I am 95% done with the end vise for my small workbench. Had a lot of struggles with the design because the overhang area is very small. The only things I know for sure I am still going to do to it are to chamfer the dog holes in the moving jaw and put on some kind of jaw liner (cork/rubber or leather probably.)
I did have a few random questions I could use advice on though.
Metal vise dog - I didn't really plan ahead and the metal dog in the metal jaw vise is blocked by the wood jaw because the vise jaw is inset. I don't strictly need it but it would be nice to have that dog available. I can easily cut a channel for it, but also due to the thickness of the bench and the travel on the metal dog I don't think it would stick up more than like 1/8" above the benchtop. Has anyone ever made a longer dog for these style of vises to sit in the same hole? Do you think you'd have to go metal since it's only ~3/8" thick or would a dense hardwood work? I am a little worried about levering against the cast iron mortise the dog sits in with a longer dog... I feel like I saw a video where someone (Paul Sellers?) makes a replacement dog for this style of vise but I can't remember where it is.
Toe-in - There is about 3/32" gap at the bottom (over 3-1/4" bench thickness) when the vise is closed, even when I tighten it up hard. So when I clamp a tall piece in the vise it does not really have both faces bearing along the entire height. I'm planning on the jaw liner being at least 1/16" thick, possibly 1/8", so either of those x 2 should cover that gap if it compresses enough in use. Should I just leave the toe-in as is and assume when the jaw liner is in there it will help take up that gap at the bottom so there is pressure along the whole workpiece height? Or should I tweak the jaw before I put liner on.
Thanks in advance, the help I got in this forum for the leg vise helped a lot.
I did have a few random questions I could use advice on though.
Metal vise dog - I didn't really plan ahead and the metal dog in the metal jaw vise is blocked by the wood jaw because the vise jaw is inset. I don't strictly need it but it would be nice to have that dog available. I can easily cut a channel for it, but also due to the thickness of the bench and the travel on the metal dog I don't think it would stick up more than like 1/8" above the benchtop. Has anyone ever made a longer dog for these style of vises to sit in the same hole? Do you think you'd have to go metal since it's only ~3/8" thick or would a dense hardwood work? I am a little worried about levering against the cast iron mortise the dog sits in with a longer dog... I feel like I saw a video where someone (Paul Sellers?) makes a replacement dog for this style of vise but I can't remember where it is.
Toe-in - There is about 3/32" gap at the bottom (over 3-1/4" bench thickness) when the vise is closed, even when I tighten it up hard. So when I clamp a tall piece in the vise it does not really have both faces bearing along the entire height. I'm planning on the jaw liner being at least 1/16" thick, possibly 1/8", so either of those x 2 should cover that gap if it compresses enough in use. Should I just leave the toe-in as is and assume when the jaw liner is in there it will help take up that gap at the bottom so there is pressure along the whole workpiece height? Or should I tweak the jaw before I put liner on.
Thanks in advance, the help I got in this forum for the leg vise helped a lot.