I just put together my first workbench (well, almost).
My top will consist of a solid-core door topped with a sheet of plywood. I would like to edge it with hardwood, at a depth of about 4.5″, and I would like to use the edging as the back surface for my front vise. I would then want to use the same material to make the front jaw as well.
I was thinking hard maple, but some people had commented that the hardness often resulted in marring of the workpiece.
My questions are:
1. What would be a good material to use for the edging? The plywood I’ll use for the top is faced with mahogany.
2. How should I attach it to the side of the bench? Is glue enough, or should I also use nails or screws?
Replies
Do you know what the softest wood you'll frequently be working with is? I've been told that one approach is to choose that wood (or a wood a tiny bit softer than that) for your vice jaws. Of course, if you use pine, then you run the risk of damaging your vice jaws the first time you work with oak :-).
Eric,
I used hard maple for my bench vises and it works very well - but there is no "marking the workpiece" issue as I use leather-lined jaws. They are easy and cheap to make.
I've made leather-lined false-faces that sit inside the jaws of my vises but you could just line the vise jaws themselves, as Andy Rae describes in the post mentioned below.
Have a look at this post from Andy Rae and the subsequent discussion:
http://forums.taunton.com/fw-knots/messages?msg=32919.15
Lataxe
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