone made it wider?
Making it 10-12 inches may allow it to behave like a front vise. I do have a Moxon that I use for dovetailing and I will still incorporate that in my work.
This issue came up in STL 288 and was mentioned by Mike Pekovich who is in touch with Benchcrafted on this notion, as he is also intrigued with this vise.
Any thoughts?
Replies
First thing that popped into my head was "Go for it!" You can always cut it down if it doesn't work the way you thought it would.
No downside to trying beyond some time and a little ash.
That's a very versatile bench. It's hard to imagine why you would need a wider leg vise chop. There's plenty of work arounds like they discussed in the the Shop Talk Live for one off situations. Another one is using 12" hand screws when your Moxon is not wide enough, for instance. No, I have never tried making a wider leg vise chop, and mine is even narrower.
Agree with Roy. I made my STR out of 8/4 ash 4 years ago, following the Benchcrafted plans almost to the letter. Ash is a great choice for weight, workability and appearance. I have used this bench every day since 2019 and it is a joy. With the sliding deadman and some decent holdfasts, I can't see what advantage would be gained with a wider chop. I too am interested in what Mike P. learns in his query to Jameel.
Beautiful!!
thank you both! I will be interested to see what Mike comes up with.
I think I will try 10 to 11 inches as you suggested go from there.
Enjoy the build! You will love this bench. Please post on what you learn and a picture of your end results.
will do...probably in late summer
First, the chop needs to be centered on the leg. You need to be sure there is enough bench on both sides of the chop to make it worthwhile installing a wider chop.
Second, the leg vise is centered mechanically on the leg. The farther you move away from the center the less stability there is about the long axis. This is not a problem for items clamped on the center of the chop, but may be for work clamped on the side, like a long board or a door that is supported on the deadman. In that case you may want to use a separator block on the opposite of the chop to keep the chop from twisting.
You are correct about cantilevering that occurs when you get too far away from center. There is plenty of room on the left side (end side) the chop....Jameal of Benchcrafted in his email says the chop can been flush with end of the table top, which is what I would do.
That being said, with the deadman and some good holdfasts, one can achieve the same end without altering the chop size.
I know about leg vises but haven't seen or used one. Curious about what "the chop" is. Haven't heard it used in reference to other vises.
See attached image(taken from Benchcrafted) of the leg vise.
It is a vertical vise with single screw. The "chop" is the moving part (red arrow). It is stabilized with a "crisscross"(purple arrow) so one doesn't have to insert a wood block to balance the vise.
This vise is a modified version of the vise Andre Roubo used in his bench in the 1760's.
It can hold pieces (in tandem with the deadman) from little drawer parts to full sized doors.
See the image above to see the sliding deadman. Holdfasts are used in the deadman to secure one's piece on the right side.
Thanks, jovogtmd. Always something new to learn. My woodworking rarely gets boring.