work holding (clamping)

[transatlantic]

In the picture below, we see a tenon being cut with it clamped in a vice between the faces of the board. By clamping it this way, you are then able to rotate either towards you, or away from you, enabling you to see your lines better.

I was wondering what would be the best way of achieving the same thing, but without a vice? just clamp a board to the bench, and then use an f clamp to clamp the work piece to that board?

I do actually have a front facing vice, but annoyingly, it is situated at the end of the bench, next to a wall. So you can't (comfortably) get to the side of it. And the other end of the bench has storage next to it.

 

[woodbloke66]

I was wondering what would be the best way of achieving the same thing, but without a vice? just clamp a board to the bench, and then use an f clamp to clamp the work piece to that board?

That would work fine. Clamping the job at an angle allows you to better see both the line across the end grain and one of the gauge lines down the side; doesn't really matter how you do it as long as you can see both lines - Rob

 

[AndyT]

Does your bench also have an ordinary vice, mounted on the front left hand corner?
If so, put your workpiece in that, angled so you can see the lines.
Stand with your feet and the saw parallel to the length of the bench.
Standard practice on trad English bench with no end vice.

 

[transatlantic]

Nope. It only has one front facing vice on the right.

Just tried the clamped board setup and it works much better than I thought it would.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

 

[Orraloon]

Make yourself a bench bull. Lets you do all kinds of work on the bench top and at a height where you dont need to bend over so much. Good for the old back.
https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... wsQ4dUDCAY
After making the bull I decided I would not need to build a moxon vice after all.
Pics of my one in action.
Regards
John

 

[transatlantic]

Ah - thats interesting. Thanks

 

[ED65]

Just tried the clamped board setup and it works much better than I thought it would.

I have used many such ad-hoc clampy arrangements because I didn't have a proper vice of any description for quite a few years. Working this way can make you very flexible in your thinking/problem solving, useful later, but it still tends to be a compromise in some way.

Do you have a mechanic's or machinist's vice for the occasional bit of metalworking? One of those with wooden jaws fitted, or a scrap of leather to pad the metal ones, is so incredibly useful you will wonder how you ever got on without it. I bought one fairly recently specifically for metalworking but I've used it for various woodworking tasks hundreds of times, for things I never envisaged, in the short time I've had it.

If you don't have one yet seeing as you're in the UK you can pick up a proper old one for next to nothing; they're dirt cheap over there. I highly recommend a swivel-base model, not essential but occasionally v. handy.

 

[transatlantic]

Do you mean something like below, rotated 90 degrees to the user?

Wouldn't you only have an inch or two of the material in the vice before the work piece butts into the frame of the vice? (the sliding bit)

 

[samhay]

I find a parrot vice (with wooden jaws) to be useful for holding awkward stuff. No good for really large pieces, but could be used to hold the piece in the OP.

 

[transatlantic]

I find a parrot vice (with wooden jaws) to be useful for holding awkward stuff. No good for really large pieces, but could be used to hold the piece in the OP.

Axminster have these for £50. Is that a good price for it?

Pretty cool how you can rotate it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHoe2NeR_8w&t=148s

 

[samhay]

I have a green one. Think I paid about £30 at some point in the last year or so.
No idea if it's significantly different (colour aside) to the Axminster version.

 

[ED65]

Do you mean something like below, rotated 90 degrees to the user?

Something like that, but ideally in an old Record or Parkinson These regularly show up on Gumtree, not at car boot prices usually but still at a fraction of what they're actually worth (there's a nice one currently in Essex).

For this kind of use you wouldn't permanently mount the vice, instead bolt it to a piece of thick ply or MDF which you then clamp at the end of the bench in any location or orientation that suits what you're doing. This is where the swivel would come in handy since you can then rotate the vice itself to make minor adjustments to position without a corner of the ply/MDF jutting out awkwardly where it might *** you in the belly or bump a hip.

Wouldn't you only have an inch or two of the material in the vice before the work piece butts into the frame of the vice? (the sliding bit)

Yes, but the grip on these is famously prodigious. Timber jaws, made wider (and taller/deeper), better adapt a vice like this to woodworking but leather or rubber can still be needed to completely prevent marking in softer woods.

Something else that may not be obvious is you normally mount these so that the face of the rear jaw is in line or slightly proud of the bench front, so that longer workpieces can be accommodated. Just recently I was planing and sanding the end grain on a couple of 900mm shelves this way.

 

[rafezetter]

I find a parrot vice (with wooden jaws) to be useful for holding awkward stuff. No good for really large pieces, but could be used to hold the piece in the OP.

How do you stop it from rotating around the base?

 

[samhay]

It clamps onto the base when you do it up.
Works pretty well, but will move if you really try to force it. Best for smaller/semi-delicate work.

 

[transatlantic]

How do you stop it from rotating around the base?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHoe2NeR_8w&t=148s