Tail Vise

Jeb Taylor

Member
Messages
518
Location
Decatur, Alabama
Starting to think on building a new bench sometime. Looking at the Woodriver Large tail vise and the lee valley website's tail vise, both about $80. any thoughts, or other tail vises I should look at?


Having a lot of thoughts on a face vise. Everything from the roubo style to the high dollar twin screw vices, to the generic quick release vises. Can't even make my mind up on what style. I got a few months before I'm going to build anything, but starting to work on designs atm/some free shipping offers out there.
 
A tail vise is something I miss on my bench from time to time, retrofitting one would be as cumbersome as building another bench (which is on my to do list BTW).

Both vises seem OK to me, as per the front face vise, I had a leg vise and changed to a quick release metal one, both worked well. The quick release one tends to splay a bit if used only on one side but I have no special problems with that as I don't clamp pieces hard on the vise.:dunno:
 
I think you're going to get a broad range of responses to this question. People work differently. And, i'm sure a lot of us mull over the same question as we think about upgrading our benches with an end vise of some sort or other.

Personally, i'd love a twin screw end vise, but can't quite wrap my wallet around the expense for occassional hobby use. Maybe if i find a bucket of $ laying around.

I'm sure i'll wind up doing something on the end of my bench, but it'll probably be based on what i cobble together or find used. For now i've got a couple of Lee Valley "wonder dogs" that seem to fit the bill nicely. I recommend them if you're at all interested. In fact, i could probably do just about anything with them and my face vice that i could do with the face vise / end vise combo. Maybe i'll just keep them and not worry about it.

Have fun with it

Paul Hubbman
 
Jeb this is a question i would kick about for a while if i were you before you put your foot in the water with $$.

Having been through it, i think one has to carefully consider the work you do and how you do it or intend to do it.

If you going to do a fair amount of hand tool work then consider the vices and bench carefully.

Its great to get caught up (like i did) in the "roubo' bench leg vice but if you use a jointer and table saw for long boards then well i don't see the merits in a leg vice and i have one that is actually in my view a pain to use.

My quick release end vice is great but its no help in the advice area cause its no longer made. But a good quick release would be a great addition.

I think a great deal can be accomplished with hold downs and bench dogs etc.

Where i think a tail vice would be handy is cutting joints by hand on the end of a board. There are some real neat new vices around just make sure they will do the job you want in the future.
 
I've been tossing it around for quite a while now. I'm pretty certain I want a tail vise. I find myself going more and more towards hand tools, and do a lot of finishing with a 4-1/2. Doubt I'll ever do a lot of face jointing, resawing, or ripping by hand but I enjoy the handcut joinery, smoothing, and edge jointing.

I was mostly asking if anyone had experience with either brand of tail vise, or another brand. The others I'm still pondering, have read books/looked at videos of people using different vises, still really not sure. Most likely I'll either end up with a quick release on the left, but still pondering on that one. I had thought about maybe leg on the left front, and quick release on the left end also. Sort of roubo with an additional vise on the left end.
 
I don't have it (yet :D ), but I kinda like the looks of the new Lee Valley vise. It appears you can remove the jaw and end up with a flat bench top when you need it. It also looks like the nearly perfect vise for holding stock to be face planed.

I already have two front vises on my bench (a Wilton and an Emmert clone), but I may just spring for the LV, too.
 
Oh I was looking at the $80 one. If I was retired or did ww for a living I'd drop a pile of money on this, but I just don't see me wearing one of theses out in the next 10 yrs the amount I'll use it.

Garrett Hack did an article on FWW about the bench 30 yrs in the making, and it appealed to me a lot, but then the leg vise looks real nice for edge jointing. I'll probalby skip the tool troughs though in Garrett's bench.

I've also seen some tail vises that were a little further back in the bench and were just a sliding dog with the bench fixed in front/behind it. I think I could make one of those with just an inexpensive screw. It would work very similar to the inset vise, but with more power.
 
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