To be more precise, it’s on it’s way to becoming a ratrod. This vise will never look this good moving forward so I took this “before” shot. I just built a moxon vise with the hardware kit from the fine folks at Benchcrafted. Unable to follow directions, I made a few minor tweaks of my own. The jaws are made of white pine. I know - I know – vise jaws are supposed to be hardwood; but I had a chunk of full 8 quarter stock and the soft pine is unlikely to mar any work; also it’s much lighter to horse onto the bench. Yes it will quickly get dented, gouged, and covered with sawcuts but I’m fine with that. I also opted to make the bottom of the front movable jaw flush with the fixed jaw. They suggested a ¼” overhang to make it easy to mount it flush with the edge of the workbench. But this way I can mount it anywhere , even in the middle on the fifty yard line without a fuss. Lastly I opted to forgo the split leather they provided to make the jaws grip. Instead I took a toothing plane and roughed up the inside faces of both jaws. It grabs like an anaconda, you might want to try it.
We had a taboo in the shop back in the day. No one wanted to be the guy who put the first big dent or gouge in a new machine. The boss would go into a tailspin and none of the fellow shop hunkies would let you forget it. Not the case with this beast. With a pair of Gramercy holdfasts it’s built to work hard and welcome abuse.
George R. Walker
George you are a rebel. I’ll be curious to hear how it holds up over the long haul.
George, I built the same vise using their hardware and followed the plan, turned out great, but I like a couple of the “tweaks” you made. I’m sure it will hold up fine. Thanks for sharing.
when i built mine about 1 year ago i used the only thing in my shop that would suffice……..a 2×6. it has been working like a champ. maybe someday i will make a snazzy one.
I used a left over 2 x 10 from making saw benches.