Needed a good easy place to clamp some large pieces of wood to the bench to work them for an upcoming project. Reminded me I’d wanted to build a traditional woodworkers bench side vise..
While digging around online, I found this concept on youtube. Not as traditional or elegant as the all wood single screw style I had in mind, but it’s easier, faster and would cost me nothing; perfect!
Few feet of 2″x4″, some 1″x8″, some screws, and a set of pipe clamps I wasn’t using, and about 2 hours;
After a few days on there, the front jaw board warped on me. In its defense I ripped it down from a 12″ width, so it was used to haveing more support…
Others building these are laminating up to about 2″ or 3″ thick, but I figure I don’t need that stability, nor want to take the time for it now. Now it seems I might have to just to stiffen it up.
I then put a new face of oak on it. Should be more stable and warp less. Later I’ll laminate it up to 2 or 3 thicknesses if I need to.
I honestly don’t know how I ever got anything done before, it’s so wonderfully handy to have!
Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 