Chris Schwarz sure started something with these Moxon Vises.  Some people might look at this as a fad, but I know it solves a problem I’ve had for a while, a tired back.  I solved the tried back problem a couple years ago, when I built what I called a Benchtop Bench.  This worked well, to raise your work up, so you aren’t hunched over while cutting joinery.  The only real issue I had with my Benchtop Bench, was storage.  Even though it’s kind of small, it was bulkly and difficult to find a home for.  I have a spot where I think the Moxon Vise can hang the wall.  It will make it easy to get to, which means I will use it more.A lot people are making their own screws and handles for their Moxon Vise and I admire that.  I recently bought some bench vise hardware from Benchcrafted, for a new bench I’m planning to build.  Even though I haven’t used the hardware yet, I was very impressed by the quality.  So much so, I decided to order their Moxon hardware.In the kit you get:  handles (hand-wheels), screws, nuts, washers, and suede leather for the chop.

You can use just about any wood for the vise.  The day I went to the lumber yard, Maple was the best choice.  I also looked at Ash and Beech, but selection was poor.  You really don’t need that much for the project.  You also don’t need to make the vise as large as the plans suggest.  The plans even show some shorter versions.

I did use the drill press to drill the ¾” holes through the two main pieces.  The holes on the front chop do get elongated, to allow the chop pivot a little.  This will let you hold some irregular shaped pieces if needed, and it just makes sliding the front chop easier.

The nut on the inside, needs to recessed.  You could just bore a round hole and slip the nut in, or even route a square hole with a template.  I wanted a clean tight fit.  I bolted the nut in place, and marked around it with a marking knife.

Then I bored out some of the waste using the drill press, then clean up the rest with a chisel.

Besides gluing the back clamping bar to the back, that’s all of the hard stuff.  After putting it together the first time.  I chose to flush up the top pieces.  It was pretty close, but it needed a few swipes with a plane.

The handles come as raw cast iron.  I’m sure they would develop a patina over time, but rust could be a problem.  Recently Jameel posted on his blog, a couple ways to patina the handles.  The first was to season the cast iron, like you would cast iron cookware.  I love my cast iron cookware, so I’m familiar with the process.  The only issue for me, was the logo button attached to the handles.  I asked Jameel if the plastic button would stand up to the heat of the oven and he said not likely.  Brenchcrafted is now shipping their handles without attaching the logo buttons, in case you want to do the oven approach.  The good news, Jameel had another option, Gun Bluing.  I’m no expert on Gun Bluing, but it’s a chemical process that adds a patina to the metal, to help protect it.

I picked a small bottle of the solution. I followed the instructions and added a few coats.  I got a nice deep patina on the handles.  Jameel then recommends adding a couple coats of Minwax Antique Oil Finish, to the handles.

My camera really doesn’t do the handles justice.  They look really nice, and I’m happy with this process.

The last step was to add the suede to the front chop.  I just used spray adhesive to attach the leather.  The leather really is optional.  I tested the vise before I put the leather on, and the holding power is amazing.  With the leather, it’s just out of this world.  I’ve had vises where I had to put a considerable amount of pressure on it and things still slipped, this isn’t the case with this vise.  The wheels spin fast and freely.  A moderate spin is all you need, to lock a piece in place.  I’ve never had vise work that well before.

Other people have made accessories for their Moxon Vise.  I may add a detachable support off the back, like a benchtop.  Other people have shown how this can help with transferring dovetails.  Others have made this a permanent fixture on the vise, but I’d like to make it detachable.  If it’s permanent, I’m back to a benchtop bench and storage because an issue again.

The Benchcrafted hardware is a luxury.  I’ve been selling some of the tools I don’t use anymore, and I decided to treat myself to something nice.  I don’t regret my purchase, and I can’t wait to start on the new bench!

Over the past month or so, I have had a chance to use the mini-bench.  It was well worth the time and effort to build.  Working on a project piece in a more upright stance isn’t just comfortable it’s more accurate.  I’m finding my quality of work has improved.

The face vise is working great.  The hand wheels on the vise are working fantastic!  I’m actually thinking about using hand wheels on my main bench.  The dogs on the mini-bench are also working great.  I’ve even used my holdfasts on the mini-bench, and they worked great!  It’s hard to find anything I would what to improve on this bench.

The vise allowed me to align the wheel somewhat precisely, to enlarge the center bore.  It was quick work to drill out both hand wheels.

Next I needed to drill the through hole, for the pin that will run through the hand wheel and screw shaft.

This is where things went wrong on the first set of wheels.  This time I drilled through the hand wheels, then marked and drilled through the shaft of the screw.  No chance of snapping off the drill bit this time!

After attaching the hand wheels, it was time to test the smoothness of my new design.  It was exactly what I was hoping for!  The wheels spun freely and smooth.  I was so excited I let out a whoop.  My wife opened the door and asked what that noise was!  She saw the smile on my face, then she laughed, closed the door and allowed my to savor my victory.

Now that I finished that last major step, it was time to drill some dog holes.  I wanted a way to keep the dogs in the face vise out of the way, but still be able to retrieve them when they were needed.

I drilled the dog holes in the face vise, about an inch deeper than the length of the dogs.  I then cut a window in the vise that intersected with the dog hole.  I cut the window on the inside of the vise, so would be hidden.  I thought about having the window on the outside, but decided the inside would work just as well.

I drilled a few dogs on the top and did a light sanding to remove pencil marks and to ease the edges.  I’m quite please how it came out.

The clamping force I get with the vise is quite strong.  I lightly pinch the bench in my wagon vise, and add a clamp to the bench.  It’s quite secure and doesn’t move.

I designed the bench, so that if I line up the front of the feet of the small bench with the edge of main bench, the inside face of the small bench is inline with the main bench.  If I’m working on a large piece, I can take advantage of the clamping surfaces of my main bench.

The bench dogs allow me to secure larger pieces to the top of the bench.

The primary reason for making this bench was to raise the work piece to a more comfortable height, when doing tasks like cutting dovetails.  It will also be useful when I use power tools.  I can see when cutting mortise with a router, the added height will make this task easier too.  Over all, I think this will be a nice addition to the shop.

This weekend I will start a new project.  My brother has asked me to build him a cabinet for his bathroom, which he is remodeling.  It will be a somewhat large cabinet, so I plan to use plywood on this project and a lot of power tools.  It will also need to blend in with a vanity he has purchased.  The vanity is “modern” in style and black.  So, I will give ebonizing a try.

When I last worked on the bench I was attaching the face vise.  I cut a couple garters out of some 16 gauge steel I picked up at a local “big box” stores.  They are good for somethings, but not much these days.  I recessed the garters into the main chop using my router plane.

I first screwed the garters to the vise and scribed the outline of the garters with a marking knife.  Then I just went to town with the router plane.  It worked really well, and it didn’t take that much time.

After attaching both screws and hand wheels it was time to give it test run.

The action was anything but smooth.  The screws were rubbing on the garters, even though I made the holes oversized.  Also when I attach the hand wheels, I wasn’t very careful.  The wheels weren’t square to the surface of the chop, so they rubbed in places as you turned them.  I kicked myself for not being more careful.

Knowing I would have to reattach the hand wheels, I started to rethink what I made the garters out of.  I was concerned about metal on metal contact with the screws, garters and possibly the wheels.  I then thought I could use some Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWP).  So, I went by my local Woodcraft store and picked some up.

I made some new garters out of UHMWP and set out to reattach the hand wheels (square this time).  This is where things really started to go wrong.  I was drilling the first new hole and about halfway through, the bit snapped off!  I was drilling through the hand wheel and the screw at the sometime.  Now my wheel was essentially pinned to the screw, and for the life of me I couldn’t get the bit out.

I decided to drill through the bored hole in the hand wheel.  My plan was to drill down through the top of the screw until I met up with the snapped off bit.  I thought from there I could work it loose.  That didn’t happen.  I knew I would have issues try to drill through the snapped off bit, because they are made of very hard steel.  As a last resort, I tried to drill through the bit.  That sucker wasn’t going to give up!  Then I went just a little too long.  The metal sleeve inside the plastic wheel heated up and the plastic wheel came loose!

I eventually got the wheel off, but it was toast.  Luckily it wasn’t that expensive.
Knowing I would have to buy a new one, I decided to go with all steel this time.  I also went just a little bigger, about 5” in diameter.  When I was using the 4” wheels, they seemed a little small to get the rotation I thought was needed.  I still want the wheels to be below the surface of the bench, and 5″ is as big as I can go.

Because I had drilled down through one of the screws, I needed to mill the screw down again.  Last time I went over to my brothers to do this, because he has a small milling machine.  I didn’t want to run over there again, so I rigged up a simple jig on my grinder.

It worked pretty well.  I drilled a ¾” hole through a piece of oak I had lying around.  The screw fit snugly through the hole.  I just slowly move the screw in and out, while turning it, and kept lowing the tool rest.  Once I got to about a ½” I was done.  Lots of sparks were flying during the grinding.  Not something you see very often in a woodworking shop!

After that I just need to fit the new garters to the chop.  I had to recess them a little deeper, because the UHMWP was thicker than the steel I was using.

I do have a new plan for attaching the new hand wheels when they come in.  I think I can avoid snapping off another bit halfway through again.  I hope they come in before next weekend, I really want to put this project to rest!

Over the past couple of weekends I started to work on the bench.  I’m using whatever wood I had in my woodpile.  The top is Douglas Fir.  The legs of the base are Hard Maple.  The cross piece along the back is Oak and the vise is Mahogany.  It is a very diverse bench ☺.

I didn’t take step-by-step pictures this time.  I just want to be in the shop without any distractions.  The bench is almost done, but I thought I would show how the vise will come together.

In the first picture you will see a threaded rod and a couple of nuts, sitting on the bench.  I ordered these from McMaster-Carr.  The threaded rod is 3/4”-6 ACME threads.  I order square nuts, so they would be easy to recess into the vise.

I also ordered 2 hand wheels for the vise, but they haven’t come in yet.  I plan to go over to my brother’s this next weekend, to work on the screws and attaching the hand wheels.  My brother has the metal working tools I don’t have.  I need him to cut the threaded rod to size.  We then need to mill threads off the ends, so the hand wheels can be attached.  We will also need a couple garters (large washers) to attach to the chop.  I will document this process, once I have had a chance to visit my brother.

The joinery for this little project gave me a few issues.  I used mortise and tenons for the legs.  Cutting the mortise and tenons in the Hard Maple was a real challenge.  They don’t call it “hard” maple for the fun it ☺.  Trying to chop the mortises by hand was beyond my skill level at this time.  It was like chopping into granite!  So it did the bulk of the work with my router and table saw.  I did cleaned up the cuts with hand tools.

I was planning to use a through tenon for the back stretcher, but seeing how much trouble I had cutting the ones on the legs, I decided to rethink that joint.

I settled on a large half-lap dovetail on the ends.  These I did cut my hand.  The Hard Maple still caused me some issues.  The Maple and the Oak won’t give at all.  The joints weren’t as tight as I would have liked.

Even though they aren’t the neatest and tightest joints, these guys aren’t going anywhere!

I think I will leave the bench unfinished.  I don’t plan to do any gluing or finishing on it, so I don’t need any protection from that.  Once I get the screws cut and the hand wheels attached, I’ll give the bench a test run.

It’s about 24” wide and about 14” deep.  I haven’t decided on the height yet.  I will have do a mockup to see what height will work best for me.  I suspect it will be around 10” or 11” high.  The large round things on the front of the vise represent the hand wheels I will use.  When I designed the bench, I wanted the top these hand wheels to be below the top of the bench.  I didn’t what them getting in the way while I was sawing.

The bench will be camped to the benchtop when in use.  You will see some short “stubs” on the base that sticks out the front.  This small stubs can be used to clamp it to the benchtop, along with clamping between the legs.  The front of these stubs are inline with inside face of the vise.  I wanted to be able align the beach easily with the front of my bench.  If I’m working on a long board, I wanted to be able to take advantage of the clamping surface on the rest of my main bench.

I designed in a few mortise and tenon joints in this little bench.  I could have designed a slightly simpler bench that bolted and screwed together, but I wanted to practice on my mortise and tenons.  I will hand cut and chop these joints, when I build this little bench.

I plan to order my hardware from McMaster-Carr or Carr Lane.  They both carry the Acme threaded rod I will use.  Along with the nuts and hand wheels I need too.  I priced them out and it’s not really that bad.

This will most likely be a Spring project.  I still have to work on those Silverware Trays and the small hall table I started.

The newest DVD from Christopher Schwarz and Lie-Neilsen is:  The Workbench “How to Design or Modify a Bench for Efficient Use”.  The DVDs produced by Lie-Nielsen are always of high quality and full of good information.  This new DVD featuring Christopher Schwarz talking about one of his favorite subjects (workbenches) is no exception.

If you have read Chris’s book “Workbenches: From Design And Theory To Construction And Use” or fallow his blog, you know Chris views the workbench as a tool for the woodworker, especially the hand tool woodworker.

When working a piece of lumber on a bench, you need to effectively hold your lumber so that you can work:  the faces, edges and end grain of a board.  Chris points out that many bench designs fail at one or even two of these requirements.  He gives suggestions on how to work around these issues, if your bench is deficient in one of these areas.

Chris demonstrates how you work each surface of a board, on a verity of bench styles.  He also shows several jigs and fixtures you will use with your bench.  He show and explains how a holdfast is used.  The holdfast I feel is the most useful tool you can have on your workbench.  I have a couple of the Gramercy holdfasts.  They might not be the prettiest, but they work great and are not that expensive.

Much of the information in this DVD will not be new to some people, but the DVD does have a lot of good information.  Also included on the DVD are a couple reprints of workbench articles from Popular Woodworking Magazine.

One last thing I will share with you is a quote Chris made, that struck home with me.  I believe he said it was a Japanese saying:  “Don’t fear slow, only fear stop”.  He was referring to his journey in workbench design, but it really applies to a lot of areas.  Being somewhat new to woodworking, the journey can seem long and slow at times.  As long as I never feel like I’ve stopped learning, my journey should be a long and rewarding one.

The next 2 days of the class were spent making our sawbench. A sawbench turns out to be an essential tool for the sawyer. When using a handsaw (crosscut) or large rip saw, the sawbench allows you to work with the lumber at the proper height and angle for the saw. For a crosscut saw that is 45 degrees, and for a rip saw that is 60 degrees. If you tried to use these larger saws at your regular workbench, you will find the cutting action very uncomfortable and awkward. I found this out on the first couple of cuts we made.

We didn’t have our sawbenchs yet and I think no one wanted to go up and try Chris’s, out for fear of putting a cut into it! Luckily most of the other cuts we we had to make were made with backsaws, which work well at the bench.

The first task was to cut the legs to rough length, and at a 10 degree angle. This really was a rough cut, as the legs would be cut to final length after the bench was completed. We also worked on the shoulder cut at the top of the legs. The legs are set into the top of the bench, and the top rest on these shoulders. It was a fun challenge, seeing that everything was cut at 10 degrees. I started out with the cheek cuts, and used a 2nd-class cut for these. I then moved on to the shoulder cut, which were 1st-class cuts. I did pretty well, seeing that I still didn’t have much sawing experience under my belt yet. The cheeks and shoulders were cleaned up using my large Lie-Nielsen shoulder plane. It was pretty easy to clean up the cuts to the gauge lines.

One thing I learned during the class, once you get enough sawing under your belt, it won’t matter if the cut is at 90 degrees or 10 degrees. As in most everything, experience breads confidence. Also, as I got more experience sawing, the amount of clean up I had to do was less and less. The closer you can get with your cut, the less work you will have to do with some other tool.

Out next task was to start on the large stretchers. They had to be cut to length and the ends needed to be squared up. I used a benchhook and my Lie-Nielsen 5 1/2 bench plane to shoot the ends. Our next challenging joint was the half-dovetail on the stretches. A half-dovetail is a very traditional joint in bench construction. It’s a little easier to to cut than a full tail, and a half tail gives adequate support and anti-racking strength.

These dovetail joints are also lap joints and are let into the legs. The angle cut on the dovetail and vertical lap/cheek cuts were treated as 2nd-class cuts. They needed to be flat and square, but the finished surface wasn’t critical. Both of these surfaces are concealed inside the joint. The cheeks were also cleaned up using a router plane. The router leave a pretty nice surface, but if you have some tearout it’s not that critical.

The shoulder cut on the on the other hand is a 1st-class cut. This cut needs to be dead on. The shoulder can be seen, and must be tight. My cuts weren’t perfect, so I had to spend some time with shoulder plane to get them nice and flat.

Then the challenge was to half-tail cut in the legs. Use the stretches as your templates. I clamped a stretcher to a pair of legs and marked out the joint with a marking knife. I then used my marking gauge to mark the depth of the lap joint. I made the depth of the lap joint about an 1/8″ of less the thickness of the half-tail on the stretcher. This makes the stretch sit proud of the leg, which can hide any slight imperfections you might have in your joint.

Now that everything was marked it was time to cut. These cuts were all 1st-class cuts. These cuts will be seen and need to straight and square. There was a lot of material that needed to be removed. There are a few strategies that you can use. You can use a chisel to pare away the material. You can also make multiple saw cuts across the area and take the material out with a chisel. I tried both and they both worked well. To use a chisel alone, I think you need a large chisel, at least 1″ or more. I tried it with my 3/4″ chisel and it took awhile to pare away all of the material. Whichever method you use, you will most likely finish up with a router plane. The router plane does a very nice job of flattening and cleaning up the surface.

After all of the joints were cut and cleaned up, the large stretchers were glued to the legs. Glue should be enough, but some students chose to screw them also. I just glued mine. If you screw them, you can screw from the backside of the legs so that the screws aren’t as noticeable.

Now came time to attach the leg assemblies to the top! As mention earlier, the legs are inset into the top. This meant laying out those cuts and removing the material. I clamped a leg assembly to the top and used a marking knife to markout the joints. I think we set the legs in about 5/8″ of an inch. I treated these cuts as 1st-class cut. I used the multiple saw cuts technique to remove the waste. Then used the router plane to flatten up the bottom of the cut. When attaching the legs to the top, we used screws. It needs a little more support than the glue can give.

The small stretchers were the last pieces that needed to be cut and fitted. By this time, the simple half laps on the stretchers were a piece of cake. Again, the shoulders were 1st-class cuts and the cheeks were 2nd-class cuts. The cuts were cleaned up using a shoulder plane and now one of my favorite tools the router plane.

The slot cut into the top is a ripping slot. It’s used when ripping smaller pieces. It allows the bench to give support to the cut while allowing the saw to travel a few inches into the cut. You then move the board forward and proceed with the cut. If needed you can flip the board around and start cutting from the other end.

The final step in the process is to cut the legs to the proper height, for you. The top should be just at the knee or slightly below. For me that ended up being around 20″.

The holdfast you see on the bench is used to hold boards in place while chopping mortises. Chris told that these benches were also commonly used as mortising benches. The holdfast is positioned so that it can hold the workpiece over one of the legs. This give you a lot support while chopping the mortise. Also, if you flip the holdfast around knock it onto the top, it functions as a handle .

For those who would like to make one of these benches, Chris did post some plans on his Lost Art Press Blog. The plans are pretty close to what you see here, but there are some slight differences. For instance, the plan doesn’t include the half-dovetail in the long stretcher. It wouldn’t be that difficult to add it if you want that feature.