GG-Grandpa's Bench

[Darren Wright]

I finally got my wife's GG-Grandfathers hardware cabinet and bench off of the trailer, it's been parked in the shop for a couple of weeks now.

I missed getting a full image of the bench with the top on, will try to get one later, but looking at the tail vise, I noticed it didn't have a screw on it.



There are a couple of bolts on the cross support, but those appear to be holding up the vise. There are no hole that appear to have held an external mounted screw on the end piece.

So would this have used friction or binding to hold it in place?


One of the legs will need some repairs, it's missing a big chunk of wood on one side that held tenon for the cross support. I should be able to disassemble the end by driving out the wood dowels and do repairs to the leg and both bottoms. I still need to give it a good power washing though to make sure there isn't more to repair.


Finally the hardware cabinet, No drawers in it yet as I need to figure out where it will live. The back was an old crate.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Well that vise is a puzzler indeed. I don't know but hoping someone can figure it out

The more I see that drawer set the more cool I think it is

 

[Ted Calver]

Are there any dog holes in the bench top that line up with the vise?

 

[Darren Wright]

The more I see that drawer set the more cool I think it is

Me too, but mostly the memory of it being a spider condo is fading. I did think it was cool prior.

Are there any dog holes in the bench top that line up with the vise?

I ran up and took a few more pics...

A view from each end and with the vise fully opened...


And as you can see, there are no holes where a hardware/screw would have been or shows it's been attached...


And some nice dovetail joinery.


My thought it that it works by binding. it's a tight fit sliding in/out, so my guess is that one would wack the vice towards the back side to tighten/bind the slide piece of the vise.

 

[Brent Dowell]

I have no idea how that works, but it does look cool, that and the spider condo, lol.

 

[Wayne Eikenberry]

My thought it that it works by binding. it's a tight fit sliding in/out, so my guess is that one would wack the vice towards the back side to tighten/bind the slide piece of the vise.

Just like a holdfast.

 

[Ted Calver]

Hard to imagine there wasn't a wood/metal screw of some sort there at one time or other. There is some evidence of pounding on the face, but not nearly as much as one would expect from a racking/friction type vise or holdfast. I'd look closely at the front and back for evidence of repairs or plugs. Is that suspicious grey circle on the underside from a mud dauber nest?

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I guess wracking it to lock might work.. be tempting to try it somewhat gently to see anyway.. I'm about half wondering if it was an unfinished project and the screw was just never installed?

 

[Jonathan Shively]

The dog holes line up on the top, would he have used like a bar clamp to pull/hold it shut?

 

[Darren Wright]

Hard to imagine there wasn't a wood/metal screw of some sort there at one time or other. There is some evidence of pounding on the face, but not nearly as much as one would expect from a racking/friction type vise or holdfast. I'd look closely at the front and back for evidence of repairs or plugs. Is that suspicious grey circle on the underside from a mud dauber nest?

There's no obvious patches that I can see, and it's totally feasible that he just never finished installing a screw. Oh, and yes, lots of mud dauber nests on this and the cabinet.

I guess wracking it to lock might work.. be tempting to try it somewhat gently to see anyway.. I'm about half wondering if it was an unfinished project and the screw was just never installed?

I left it setup, so may cut some bench dogs and see if it works that way.

The dog holes line up on the top, would he have used like a bar clamp to pull/hold it shut?

Yeah, that may be possible.

I'll have to see if my wife's grandpa can recall what condition the bench was in when he got it.

 

[Darren Wright]

Well I did cut a couple of pegs to hole a block of wood and gave the back side of the vise a good wack. It did hold the work, but not well enough to plane a board, it came loose after a few cuts. Might have been something that did work well at one time or maybe was just an unfinished project and the screw never got installed.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I'm leaning harder towards unfinished.

Or.. maybe started life as a display piece?

 

[Darren Wright]

Yeah, same here, doubt it was a display piece, but maybe unfinished. I'll clean it up in the spring and start restoring it when I get time. I don't know if I'll add a screw to it or not. It may end up being used as a display piece at the house. It's actually a bit short for my back, he wasn't very tall from the photos I've seen of him.

 

[Darren Wright]

So I've been looking at the tail vise again. I'm leaning towards it being an unfinished project

I'm not really seeing any holes where some hardware would have been installed.














After some research I'm leaning towards that it should have had a screw installed similar to this one.


I still plan to power wash the bench to clean it up a bit, then will need to do a few repairs before tackling the vise. I'll probably just put a metal threaded screw on it, but could experiment with doing some wood threads on the cnc.