Advice on vises
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Thanks all. I just talked to the guy at the pro desk in HD, and he insists what they have is fir. He highly recommended using it over the yellow pine because the pine eventually goes back to it’s original shape before it was milled. Besides, the selection didn’t look very good here either. I will go with the whitewood, and like you said mrbukers, I can always put a top on it with a hardened sheet if necessary. I am really looking forward to getting started.
Waltnutt, sounds good, post pics of your new bench!
Local names are funny, up here white wood is what people call balsa wood, you wouldn’t want a bench made out of that 🙂
-Canada
no, but we could make some pretty cool airplanes from that I bet… I wonder if Paul would ever do a video of that. 🙂
You can also investigate the Eclipse vises. The Lee Valley vises are Jorgensen style while the Eclipse is Record style. Here in the US, I’ve not found an affordable real Record. I’ve not installed the Eclipse yet so cannot say how it works, but others have commented favorably. The largest Eclipse was about $150.
Three months ago I was going down the same road your about to travel. As far as a vise goes I purchased a Anant 7 inch under mount. Its similar to what Paul uses except he might use a 9 in. witch I would recommend. I built my bench out of premium pine that I got from home depot. It works BUT knowing what I know now I would get A better quality pine are use something else like oak. I would try to locate a lumber yard rather then going to a box store. The quality will be alot better and the price is more reasonable as well. My vise was about 150. 170 for the nine inch one. Here’s a pic so you can see what it looks like.
I bought the 10″ Eclipse vise from Highland Hardware, and I am very satisfied with it.
Memphis, Tennessee
I ended up buying the Jorgensen 41012 front vise which should come in this week. I will add the tail vise later, when I start to feel like I know what I am doing (hopefully). I would like to buy really nice hardware and build out the rest of the vice with good beach wood.
I baught a bunch of fir from Home Depot, and plan to take more than half of what I bought back because after I got it home realized it was really bad. I could only use 7 out of 16 pieces. My son and I picked through the whole stack at the store and tried to get the best we could find. I thought I would be able to plane out a lot of the rough spots, but discovered it didn’t seem worth it. The lumber yard sounds like a good idea.
Last night I sold my Veritas twin-screw tail vice to a beginner woodworker who I hope will enjoy using it more than I have done. I probably haven’t used it more than a couple of times in the last four years, although it is my son’s preferred vice and he was quite upset it has gone. (He is only seven and found it easier to work at the end of the bench than the side.)
I use my front vice a lot, and dogs and a holdfast too, but the tail vice was a waste of space for me.
Good luck to the new owner, he is in the process of building his first bench.
A picture of my bench done, not vises yet.
another one with one of the vises. The other vise is installed, but the handle is still drying.
Hey Walter-
Great job on the bench. How do you like the Jorgy vise? Are they still made in the USA? I have read some good reviews on that one, but I have never had a chance to use one.
-Scott Los Angeles
Good to see it built Walter!
-Canada
Yes, at least according to the stamps they are still built in the USA. I really like them a lot. In fact, I ended up buying 2. I put the other one on the end of the bench for a tail vise. I put a couple of 2X4s to cap the end so I didn’t screw the face into the end grain. This worked out well because it pushed the vice away from the bench, giving it some distance when sawing, etc. I think one of my sons will be using that one while I use the front one for some projects we have planned.
I have read some good reviews, and some bad ones. I have to say I didn’t agree with the bad ones at all. They were both really solidly built and relatively easy to install. The only problem I had was fitting them to the underside, because my bench thickness is thicker than they install to so I had to make some quick housing dados.
Thanks for the mini-review Walter. Enjoy your new bench!
-Scott Los Angeles
Nice work on the bench. Congratulations. There is nothing like having a solid bench to work on.
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