My Take on the Bench-on-Bench

glenn bradley

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Or, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Do It". This is another one of those things that if I kept waiting until I had it figured out perfectly . . . I would never have one. There are various versions of these focused on various activities. They all share the same goal though; get the work up where you can work on it without hunching over. Mine is out of ply and maple and employs a Veritas Inset Vise.

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I cut out some of the stock the other night and laid things out. In order to reduce the weight I am using a sort-of torsion box approach.

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I use my bench as a reference surface and make the best use of dumbbells that I know of :rolleyes:.

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I glue up some of the other parts that are made from laminated 3/4" BB ply. I gang the leg end caps together to dress up the cutouts for the clamp heads.

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Here's a gratuitous glue-up shot of the trim being added and some shots of the other parts getting the last few add-ons glued up.

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I thought I had planned better but, alas . . . I find myself stuck watching glue dry till tomorrow ;).
 
Well, I managed to glue it up flat so that will help.

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I route out the receiver per the instructions that came with the inset vise.

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Once the glue sets on a couple of small trim pieces I will pare them flush, add a light coat of oil as a sealer and try it out.

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Well, that didn't take long. Gets me a good height for this sort of thing:

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Or this:

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If I set it back from the edge, the main bench become a helper:

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I even beat on it making square peg mortises; works very well.

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It ways just under 20lbs but, when clamped to the bench it feels like a rock.
 
That has been on my to do list for several years now.

That is exactly why I finally took a few hours and mode one. I was waiting forever and only really thought about it when I had been hunched over some detail and my back and shoulders hurt. I am trying to shift myself into less of a planning-to-death and more of a do-it-so-I-can-use-it philosophy.

Like many of us, storage and space management is a challenge. Although compact, this thing still takes up a block of space. I dug some scraps out of the toss-box and made a pair of simple brackets:

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The left side of my bench hold rarely used clamp accessories, some odd brushes and putty knives and other stuff I didn't get around to taking care of. The only thing that is stored there that I use frequently is a pair of deep-throat 6" clamps and my monster-vice. I cleaned all that stuff out of the way and mounted the brackets:

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The bench-on-bench slides right in and stores like so:

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And there's still room to tuck my monster-vice back in there :).
 
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The bench-on-bench slides right in and stores like so:

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And there's still room to tuck my monster-vice back in there :).

This was the part I was waiting for :D

Nice job on the B on B, I could certainly use one for carving work my main bench is waaay to low for that. I had no idea where I'd PUT the darn thing though and I think you have just solved that... now to actually make it, its right behind (counts...) 5 other projects .. or so...
 
First Actual Use

Just thought I would report back. I finally got back to this urn and the step I am at is the one that triggered the B-on-B build. I can say that I was able to shape these fingers faster and more consistently primarily due to greater comfort and a better angle of control thanks to the B-ob-B. Many of us do an amount of close work so I can state that tailoring one of these to the tasks you do will probably make you happy.

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Have you used the inset vise much yet? I'm somewhat dubious on its utility but it's such a cool idea that I have to wonder.

It is a lighter duty device. Table legs, small cabinet parts and so forth are held fast. The screw is about 1/2" diameter so picture a tail vise scaled down to that proportion and you've got the idea. It is along the scale of a Wonder Dog / Pup but more stable as it cannot pivot on the dog. I bought it during the last "clearance" sale with the B on B in mind (although the cool factor definitely played in) and it works great there.

Depending on your intended use, a small metal jawed vise may be more useful. I was really trying to keep the weight down and was curious about the eventual usefulness. So far, the B on B is doing just what I want it for so I would probably go this way again; light weight, plenty of clamping / holding options. I am fooling with some ideas for jaw accessories as the inset vise is made to accept them. This is via a #10 machine screw and nut so again, the tool is scaled down from what you find on a full sized bench.
 
Thanks Glenn,

I was thinking mostly for holding flatter carvings (like spoons and picture frames) so having them on the surface of the bench where I can whack at them with a chisel is often a smidge more stable than in a standard vise since you have something backing the piece. I should play with the Wonder Dog a bit more since i have one of those, the pivoting seems mostly solvable with sufficient cleverness on the dogs on the far side of it .. most of the time :D

The more I look at my current setup the more I'm thinking I ought to re-do parts of my current bench or I don't think it'll be stable enough for this (long story, legs to short.. complicated :rolleyes:). but that won't happen until at least June anyway with the way things are going..
 
This didn't seem like it deserved its own thread but, I added tags for inset vise so if anyone goes looking . . .

The jaw that comes with the inset vise is great but, a bit tall for smaller work. Lee Valley offers a low jaw for $15 and I'm sure its great. I needed one now so I grabbed a piece of 1/4" steel rod out of the spot where I keep such things. Rounded the end to match the stock jaw's pins and used a hacksaw to cut a couple of pins. I cut out a piece of white oak scrap and squared it up, drilled the holes and used CA glue to hold the already snug fitting pins in place.

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Took 10 minutes and works great :thumb: The little black triangle on the bottom of the wood piece reminds me which face is angled a couple of degrees.
 
I like it - one of the big complaints about the wonder dogs is the brass bits.. while brass are still metal. I much prefer cutting into wood when the inevitable happens :D
 
Smart and you lowered the profile at the same time as a bonus.

It seems like your pin theory from the inset vise could also work here instead of screws... that would allow having differently sized and shaped end pieces for holding oddly shaped stuff (perhaps not as useful for the kinds of projects you usually make but there are possibilities hmmmm....)
 
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