Highland Woodworking Blog

To read Part 1 of Terry’s Benchcrafted Leg Vise installation, CLICK HERE

I am still working on my Benchcrafted Leg Vise.  Going a little slow what with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and traveling to my son’s wedding up north, but the vise is probably further along than it seems at times.

Since the last update I have mounted the vise to the right rear leg of my bench by cutting a hole in the tool tray and running the vise leg up through the bottom of the tray flush with the back rail.  I will attach it to the bench leg below and set a couple of screws through the rear board of the tool tray into the top of the vise.

I spent a lot of time reading the instructions and making sure I had a good layout for the mortise slots for the criss-cross and the screw hole for the vise screw.  I only had one piece of thick walnut lumber for the leg and I did not want to screw that one up.  You will need a deep slot for the criss-cross to drop into, and a wider mortise at the top of the slot for the bracket which holds the criss-cross.  This slot is 1-7/16 inches deep which is why they recommend you use 2-1/2 inch thick stock.  Simple 4/4 stock will not do and the legs need to be at least 4 inches wide for the Retro.  You can glue up stock using 8/4 plus a 4/4 and put the joint on the up side so you cut the mortise through the glue line and the brackets are mounted in solid material.

Leg with Mortise

I ended up going to the local big box for a couple of odd (for me) tools.  I needed a spade bit with a 1-1/4 diameter, a hole saw at 2-5/8 diameter, and a 5/16-18 bottoming tap.  Taps are not something I normally keep, and tapping a screw hole in wood is outside my experience.  But hey, I’m game, so I headed to the store to get what I needed.  I asked three clerks and searched all over the tool section until I finally happened to ask the right guy.  He pointed me toward the display stand right in the aisle labeled “Tap and Die Sets” by Irwin.  It came in a set with the proper drill bit and cost just a few dollars.  I also needed a longer straight router bit to reach the full depth of the mortise.

Additional Tools Required

I paid lots of attention to the layout for the criss-cross and its bracket.  I used my router with a fence to cut the mortise and then cleaned it up with chisels and a mallet.  I tested out my new tap set on a scrap piece of walnut and then marked the spots and drilled pilot holes to mount the brackets.  Time will tell, but when I put the screws into those wooden threads, it tightened up like I have not seen in a while.  You need to give it a try.  They offer extra directions in the download from the website, so it is easier than you think.

I cut a hole to fit in the bottom of the tool tray, unscrewed the bench from the shop floor and slipped the leg into place, complete with bracket and half the criss-cross.  I glued up the chop from some old African Mahogany (nasty wood if you have never tried it) lying around the shop and cut the mortise in it.  After mounting the bracket and the other half of the criss-cross, I put it together temporarily and it appears to work like a champ.

Glued-Up Chop with Temporary Mount

The next step is to mount the screw and nut and add the hand wheel to the chop.  Once I get it all aligned and tested according to the directions from Benchcrafted, I will add some shaping to the chop, trim the top flush and get some finish on it.  Note the small gap at the bottom which is built into the crisscross so the top will grasp thin pieces of wood.

Little more work to do and then I think it is going to be all right!

Mounted with Glide Wheel “C” Waiting for Final Trim

CLICK HERE to read Part 3

CLICK HERE to go back to Part 1

I just bought the hardware for a new Benchcrafted Glide Leg Vise from Highland and I am working on getting it installed in my workbench. I have a workbench which I made myself out of rock maple about 30 years ago. The plans came from Tage Frid’s books on woodworking and the design is Danish or European style with an L-shaped vise on the right front and a shoulder vise on the left front.

Benchcrafted Glide Leg Vise

When I read up on the Benchcrafted Leg Vise and looked at the installation instructions, at first I was going to put it on the right front leg of my bench. I then realized if I put it there, it would always be in the way because that is where I stand about 90% of the time when using the bench. Because of where my bench is located in the shop, I don’t have a lot of flexibility on moving the bench. Note in the pictures the bench is up against the wall at its left end and fairly close to the table saw on the right end. If I move the bench, I will have to rearrange almost the whole shop, and that seems a bit like the tail wagging the dog.

My Existing Workbench

I got to looking at all the mounting options and decided I would mount it on the “rear” of the right end of the bench. That means the vise will be on the outside of the tool tray with an auxiliary leg to allow for the size and thickness requirements of mounting the vise.

As I thought about the vise and searched for information, I began to realize that to call it a bench leg vise is a bit of a misnomer. It could be mounted on a post in the middle of the shop since the only role of the workbench is to keep the vise from falling over. All the clamping is between the back piece (usually the bench leg) and the chop.

I think a little vocabulary lesson is in order here cause I know I struggled with the terminology. Am I the only one who did not know what a “chop” is? What the heck is a chop?! And why do they call it that?

Benchcrafted sells several different vises. Our topic is Leg Vises and there are several options for Leg Vise Hardware.  There is the Classic, the Crisscross where you can get a Classic Crisscross Solo, a Classic Crisscross Retro, or you can buy the Classic Hardware Only. Then there is the Glide M and the Glide C. I almost needed a decision flow chart to figure out which one to buy, but when I went to Highland, they pulled out the one they said I needed and it turned out to be the right one.

Glide C

Let me see if I can simplify for you. The “chop” is the tall outside piece that moves when you clamp something in the leg vise. The chop does not rest on the floor so the weight of the chop is carried by the Crisscross, which is two cast iron pieces hinged in the center like an “X”. There is a Crisscross Solo and a Crisscross Retro. The Solo is generally mounted on a new bench because it has pins at the top which need to be drilled precisely for smooth action and is best done with a drill press. The Retro is more forgiving since it is mounted on two cast brackets set in a mortise in an existing bench leg.

The other part of the leg vise is the screw which moves the chop. You can make your own, buy someone else’s screw, make or buy a wooden screw, or you can buy the one from Benchcrafted. The traditional one from Benchcrafted is the Classic, a fast action screw with a straight bar handle. Old school.

There are two other screw handles besides the straight handle Classic. They are the Glide M and the Glide C, both shaped like a ship’s wheel. The only difference is the “M” is machined and polished with rosewood cocobolo knobs on the outside and the “C” is cast but not polished and has beech knobs. You pay about $70 additional for the polished wheel and rosewood knobs.

Click to see a larger version

So here is the flow chart: Decide if you are mounting to a new or existing bench. If it is a new bench and you can put the leg in a drill press, then get the Solo Crisscross. If it is going in an existing bench, get the Retro Crisscross and cut the mortise in the leg and the chop.

Then decide if you want a Classic straight bar handle or if you want a Glide wheel. If you want a wheel, decide if you want to pay $70 additional for polish and rosewood.

So there, it sounds so simple once you figure it out, but it took me a few days even with the information on the Benchcrafted Web site, to get it in my head.

We will continue next time as I mount the vise to my bench. There are no directions in the box when you buy the hardware, so you will need to go to their Web site to download the instructions. There are a lot of instructions, they go back and forth and you will need to read them several times to get what is needed to mount your vise. When you do get it mounted, it should be a real joy.

Autographed copies of my flow chart are available.

CLICK HERE to read Part 2

Big Dividers on a 4 by 8 Sheet of Plywood

Highland is selling large dividers and I got one this week to try it out. I think it is a test, because everybody knows that the only thing you can do with these things is draw, in this case, a very big circle.  The pair I have opens to 24-1/4 inches for a circle diameter of 48-1/2 inches and that is the next to small size.  The big one opens to 50 inches for a 100 inch (that is over 8 feet, Ralph!) circle.  They come with no pencil holder on the end, just two really sharp points, but you can tape a pencil, a pen, a very large crayon or a six inch paint brush to the end of the leg and you are right where you want to be.

I kept trying to think what I might use these things for and I started to do some research.  I suppose you could use them to do the navigation for a very large ship.  If you need to lay out rafters on a roof, you could step the 24 inch spacing for marking.  I remember in geometry learning how to set off a perpendicular to a line with only a divider.  When we lay out batter boards for a house, we could use this to make sure the house is square, though a 3, 4, 5 triangle would probably be better.  If I were a cooper, I could draw the top of my barrel with this tool.  If I were a wheelwright, I could step off the circumference of the felloes in my wagon wheel to see what length the steel rim needs to be.  How about painting a sign for the Lottery advertising a $100,000,000 prize?  How about making a decorative sunburst?   How about an arch for a kitchen entry inside your house? You can do a One-Centered Arch., a Two-Centered Gothic Arch, a Three-Centered Basket Handle Arch, a Four Centered Tudor Arch, a Segmental Arch,  a Pointed Segmental Arch, a Pseudo Three Centered Arch, and a Pseudo Four Centered Arch, all with dividers and a square.  How about an eyebrow dormer for your house?  How about a Traditional Tangent Handrail?

By Hand & Eye — Walker and Tolpin

Now if you want to see what a divider can really do in construction and woodworking, get yourself a copy of “By Hand and Eye” by Walker and Tolpin from Lost Art Press. Note the cover imprint if you want a sense of what this book is all about.  The main premise of the book is proportion. Our eye moves to proper proportion and we can learn to see good design in furniture and columns and buildings. It is amazing when you are able to quantify what you are seeing in design and much of it only requires dividers. Go to Section III of the book and learn a huge amount about constructing elements with a straight edge and a compass/divider.  You can also go to George Walker’s web site to see animated constructions of the elements. Join with the ancient Egyptians and the Masons and the Greeks and the Romans and the classical furniture makers of England and France and start using these ancient and wonderful tools.

Now I know you can design all this stuff in Sketch-Up, but let me see you find a printer big enough to make yourself a Four Centered Tudor Arch pattern to trace on the sheetrock for your kitchen wall. You can do it all with one of these honking compaii plus a straight edge. Besides, what kind of fun would it be to do it on a computer ?!!

I might even start a woodworking book publishing company and use it for a logo.

And you thought I was stumped.