$24 Wagon Vise - 365

in this video i'll be using a 25 wagon vice hardware kit to add a wagon vise to my existing workbench if you are in the planning stages of your next workbench adding a wagon vise to the build will be much easier than modifying an existing workbench the kit includes a threaded rod stop collar two bushings a square nut and a handle the handle i'm using here has a set screw on it and the handle in the kit does not have a set screw and instead a thread locker should be used if you'd like to make this wagon vice i have a free set of diagrams that have measurements for both the integrated mounting option like shown in this video as well as a bottom surface mount option to make sure the cut is straight i'm using a combination of my circular saw and a straight edge as you can see my circular saw does not cut through the entire thickness of the bench but it will establish a straight reference face to work from step one is to lay out the cut on the workbench with pencil and next a straight edge is clamped to the workbench with the appropriate offset necessary to cut on the layout line with the saw set to its deepest setting a cut is made stopping at the end line then a spacer block is added and a second cut is made using a spacer block for the second cut ensures the opposite ends of the slot remain parallel and the spacer block is the width of the desired vise block minus the thickness of the circular saw blade at this point i realized that step one really should have been to fit the end block to the workbench fitting this block first is important because it establishes the mounting holes before the material is removed on the workbench when removing the slot waste the outside thinner section of the bench it may shift a little bit due to the stresses in the wood being released mounting the end block afterwards would make it more difficult to make sure everything stays in alignment the end block gets four counter board through holes for mounting the lag screws and one through hole for the vise screw the end block is clamped to a horizontal board and then the horizontal board is clamped to the workbench top this allows the through holes to be transferred to the workbench where they are drilled out deeper with an undersized drill bit after the end block is removed finally the end block is fitted with four lag screws and this order of operations properly establishes the mounting hole locations after this is when the circular saw cuts should have been made these circular saw cuts are completed with a handsaw and i chose this particular saw because the tooth set is narrower than the width of the circular saw blade this will allow me to complete the full depth cut without destroying my original reference face established by the circular saw these are wood owl overdrive fast boring bits and i've heard really good feedback about them drilling straight fast and clean so i'll be giving them a test with this project i used the 5 8 of an inch bit to remove the bulk of the waste connecting the end of the cuts this worked really well and i was quite impressed with the bit it's the best of both a forstner bit and an auger bit clean as a forstner bit hole with the ease of use of an auger bit now the part that resembles traditional dental work a chisel is used to square up the interior three faces at this point the screw hole in the end block needs to be transferred to the end face inside the workbench to do this a quick jig is made with a block just narrow enough to fit inside the cutout and a horizontal board for reference off of the top of the workbench the jig is clamped to the workbench touching the inside face of the end block now the 1 inch hole location can be transferred to the jig when clamping the jig to the far end of the opening it's important to reference the jig off of the same left or right side of the opening that was previously used and here's another handy widget a telescoping hex bit extension this one gives you the option of 8 inch 10 inch or 12 inches of extension and the overdrive bits have a hex shank so they can be used with it now the screw hole location can be transferred to the workbench and with the jig in place you can't see how far to drill so we're only going a little bit into the workbench the jig is removed and the length of the bushing is transferred to the overdrive bit with a marker and now the depth of the hole can be established without the jig the bushing should be a snug fit and inserted at full depth while i'm at it the bushing in the end cap can be inserted and you can see that this bushing is actually a little bit longer than the thickness of the wood that's because i was making this before the hardware kit was finalized so my bushings they were just a little bit too long with the bushings installed the alignment can be checked with the screw for the vice block i went with a couple pieces of ash glued together the grain direction is important here notice that the grain direction is vertical when looking on end this means that the majority of the expansion and contraction will be vertical and therefore seasonal expansion and contraction will have the least effect on the fit in the workbench the goal is to make the block narrow enough to slide easily but not too narrow that it wobbles around a hand plane could be used to size it but i was already set up at the table saw so i just made a few trips back and forth to shave off just a tiny amount until i was happy with the fit i noticed the outside one inch or the end one inch of the slot was a little bit more narrow than the rest of the slot and i'm not sure if this was wood movement of the outside strip of the workbench or a variance in the final trimming that i did with the chisel either way i decided to just leave it and slightly taper the back one inch or so of the block but first i used the snug fit to my advantage to hold the block in place for transferring the screw hole i do think i made an error here though instead of drilling it all the way through by hand like i did i should have just barely established the hole location by hand and then finished the hole at the drill press after the screw hole is established the square nut can be threaded onto the rod and then used to locate the height of the dado the marking knife line can then be used to set the table saw blade height a few passes are made to establish a dado width just a tiny bit wider than the thickness of the square nut the wider you go with the dado the more backlash you will have in the operation of the vice you can see how this works in the test fit the nut is captured in the dado and the bottom of the dado prevents the nut from spinning this interaction is how the rotation of the screw results in a linear travel of the vice block a quick test fit let me know that i had a tiny bit of material to remove on the middle of the wide faces of the block small tweaks like this are best done with a hand plane before the final install everything got a liberal application of wax both on the block as well as the slot inside the workbench don't forget to add the stop collar it goes on first then the block with the square nut inserted from below and once you're happy with the final fit the stop collar is locked down to secure the threaded rod into the vise i was really impressed with how well these bits drill so i decided to drill the three quarter inch dog hole by hand instead of removing the block and using the drill press here's a tip for you to drill vertical by eye drill a little bit at a time while moving your line of sight 90 degrees each time this helps because your eyes are great at referencing vertical left to right but you can't really see if you have the drill tilted too much front to back go back and forth and you will keep correcting yourself for the rest of the dogs in my workbench i used three quarter inch oak dowels these are inexpensive and you can easily cut a tapered face on the top in this case the dowels were just a tiny bit too large for the hole the solution is to sand the dowels down slightly until you get the fit desired however i tried a brass bench dog that i had and it was absolutely perfect so that's the rod i went with this one pretty tight but loose enough to move by hand the last bit of flattening was to shave the top of the vise block flush with the table the two pieces of the block had alternating grain direction so i kind of had to use the plane to make skew cuts almost like pairing away at end grain with a chisel it's done and it works really really well the main point of a wagon vise is to be able to clamp laterally on the ends of the boards and this leaves the entire top surface open for planing or whatever without something like a hold fast getting in the way i did end up sanding off the pencil lines on the end cap and sanding the sharp edges a bit but that's basically it i didn't apply any finish and i just don't think it's necessary cosmetic appearance is the least of my concerns on this workbench that's it for this video if you want a free set of installation plans or diagrams then check out my website a link to those and the hardware package will be found in the description if you're watching this anywhere other than my website go to my website jacecustomcreations.com newsletter and sign up for my email newsletter so you don't miss anything that i publish you all take care have a great day and i'll talk to you in the next video

Channel: Jay Bates

Views: 229,494

Keywords: jayscustomcreations, jay bates, easy woodworking project, woodworking, woodshop, woodworking projects, make, build, vise, vice, Workbench vise, roubo workbench build

Id: eZtu1mUYz5E

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021