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Bench Vise Questions

2K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  racerglen 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi all,
I am new to the scene here. I just recently got into woodworking a couple of months ago. I wanted to build my skills and learn a new craft so I decided to give this a try. I have a question though. I recently bought a 9" bench vise. I have it mounted to my bench, but I really have no clue how to mount the wood onto the jaws of the vise. I also do not know what kind of wood to use for it. Does anyone have some recommendations for me? Also, what wood I secure the wood into the vise jaws with? Would I use screws or bolts to it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
For wood selection I would use whatever you have at hand, while it's usually recommended to use soft wood for the jaws (to protect your work pieces from being crushed) I wouldn't use anything that's too soft that it gets easily compressed. there really are no 'wrong' choices here though

as for how to mount it - most vises have 2 holes in the jaws that you can fit a bolt through them. you can use large screws+washers. clamp the wood to your jaw, and drill pilot holes through the jaws to make the holes in the wood. then enlarge those holes to match your large screws (so that the screws will not split the wood, but still smller than the threaded pat of the screw for it to bite in the wood) and screw the wooden parts to the jaw from the outside
 
#3 ·
I used kiln-dried Douglas Fir (cut from 2×8's from the local big box) on both of my vises.

I attached of them to the vise hardware with 2 counter-sunk carriage bolts, with plastic protectors on the ends of the bolts to keep from scraping my knuckles.

-Gerry
 
#6 ·
Some of the big older machinists type vises dont have holes in the face of their jaws. I have used a good quality double faced tape [Staples Office Supply- the red stuff] and it holds remarkably well.
 
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