Reply To: bench vice
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Hey Eddie,
I have not made a “professional” workbench yet. However, I have made a few quick, down and dirty workbenches for my wife and I using mdf as the top. One of them, I fitted with a vise fom Rockler. It is the 9″ quick release vise. I think it retails somewhere arount $160,but I waited for one of their sales and had gotten it for much less. It works very well and I am very pleased with it for what I intended to do with it. They have a 7″ vise for less, but, I am glad I did noturchase that one to save a few bucks as I will explain.
With that said, I will probably be building a bench for myself based on one of Paul’s construction methods. When I do, I will most likely not purchase another one of that vise for this bench. The reason for this is the height and width I think are not comfortable/adequate enough. When I watch Paul’s videos an how he places things in his vise, I believe his is much larger which makes workflow easier. I can still do the same things with the 9″ vise, but, I ocassionally need to play around.
For example, Paul has his beautiful saw chock to sharpen saws. However, he shows using a 1×2 with a kerf in it that he slips onto the blade and puts it in the vise as an alternative to his chock. I purchased a 14″ tenon saw and because of the height of the saw, it is too high for the 9″vise since the height of the vise is only about 2-3/4″. Therefore, I needed to make a chock. Also, the width being 9″ means I seem to shift a 22″ saw three times instead of twice when sharpening and I find myself shifting the 14″ back saw twice. If the vise is larger, I would only need to shift once or twice and not two or three times.
In the end, it is all about trade offs. You pay more for more convenience. As I said, the 9″ vise works great and I have no complaints. I can do with it what I’ve see Paul teach so far in this masterclass. However, the “efficient” side of me knows that there is a more comfortable way and I also know that as the projects get bigger in size, I think a larger vise will be on my list for when I am ready to build the “professional” workbench. But, as someone who is starting, I am happy with it.
Hope that helps.
Jim