Workbench Wednesday – Tim’s Novel Leg Vise
When Tim came over a while back to check the progress of his bench he asked for a special arrangement for the leg vise — could it be configured to rise above the bench top several inches to better accommodate carving his gun stocks and similar gunsmithing tasks? I had already given him a vintage vise screw and nut, so I had to check out what was possible with them. I also had a jaw from some other project that could be integrated with whatever I could arrange for the vise.
My first task was to see if/how the nut could fit into the underside of the Nicholson bench. I took a little trimming of one edge of the nut block but it fit darned near perfect. I would love to claim credit for this design feature genius-ness, but it was just a lucky happenstance.
Fitting the jaw to the screw took a minute or two on the spindle sander, but the screw hole through the apron was another matter. I wanted a snug fit and the closest hole saw I had was 1/16″ underside, so I would up pending two hours rasping the hole by hand.
The arrangement of the jaw to the nut/hole allowed the jaw to protrude about five inches above the bench top, to serve in essence as an integral carving vise a la one of the bench top accessories from Benchcrafted.
A rear jaw sculpted to fit, to be bolted to the top with some vintage square head bolts, and that particular feature was finished.
PS sometimes Photoshop and WordPress do not play well together, sorry about the photo orientation but I cannot seem to solve it this time. If I get it figured out I will repost with the pictures corrected.
Hi Don,
I bought 4 of your polissoirs when they first became available many years ago, yet have never used them. I possess practically all the books on finishing, yet find this part of woodworking very challenging, partly because we can source very few products here in South Africa.
Can you please clarify-is pore filling mahogany with beeswax and a polissoir a lasting finish or do I need to maintain the pore filling from time to time? The reason I ask is that even multiple coats of shellac (as opposed to using a pore or grain filler), is said to shrink inside the pores over time, and shellac is more durable a finish than beeswax?
I’m building a Stickley drop front desk out of Sapele mahogany which is not a true mahogany but does have an open pore. And I cannot get dewaxed shellac here if I were to use it under Danish oil, nor can I get grain filler amongst many other things, so I am keen to use your method of grain filling with beeswax & a polissoir, followed by a French polish with paste wax.
Thank you in advance for your time and help.