Workbench Advice

[andrewmashton]

Hello All, hopefully this is the right place to post this, after many weeks of research I am about to plan my new workbench, however, I am ever so slightly confused, I am right-handed and have always cut to the right -hand of the vice, and line. Virtually all workbenches have the vice on the left-hand side, meaning the bench top will interfere with sawing, am I missing something? I would have thought the vice on the right-hand side with your work piece clear of the worktop would be the default position, thanks, Andrew

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The problem there being your vice would be on the wrong side for just about everything else. Most small stuff can be cut on a bench hook, and anything really big is probably better clamped to the bench than in the vice anyway.

 

[MikeG.]

.........I am right-handed and have always cut to the right -hand of the vice, and line. Virtually all workbenches have the vice on the left-hand side, meaning the bench top will interfere with sawing, am I missing something?.......

Very little sawing is done in the vice. If using a tenon saw for cross cutting, you use a bench hook, generally. If using a handsaw, you use saw horses. It's only if you cut tenon cheeks are you likely to use the vice.

 

[Inspector]

I'm right handed and have no problem with the vice mounted to the left end of the bench. In practice the vice is holding the right side of the work and your left hand can support the left end when the cut is getting close to complete. That minimizes/prevents the bottom of the cut from splintering the last of the cut. I'll admit I usually go to the table saw first. :wink:

It is your bench though so you can put vices where you like. They can always be moved you feel it should be somewhere else.

Pete

 

[mbartlett99]

I'm left handed and have the vice on the left - contrary to typical advice. I can't even imagine why right handers have it on the left. I do saw in the vice and like to use the edge of the bench as a rough reference and not sawing into the bench is a bit of bonus too.

 

[Bm101]

I'm odd too.
I saw in the vise on the right hand side end of the bench (complete and utter righthander here) and my mind can't really contemplate cutting to the left of it. Whatever the sense talked by others.
However I have a leg vise on the left side of the face. This is far more useful really for everything else. I have a sliding deadman and between that the legvise and some holdfasts I think I can manage most work holding for longer stuff for the domestic sort of stuff I do at least. Planing boards, cheap 'orrible 6 panel internal doors to size etc. :|
I'm very amateur hour so pinch of salt. Its definitely not advice.
I don't have a bench hook
Although I will knock one up as per Mike's description I've just realised it must logically be easier to cut a short distance straight over a wide board than down the width of a board held plumb. I've missed a trick there so far.
Today's lesson for me!
What sort of bench are you making?

 

[mbartlett99]

Oh I see, my vice opens to stupid wide so no issue it being on edge sawing as it were.

 

[Hornbeam]

The vice on a "normal" right handed bench is usually inset from the end by at least 6 inches. If you want to cross cut a piece, I would do this with a bench hook and a crosscut/tennon saw.
Planing you need to stand sideways on to the bench and plane left to right. A long piece may need some end support. Try doing this with the vice at the other end and on longer pieces you will be banging your hip on the vice/handle. Even for thinner pieces which I plane using a bench stop the vice would still get in the way if at the wrong end
Ian

 

[SammyQ]

Planing you need to stand sideways on to the bench and plane left to right.

Eh??? Other way surely?? Rightys plane right to left??

 

[Bm101]

Sometimes I plane upside down just to show off Sammy.

 

[MikeG.]

......I don't have a bench hook ......

Don't make the mistake of making one like this:

It's too wide. One of the secrets of successful sawing is to saw across the top then down the front, before joining them up in a triangle. With a bench hook this wide you can't drop the heel of the saw far enough to be sawing nicely down the front of the piece of wood, so a narrower hook is better. The mitre slot, though, is a great idea (until you realise that mitres are the work of the devil).

 

[Blackswanwood]

This post put me in mind of the most amazing thing I have seen on the internet ...

https://www.workshopheaven.com/bad-axe- ... k-set.html

Someone must be buying them as they are out of stock ... mine is a piece of ply and two oak off cuts ... more like 75pence!

 

[Bm101]

Thanks Mike. Appreciated. Tbh I think I learned to drive in a builders van figuratively speaking when it comes to hand sawing.. . Anything now is an improvement over learning in a rusty old 70s transit. Plague aside I'll make one at the weekend.
Might not buy Blackswanwoods link! Crikey. :shock:

 

[Andy Kev.]

This post put me in mind of the most amazing thing I have seen on the internet ...

https://www.workshopheaven.com/bad-axe- ... k-set.html

Someone must be buying them as they are out of stock ... mine is a piece of ply and two oak off cuts ... more like 75pence!

I don't know which is more shocking: the price or the fact that they are out of stock at that price!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They probably haven't actually made any yet.

 

[Lons]

They probably haven't actually made any yet.

That was my thought except for a prototype to photograph. There's always someone who'll buy it just to hang on a wall for show.
Maybe Mike could start up a little business, I hear he has rather a lot of bog oak to use up. Might prove to be as popular as bog rolls. :wink:

 

[andrewmashton]

Thanks for all the responses, I can see the logic, and I think it's right, to have the vice on the LH side, I plan to make a simple bench, 5' x 2', 6" x 2" legs, 2" top with an apron on the front, and the first thing I will make is a bench hook! Thanks again, good advice, Andrew

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They don't take minutes to make, I treat then as being disposable. One thing I do find useful to do is to quickly plane the cross pieces so they are a few degrees under a right angle - the workpiece sits tighter.

 

[Hornbeam]

Planing you need to stand sideways on to the bench and plane left to right.

Eh??? Other way surely?? Rightys plane right to left??

Doh. I have forgotten my left from right

 

[SammyQ]

Sometimes I plane upside down just to show off Sammy

.

Got your rope fanked up in your figure8 again Chris? Your wee short legs not quite getting back on terra firma?
I can talk, burned through two sets of gloves (simultaneously) on an incandescent figure8 lowering a heavy 'casualty' during M.L. training. You also learn bl@@dy quickly most harnesses allow said glowing metalwork to swing straight back onto your wedding tackle...DAMHIKT.
Sam