WW Bench aesthetic and design question

[Alan in Little Washington]

As most of you know I am building a traditional maple woodworking bench (actually it is made from maple and beech and it has my adjustable legs).

Anyway, while unsuccessfully trying to sleep in this morning I started thinking about the vise jaw faces. The bench will have three vises- face vise, sliding tail vise (no shoulder) and a dual screw tail vise.

I am not a big fan of contrasting colors on benches, except maybe tenon pins and wedges, but I am thinking about using Ipe jaw faces. The Ipe would only be 1/4" - 1/2" thick and be glued to the faces (after cleaning with acetone). I would put Ipe on both front and rear jaws, except for the front vise where the rear jaw face is the long side bench skirt.

Facts, considerations, and questions-

• Ipe, one of the hardest woods, is over 2 1/2 times as hard as maple (Janka 3680 vs 1450)

• Will it mar the surface of the maple skirt (rear jaw) on the front vise?

• Should I go the other direction and face the vises with leather or rubberized cork like Dino?

• How well will the Ipe bond with TB-III to the male?

• Should I make the Ipe faces removable (attach with rare earth magnets)?

• Will I ever remove them?

• Contrasting colors how will that look?

• With contrasting colors, will the wedge shape of the moving jaw look funny (it is normal to bevel the face of the moving jaw 2-3 deg so the tops of the faces meet first)?

Anything else to consider?

 

[mshel]

Alan,

One question you haven't mentioned is "Will the Ipe mar the surfaces of whatever I clamp in the vise. This is the more critical question for me. Were it me, I would go with the cork or leather. Much better holding capabilities with less pressure and you don't have to worry about leaving squeeze marks on things.

JMHO

MIke

 

[timf67]

+1 on the leather. I have a tucker vise that came faced with leather (which I probably would never have considered on my own) but now I can't live without it! I use that vise for just about everything! If I can find some cheap leather I am going to face my twin screw tail vise as well.

 

[JimmyC]

+1 on the leather. I have a tucker vise that came faced with leather (which I probably would never have considered on my own) but now I can't live without it! I use that vise for just about everything! If I can find some cheap leather I am going to face my twin screw tail vise as well.

Tandy Leather companies are a good source for leather and they aren't expensive. There's one in Raleigh and one in Charlotte.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/..._countryid=USA&p_stateid=NC&p_city=&x=15&y=10

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Excellent point. I was thinking the same thing at breakfast. I am so used to working with a metal vise I wasn't thinking about the affect of the jaws on the stock being clamped.

Boy, was that easy, makes things allot easier to do also! Thanks guys!

I should have the tail vise all mounted in a few minutes- I just need to enlarge the lead screw hole a bit- I had a math breakdown yesterday when figuring what size drill I needed:BangHead: Luckily there is a neat trick in the new Oct issue of Wood Magazine how to redrill/englarge a centered hole. There is also a tip by one of our North Carolina Woodworker's in the same issue.

One last question- Assuming you had to glue up the moving jaws, given the choice- would you face glue a couple of pieces- laminate flat-sawn face grain front to back) or cut them into 3" wide strips and stack them (face grain top to bottom) so edge grain becomes the jaw face with glue joints running across the face of the face. I may not have enough wide-flat stock to laminate wide flat faces.

 

[mlzettl]

Alan,

I'm in agreement with using leather or cork faces. Of the three vices on my bench, only one has leather faces. I have to be careful with the other two when I'm clamping work. Now I'm thinking that I need to to convert those...thanks a lot.:roll:

Regarding the face grain vs. edge grain issue, it seems to me that this is purely a matter of appearance. I don't think that it matters from a functional or practical standpoint. Whatever looks best to you is what I would do. It would seem that if the rest of the top is face grain material, then the visible top of the vice jaws should be as well, but that is just my opinion. From what you've said, you seem to be looking for uniformity as opposed to contrast, so the face grain option seems to be more in keeping with that desire.

Looking forward to more pics.

Matt

 

[Planedesign]

Some of the larger craft/hobby stores like Hobby Lobby, AC Moore's, Michael's, etc. also have a small selection of leather tools and leather strips and pre-cut sizes. I haven't looked specifically at them for vise facing, but from what I remember they come big enough to do all but the biggest vise faces. As someone else mentioned, Tandy is a good source, as well as perhaps local shoe repair shops (if you are lucky enough to still have one around) or upholstry shops may have leather scraps available.

 

[ErnieM]

Alan,

I have plenty of thin leather (real and synthetic) that you might be able to use. If any of it is suitable for your purposes, you're welcome to it.

Ernie

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Alan,

I have plenty of thin leather (real and synthetic) that you might be able to use. If any of it is suitable for your purposes, you're welcome to it.

Ernie

Thanks. If I ever remember about coming to look at your DC, :embaresse I'll take a look at what you have.