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  • 2 September 2017 at 4:29 pm #315444
    Leland Purvis
    Participant

    I bought a used Record 52 1/2 vise made in England off of ebay. Looks just like Paul’s. My question has to do with the mounting. Now that I have the vise in hand, I realize the bolt-holes closest to the the vise jaws won’t clear the apron (1.5”) laterally once inserted. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to use only the open bolt holes to mount the vise to the underside of the bench top, especially as I plan to chop in the vise. How to make use of the closed bolt holes if they are *inside* the apron hole?? In theory I could mortise the inside jaw flush with the side of the apron, but even so the bolt hole would barely clear the apron and I’d want the coach screws going into clear wood and not anywhere near a seam. What am I missing?

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    2 September 2017 at 4:37 pm #315446
    Wesley
    Participant

    Here’s a blog post discussing how to mount the vise. Paul didn’t use them and neither did I. Vice works just fine. And yes, I also chop mortises in the vise.

    Regards
    Wesley

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    2 September 2017 at 5:45 pm #315449
    rchrismon
    Participant

    Hi Wesley,
    There’s no link to the blog post you mention. Would you mind providing that?
    Thanks!
    Randy

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    3 September 2017 at 12:05 am #315458
    Dave Ring
    Participant

    Don’t forget the two 1/4″ horizontal holes through the rear (stationary) jaw. You can either countersink them and run a couple of long wood screws through them into the bench top or add a wooden pad to the rear jaw, drilling holes corresponding to those in he rear jaw, countersinking those and running in the biggest wood screws you can find.

    My main vise (a Japanese made 10″ Craftsman) is installed the same way–lag screws vertically through open slots underneath and wood screws horizontally and it’s held together for 20 years.

    Dave

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    3 September 2017 at 12:51 am #315460
    Arthur Coates
    Participant

    Leland,

    You really do ignore those closed bolt hole locations.

    IIRC, I used qty 2 of 3/8″ x 4″ lags and washers in the rear/underside of the vise (mine is an Eclipse, but nearly identical to yours) and some of the extremely long screws commonly used in timber framing and log home construction for the jaw face screw locations. The width of the bench top is an excellent opportunity to use the timber framing screws. My vise is solid as a rock!

    The relevant blog posts that Wesley mentioned can be found here: https://paulsellers.com/2012/06/making-the-workbench-15/
    and another here:
    https://paulsellers.com/2016/06/bench-vise-part-ii/

    As a side note, I used timber framing fasteners in all relevant locations of my workbench. They seem to me to be more solid than common decking screws and lags due to their depth of bite and ability to tie everything together at a negligible additional cost considering the quantity required to build a workbench or mount a vise.

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    3 September 2017 at 6:10 am #315467
    Larry Geib
    Participant

    Paul’s blog post on mounting a vise is from 2012. Also look at the post that follows it

    https://paulsellers.com/2012/06/making-the-workbench-15/

    He also has a companion YouTube video.
    Mount a vise.

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    3 September 2017 at 8:30 pm #315476
    Dave Ring
    Participant

    Thanks for the links, Larry. If I was going to build an English style with a front apron I would mount the vise the same way that Paul shows in the above posting.

    Dave

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    3 September 2017 at 9:13 pm #315477
    Jim Braun
    Participant

    Leland,
    If you want to use those hole then you can do as I did, and mount the vise to a piece of oak with carriage bolts through those holes. It worked for my bench top which is made of 2×4 laminations.
    Jim

    Monmouth County, New Jersey

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    20 October 2017 at 11:16 am #337616
    Herman Davie
    Participant

    Hello, new guy here,
    I just installed mine this past weekend by recessing the vise 3/4 of an inch into the apron (which is 1.5 inches thick) and using a piece of 3/4 inch jaw material to bring it flush again to the apron. I was a little concerned because I felt like I might not be able to do it right but it turned out really well. This allowed me to use the front bolt holes. I have an Eclipse 9 inch vise which is very similar I think. My top is laminated 2x4s

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    24 October 2017 at 3:06 am #339558
    StephenG
    Participant

    Totally agree on the ‘don’t need to use them’ comments. 10″ Eclipse on my bench and it hasn’t moved at all. I did discover during installing mine that it’s quite easy to drill through the metal (I over-tightened a 1/4″ lag screw in the front jaw and broke it off :/ Rather than try to dig it out I drilled a new hole in the rear jaw). If you feel like you want more holding your vise in place from below, drill a hole or two elsewhere in the underside where you can get at it.

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    11 November 2017 at 9:23 am #363262
    cobhhive
    Participant

    How about through bolts, recessed and plugged over, from the top of the bench or apron?

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    11 November 2017 at 12:01 pm #363332
    Zeppos
    Participant

    I wouldn’t over engineer this, just do as Paul and most other folks. plenty strong.

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    12 November 2017 at 11:53 am #364080
    Dave Ring
    Participant

    Agreed. Through bolts used to be recommended a lot in magazine articles etc. but they are overkill. Two vertical lag screws (coach screws) and two horizontal woodscrews are plenty.

    Dave

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