i’m currently building a new workbench and i’m wanting to put an angled leg vise on it. Now i’ve been wondering would any or all of these systems work in an angled leg vise? currently i’ve emailed bench crafted to ask them directly about their criss cross being used in this manner and they gave me a very quick and polite reply stating they wouldn’t recommend it, in that it would not work on it’s own without some modifications to the vise. i have some ideas on how to make the criss cross work in an angled leg vise; but mainly i’m wondering about the maguire method? what are your guys thoughts or experiences?

There’s a scrap of aluminum stock (1/8″, give or take) on the back of the right front leg of the vise, beaten with a hammer until the top edge is a little thinner than the bottom. In my case, the bench leg is open on both sides — there’s a shelf a bit off the floor, but the leg is unenclosed at the bottom — and there’s a scrap of 1×2 loosely fastened to each side of the leg vise. Every 3/4″ I cut a 1/8″ notch in the 1×2 braces, and I fastened the end under the bench together with another scrap of 1×2. Total construction time, including figuring out how to get it around the leg of the vise, about 10 minutes.

I can easily adjust it by sticking a toe under the supports. I’ve tested it with stock down to about 1/8″ and up to about 8″. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work on thinner or thicker stock, though.. the vice can close down flush with the front of the leg, and open out to about 18″ without trouble.

There’s a photo here, if my description didn’t make sense:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amckenzie4/6795877461/

My secret shame is that when I built the bench in our apartment, that long ago, I just didn’t know how to tackle the mortises.

Long live the shim!

Cheers – Miles

I know that this list contains “three that you like” so I’m wondering why you don’t like Lie-Nielsen’s chain-drive leg vise.

I have one on my Roubo (it’s actually the first one they sold) and it works great – you don’t even know that it’s there because it’s completely enclosed in the chop.

No maintenance either although taking off the plate and hitting it with a few drops of Tri-flow every year probably isn’t a bad idea.

Joe

Tradition tells us that Peter didn’t feel worthy of being crucified as Jesus was. Instead they honored his request to be crucified upside down on the Roman X-style cross.

Because of this, it became known as St. Peter’s cross.

It’s too bad some are so uptight about such things.