Gang, I'm lost. You are my only hope. I need a new vise (not a new vice).
In an effort to move my hobby along in limited space, I have made some progress on building a workbench/outfeed table combo to attach to my SawStop PCS. As such the width is 68". The design takes cues from Paul Sellers' English-style bench and thus is made entirely of SYP laminations together with an SYP front apron for a total depth of just 13 5/8" (essentially depth of one traditional bench w/out a tool well).
The bench thickness is right at a solid 3.5".
(I'll post pictures tomorrow. Right now I have the apron clamped following final glue-up.)
Here's the problem. My current front vise is a little Bessy 6" vise. I had hoped to get away with that but it simply is too small. Even with no spacer blocks, the top of the faces are over an inch shy of the top of the bench. I really do not want to be drilling out the bench thickness I just created.
Does anyone have recommendations for a vice on the market in 2015 that can be mounted to the bottom of a 3.5" thick bench and still be tall enough? I hear the old Record vises could do this but they are no longer available. The big Jorgensen vises all claim a max bench thickness of 2.5". My other challenge is that the vise's screw/mechanics cannot be too long as the bench is only 13 5/8" deep (and there is table saw cabinet and door right behind that). I could build the face out a bit (losing the flush nature) from the apron but that's perhaps just another 1/2" or so.
Thanks for any help on this. (I'm bracing for the impact on my wallet.)
In an effort to move my hobby along in limited space, I have made some progress on building a workbench/outfeed table combo to attach to my SawStop PCS. As such the width is 68". The design takes cues from Paul Sellers' English-style bench and thus is made entirely of SYP laminations together with an SYP front apron for a total depth of just 13 5/8" (essentially depth of one traditional bench w/out a tool well).
The bench thickness is right at a solid 3.5".
(I'll post pictures tomorrow. Right now I have the apron clamped following final glue-up.)
Here's the problem. My current front vise is a little Bessy 6" vise. I had hoped to get away with that but it simply is too small. Even with no spacer blocks, the top of the faces are over an inch shy of the top of the bench. I really do not want to be drilling out the bench thickness I just created.
Does anyone have recommendations for a vice on the market in 2015 that can be mounted to the bottom of a 3.5" thick bench and still be tall enough? I hear the old Record vises could do this but they are no longer available. The big Jorgensen vises all claim a max bench thickness of 2.5". My other challenge is that the vise's screw/mechanics cannot be too long as the bench is only 13 5/8" deep (and there is table saw cabinet and door right behind that). I could build the face out a bit (losing the flush nature) from the apron but that's perhaps just another 1/2" or so.
Thanks for any help on this. (I'm bracing for the impact on my wallet.)
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