I just finished watching the last installment (#5) of Mr. Johnson’s video series on restoring vintage handplanes. I did learn many good tips about the process. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
What I found to be just as interesting was the style of the workbench he used while restoring the plane and demonstrating how to set up the restored plane. Of particular interest are the two vices of his workbench. Is this a commercially available item or are there plans available to build it?
I would appreciate any information about the bench, i.e. plans, hardware, etc.
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Jim
Replies
The vise attached to the side of Rollie's bench I've heard called a European style shoulder vise. If you watch any of Rob Cosman's video's his main bench has one. The vise at the end of the bench is often called a tail vise. The shoulder vise is usually used to work he edge or end of a work piece. The tail vise is usually used to work on a face of the work piece. The hardware for both style vises is commercially available from a variety of sources but both styles are integral to the bench itself. There are lots of sources for information of benches. Chris Schwarz is probably the leading .
authority. FWW offers multiple plans. This 20 minute video on You Tube is a pretty good primer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0kN1URBUUQ
Tage Frid's famous book Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking gives plans for building a bench with just this kind of vise. I made one and I like it. Like anything, there are pluses and minuses, but I've found it quite serviceable. The only part you have to purchase is the screw, which you can find online. So, in that way, it's cheap.
The biggest weakness of it is that it's not great for wood that's significantly thinner in width than the vise jaw. In other words, you want the piece being held to be held at the center of the jaw. That doesn't always work out, but there are workarounds.
Scott Landis' Workbench Book is excellent. It covers a range of styles including those later hyped by Schwarz.
My thanks and appreciation to all of you who took the time to answer.
~jtj
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