# Bench Vise Mount



## siouxdawgs0409 (Dec 5, 2009)

I am mounting a jorgensen 10 rapid release vice to the front of my bench. The thing is that the vice is only 2 inches tall and my bench is 3.25 tall. I plan to mount it flush to the top by adding maple plates to make up the difference, meaning they will extend above the jaws by roughly 1.25 inches. Is this a problem? other than making the bench dog useless. Also I am curious if I should set the vice back into the bench to make the inside of the rear jaw inline with the edge of the table? Right now I plan on routing the edge to inset the metal jaw but was going to leave the wood jaw plate stick out. Is there any benefit to insetting the plate and jaw? I can see the benefits of mounting it flush on the top and also moutning on a corner but is there a disadvantage to having the inside (clamping side) of the back plate stick .75 out from theedge of the table? I am some what limited in options as my benchtop is a torsion box design made from MDF and edged with pine. I have hardwood inserts that I can mount the vice to in the inside of the box for a solid hold of the vice.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

If you make the wood jaw plates thick enough, it shouldn't be a problem
if you confine use of the vise to common woodworking operations.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

I routed and chiseled a mortise into the bottom and the edge of my bench so that my vise would be 3/4" below the top and 3/4" behind the edge. Then I made the jaw liners flush to the top and edge; and I also made the moving jaw thick enough to put some dog holes in it. It is very handy for me, and I like being able to clamp things flat against the edge for the whole length of the bench. I suppose you don't have that option due to the torsion box construction. That's one of the reasons I have always advised against that type of construction for a workbench. A torsion box is nice for an assembly table where you need *flat*, but I want* weight *for my bench.


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

+1 for crank on the fix for his bench…..I did the same thing for mine….hid the back face of the vice in the edging to use the whole length of the bench for clamping long boards…...I used 12" long vice faces for mine, and like crank said, a torsion box design for a workbench I wouldn't use either…not enough* "meat"* to use…


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## siouxdawgs0409 (Dec 5, 2009)

So flush on the edge, top and inside face is the general prefered here? besides the obvious that some dont like torsion box as benches but in my case it works very well as I dont do a lot of heavy bench work and found my self looking for a "flat" surface more often than not. Limited space helped me decided to combine them up into one table.


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