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Question: I’m watching your commentary on this one quite carefully: I’m planning to build a bench this year or next and have wondered about torsion boxes instead of slabs. Also, could you post a picture of the hinge at the bottom of that leg vise?
– Karl Rookey
It’s not really a hinge at the bottom of the leg vise, but it does pivot. The piece of wood pierced with holes is called a parallel guide. It prevents the vise’s jaw from twirling like a helicopter blade and acts as a pivot point for the vise.
To use the guide, you place the steel pin in one of the holes that matches (as close as possible) the thickness of the work you are securing. As you screw the vise closed, the pin butts against the leg (as shown above) and the top of the jaw pivots toward your work. It’s remarkably efficient and strong.
Some details: The parallel guide is slightly smaller (11/16″ thick) than the mortise through the leg (3/4″). The closer the fit, the smoother the action. The parallel guide is secured to the vise jaw with a wedged through-tenon. The countersunk holes in the guide are 3/8″ in diameter and are on 1″ centers. Each row of holes is offset by Ã?½”, so you essentially get a hole every Ã?½”. The hole positioned between the two rows is Ã?½” from the vise jaw.
The pin is 3/8″ in diameter, 6″ long and steel. It has a rubber O-ring on it that has a 5/16″ interior dimension (the 3/8″ I.D. O-rings will slip off your pin).
The leg vise is a remarkable piece of engineering that I enjoy working with. It’s inexpensive, easy to make and grippy as all get-out.
– Christopher Schwarz
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You got some great tips in here, it’s actually the first time I see how wooden pieces are handled to create great and unique furniture pieces. I think many manufacturers should learn from you.
You could cut down the drilling, I suppose, if you drilled holes for the pin in the leg — four holes, in two columns 1" apart. The two rows of holes could then be on 2" centers — if you wanted an odd distance, you’d use one column of holes, an even distance would use the other. The second row of holes in the leg would give you the 1/2" offset holes.
For even fewer holes, you could "move" the holes from the leg to a floating collar with 4 holes (two diagonal rows, probably, the second offset by 1"). The collar would be wider than the parallel guide, and you’d slide it to the top or bottom of the guide to get the smaller increments. That way, you’d only need a single row of holes on the guide.
I’m sure this will be botched when converted to HTML, but here goes:
|———–|——————–//
| | parallel guide //
| 0 0 | 0 0 0 //
| |——————–//
| 0 0 |
| |
|———–|
|———–|
| |
| 0 0 |
| |——————–//
| 0 0 | 0 0 0 //
| | parallel guide //
|———–|——————–//
Chris: just what the doctor ordered. Thanks!
Gary: thanks for the additional commentary. I’m thinking the thicker the surface material used in the box, the less the problems you describe will be evident. I can’t wait to get reviews from Chris on how well this bench works for him.
Good morning. Dating myself, I remember when torsion boxes became the next big thing in workbench and shop furniture design. My feelings on the matter hold today as they did then. Torsion boxes have their place in constuction, but the designer should remember that by nature, a torsion box translates vibrations from one surface to the next, rather than dampening them as happens in solid materials. The torsion box will resist racking, along with providing deflective resistance at a lower overall weight. Unfortunately you will lose the advantage of solid wood… vibrational dampening. <br><br>Gary Roberts