Tail vise

On 21 Nov 2003 12:30:44 GMT, [email protected] (Chuckburkett)
wrote:

>I'm thinking of building a new bench with a tail vise. I've never used one,
>though I currently have a traveling dog.

What sort of tail vice ? I've got the Tage Frid bench design;
Scandanavian style vices with a big dog-leg shoulder vice on the left
and an L shaped tail vice to the right.

My observations:

- The shoulder vice is near useless. It won't hold anything less than
4" square in section. Handy for large part-assembled pieces, but not
for stock you're first working on.

- The travelling dog is wonderful. This is my main means of clamping.

- The end of the tail vice (the notch in the front edge of the bench)
is useful, but not large.

- I don't use the "tail" of the tail vice at all. As Frid points out,
this is a moving dog, not a clamping device. Stressing the back corner
of the vice frame strains the rectangular alignment of it.


My thoughts on tail vices:

- You don't need it. The dogs will do most of the work.

- The L shaped wooden vice isn't designed to take a force on the back
edge. Just don't do it.

- A tail vice of any sort is useless, if your bench is against a wall
like mine is.

- Two rows of dogs would be worth having, and that needs a vice
design that can take a skewing force on the back corner.

- If you're really after a tail vice (and I'm sure that some tasks
will find them useful), then look at a two-screw metal vice design
like the Veritas.


Hindsight:

- If I built this bench again, I'd keep the tail vice, but I'd set up
two rows of dog holes, not one. I did a small round table top recently
- it was a real nuisance to hold, but two rows of dogs would have made
it easy.

- I'd skip the shoulder vice in favour of a cast iron face vice.

- I'd make hardwood dogs, rather than buying metal ones. These were
the commonplace chromed rectangular dogs; they're hard on an edge if
you hit one, and the chrome plate was rubbish that flaked off in razor
shards.


--
Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

>
>http://www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc/ShopProj/woodvice/
>
>I'm kinda in the same boat, and I ran across this. It was the best
>link I found in my (rather limited) search.
>
>Hope it helps.
>
Some time back over in ABW a fellow posted a series on his workbench.
It was the slickest one I had seen till now. Metal Lathe turned
threads almost Buttress Pattern threads for both vises.
I lost the photos in a HD crash or I would take the liberty of posting
them with credit to the builder of course.
Tales of a Boatbuilder Apprentice
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/djf3rd/

I just posted pictures of my solution to the tail vise question as well as a
post-mortem write-up of my bench-building experience in ABPW


"Chuckburkett" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm thinking of building a new bench with a tail vise. I've never used
one,
> though I currently have a traveling dog. While inconvenient to opperate, I
> appreciate what it does. My question is, assuming that a good face vise of
some
> sort makes the jaw redundant, what role does the tail vise play other than
> carrying the dog? My plan at this point is to build a leg vise on the
front and
> some sort of travleing dog as a tail vise.
>
> Thanks,
>
> CB

[email protected] (Chuckburkett) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I'm thinking of building a new bench with a tail vise. I've never used one,
> though I currently have a traveling dog. While inconvenient to opperate, I
> appreciate what it does. My question is, assuming that a good face vise of some
> sort makes the jaw redundant, what role does the tail vise play other than
> carrying the dog? My plan at this point is to build a leg vise on the front and
> some sort of travleing dog as a tail vise.
>
> Thanks,
>
> CB

http://www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc/ShopProj/woodvice/

I'm kinda in the same boat, and I ran across this. It was the best
link I found in my (rather limited) search.

Hope it helps.

Killers by day, lovers by night, drunkards by choice-but Marines, by
God.
-Phil Crow