There is always a need to hold material being worked on, particularly when the item is small or unsteady. This applies to most materials but is especially a problem with wood. Nowadays there are a variety of screw-action appliances, but only recently have reliable, standardized screws become generally available. The principle of the screw has been known for a long time, but screws of use to craftspeople were rare. Such screws were usually one-off types with a nut to match that were not made to any standard; therefore they did not match any other screw. Because of the lack of screwed holding devices, earlier woodworkers had to use other ways of holding work.
Many woodworkers relied on wedges or a wedging action. A screw is a wedge wrapped around a cylinder, which uses the same ideas in a different way. Today the vise fulfills most holding needs; but before screws made a vise possible, there had to be some other way to hold wood.
You might think you have all the holding devices you need, but anyone who does much woodworking knows that there are often occasions when you need something different from or in addition to the regular holding tools. That is when some of those almost forgotten devices and techniques can still find a place. Many of them are at least as efficient as the modern alternative, and some allow you to do things more expeditiously. It does not matter how lavishly equipped your shop is, you will certainly find it worth while making some of the modern variations of old-time devices, as described in this section.
BENCH HOOKS
A bench hook is used over the edge of a bench to support a piece of wood you are working on. You push against it with one hand while working with the other. A bench hook can be used alone or with another matching one for long stock. A bench hook can be regarded as consumable. It can accept damage from a saw, chisel, or other tool that would otherwise harm the bench top. It is obviously easier to replace than a bench top. If made of hardwood, it will have a longer life, but softwood has possibilities.
A bench hook can be cut from a single piece of wood or be built up. A solid bench hook can be made from 2-inch- x -3-inch wood on edge (Graphic 3-lA). A pair will support a long board being worked on (Graphic 3-1B). The size between notches depends on the widths of boards you use. It should not be more than the width of the front part of the bench if there is a step down to a well (Graphic 3-iC). For many purposes, you use the hooks by pressing the work into them against the edge of the bench, but you get a firmer hold by gripping the work in a vise (Graphic 3-1D).
Graphic 3-1. Bench hooks support work on the bench. They can be cut from solid wood or made by joining pieces.
A built-up wider board is more satisfactory for use alone (Graphic 3-1E), but a pair can still be used for longer work. You can use a wider board alone for such work as handsawing an end or shooting an end with a plane on its side. In a basic wide bench hook, make one piece across the full width, but set the other back about /8 inch on each end (Graphic 3-iF). When you use a backsaw, and it drops through, it strikes the hook and not the bench top.
A suitable wider board has a piece about 1 inch x 5 inches with 1½-inch square strips across the ends. Avoid nails or screws, so there will be no metal to damage edge tools. Glue the parts and put dowels through. In any bench hook, whether solid or built up, it is important that the parts across are square to the edges. When making a built-up board, leave the main part too long at first, then mount the cross pieces squarely and trim outside afterwards (Graphic 3-1G).
It is unwise to complicate a bench hook with supplementary uses, but one addition that does not affect its normal use is converting one end into a miter block (Graphic 3-1H). This is suitable for cutting small-section picture molding or similar strips. Mark with a miter square and make the cuts with the same saw you will be using for mitering.
BENCH STOPS
For planing wood resting on the top of the bench, there has to be a stop to press the wood against. If you are right-handed, the stop should be towards the left-hand end of the bench. You can buy a surface-mounting adjustable stop to fit in a shallow recess, but this contains metal, and you only need to hit it once with a newly sharpened plane to wish you had not bought it. It is better to only have wood projecting above the surface. The traditional bench stop was a piece of hardwood through a hole in the bench. It held by friction and was adjusted by hitting up or down with a mallet. Arranging it next to a leg will provide extra resistance to the planing action (Graphic 3-2A).
For the stop to hold at its setting, the frictional grip has to be tight, so fine adjustment might not be easy. It is easier to get the projection exactly where you want and hold it there if you wedge the bottom against a block (Graphic 3-2B). Make the amount of projection nil to about 1 inch. The wedge will give fine adjustment to about half that, then you put a packing under it for further movement. Make the wedge long enough to knock in or out, whatever the adjustment. On a wide top, you could add a second stop square to the first to hold wide boards.
Another way to lock the bench stop at the height you want it, without its frictional grip having to be so tight, is to use a wing nut on a screw (Graphic 3-2C). Make the stop thinner or reduce the lower end. Reduce a 1½-inch square piece to ¾ inch thick for a length sufficient for a slot (Graphic 3-2D). Use a 3 hanger (or table) screw with a wing nut and large washer (Graphic 3-2E). To drive the screw, lock a plain nut and a wing nut at the top of the thread. Drill for the wood screw part in the leg and start the screw with a tap from a hammer, then turn it in with the wing nut or a wrench. Separate the two nuts and discard the plain nut. If possible, use a washer large enough to cover the width of the wood. Alternatively, make one by drilling a hole at the center of a square piece of ½-inch metal.
Graphic 3-2. A bench stop can be held by friction (A), by a wedge (B), or a screw (C, D, E).
APRON WEDGE
Before the days of screw-action vises, anything which had to be held upright against the side of a bench was secured by wedging. The method used can still be employed today. Even if you have a normal vise at one side of your bench, there can be other places where a wedged support could be used. If the bench is freestanding, the method could be arranged at the other side. You could use the facility at other places in the shop where you need to hold anything upright.
The basic part is a substantial block with a shallow V cut (Graphic 3-3A), bolted horizontally to the bench apron or other upright surface. Thicker wood can go directly into the slot (Graphic 3-3B). Thinner material can be held with a wedge (Graphic 3-3C).
Make the block from hardwood. The size depends on what you want to hold. If it is only plywood, the block can be much lighter than for heavier framing parts. In any case, make it fairly deep to give a good bearing surface—3 inches deep would be reasonable. A suitable size for general use is shown (Graphic 3-4A).
Save the piece you cut out for use as a wedge. Because the levering action on the fastenings is considerable, bolt through rather than rely on wood screws.
The block, as it is, will serve for upright strips of wood, frameworks, or pieces of plywood that reach the floor and for many other assemblies or parts that might not get much pressure. However, if you need to hold a big piece of plywood or a long board against the apron, without it reaching the floor, it will need other support. This was, and still can be, done with pegs. Drill the apron and the bench leg and any other upright to take the pegs (Graphic 3-3D)—¾ inch or 1 inch would be suitable.
If you have a lathe, suitable pegs can be turned (Graphic 3-4B). If you leave square or octagonal heads, the pegs will be easier to grip for withdrawal. In use, you position one or more pegs to provide support (Graphic 3-3E). This is an idea you can also use for long or large work held at one end by a modern, vise.
Graphic 3-3. An apron wedge can take the place of a vise in some situations where wood has to be held upright. Pegs in holes take the weight of large pieces.
Graphic 3-4. Suggested sizes for wedge and peg.
BENCH-TOP SUPPORTS
If you put a thin piece of wood in the vise and its ends overhang, it will sag under pressure. If you are planing or doing other work on the top edge, it will not finish true after pressure is released. To prevent this happening, the wood has to be supported under its lower edge for its full length. The obvious place to provide this support is the top of the bench. The problem then is to hold the thin wood upright. You have a choice of methods of holding the wood, all of which depend on a wedging action in a block on the bench.
The first support works in the same way as the apron wedge just described. A block with a V cut takes the work and a wedge and attaches to the bench with two dowels that can be pulled out of their bench holes when not required (Graphic 3-5A). If you regularly work on wood of quite small section, you might make a support perhaps ½ inch thick, but for the more usual sizes in general woodworking, such as ½-inch- x -3-inch section, the block could be 2 inches thick. A reasonable length is an advantage because it increases the amount of support. A suggested outline is shown (Graphic 3-6A). As with the apron wedge, make the wedge from the piece you cut out.
Dowels should be hardwood as they have to take a heavy shearing load in use. Drill through the block and the bench top at the same time to align the holes. Glue the dowels in the block. Ease the holes in the bench so that you can lift the block away. An alternative to drilling squarely is to angle the drill in the direction of thrust in use (Graphic 3-5B) to let the planing action tighten the block on the bench.
Graphic 3-5. A block with a V cut and dowels into the bench can support wood on edge.
The wedged block holds thin wood on edge securely, but you have to tap in the wedge and then loosen it on each occasion. Many pieces can be held in a slightly different block without a wedge. If you have to work on a large number of similar pieces, being able to dispense with a wedge will save time.
This block has an acute V opening that is symmetrical to the lengthwise direction of the bench (Graphic 3-6B). Make the block with dowels in the same way as the previous support. The first support is better with very thin wood because it gives sides steadiness, but the second type is good for anything upwards of about /s inch thick, where there is some inherent stiffness.
You will probably find yourself using this block for thicker wood, which might otherwise be worked against the ordinary bench stop. Anything up to the width of the opening of the V can be held so it does not move about.
The third support is ingenious, but not so easy to make successfully. Because of the loads put on comparatively thin parts, it has to be made from a tough hardwood.
Graphic 3-6. Long blocks with narrow Vs are suitable for holding thin wood on edge.
Graphic 3-7. This support for wood on edge on the bench top grips the wood as it is thrust in.
The action of forcing wood into the support causes a grip, which increases as the thrust gets greater.
There are two sides pivoting on dowels arranged vertically into the bench top. At the further ends, the sides have fingers that interleave. When a piece of wood is pushed between the sides, the fingers are forced apart and the thickened near ends press against the sides of the wood. As a result of these combined actions, any wood within the capacity of the support will be locked vertically on the bench allowing its upper edge to be planed. The capacity of the support depends on the spacing of the pivots, but in this example (Graphic 3-7), with the pivots at 2½-inch centers, wood from nil up to 1 inch thick can be held.
The pivots are ¾-inch hardwood dowel rods that are glued in the support sides but push fit in holes in the bench top so they can be removed. Because of the risk of splitting during construction if shaping is done first, drill holes for the dowels while the wood is in squared blocks.
The parts are drawn 2 inches thick, with two fingers on each side. This is the minimum to be effective. You could make the pieces thicker with more fingers or have thinner fingers in the same thickness. Much depends on the strength and density of the wood chosen.
Graphic 3-8. The shape of the two parts of the gripping device.
Mark the shape of two identical pieces (Graphic 3-8A). Drill for the dowels. This must be done square to the faces, using a drill press, if possible. Cut the outlines and smooth them, keeping square to the top and bottom faces.
Mark and cut the end fingers (Graphic 3-8B). Trim and smooth the meeting surfaces to slide in each other without excessive play. Glue in dowels with enough projecting to go through the bench top and project up to 1 inch.
You might find it advisable to drill holes in scrap wood and test for action before drilling the bench top. If you have worked to the sizes given, and the pivot holes are 2½-inch centers, the jaws should close to grip the thinnest wood while the fingers still have a good overlap. With thicker wood, the finger overlap will increase. Be careful to drill the bench top squarely.
TRADITIONAL VISE
The modern parallel-action woodworking vise is a precision tool and your best aid to good work. Some of the small wooden vises that are fitted to some imported benches have nothing to keep the jaws parallel. They will try your patience and make good work less easy. You need a good vise, but it is always useful to have more than one.
Once good screws and nuts of a size to suit a vise had become available, woodworkers made their own vises. A vise of traditional form is quite effective. Its advantages include a low price, a reliable action, and a grip across a good width at the top. It does not lever out of true, as some simpler wooden vises do. If you have a long screw, its capacity might be greater than any other vise you have.
Vise screws can be wood or metal. Wood screws are necessarily thicker and could be 2 inches in diameter and as much as 24 inches long. Steel screws are about half that diameter but could be almost as long. In both cases there is a nut to put inside the bench apron, which is usually screwed into place.
The vise jaw reaches almost to the floor and is arranged to slope across a bench leg (Graphic 3-9A). At the bottom, an adjustable strut passes through a guide on the leg (Graphic 3-9B). As the vise is opened, the strut is drawn out and a peg is put through one of the holes in it (Graphic 3-9C) to keep the vise opening parallel or slightly closed in at the top. As the top edge of the jaw is being levered against this peg, the pressure at the working end of the vise is considerable.
Drill a clearance hole for the screw you will use. Drill about 6 inches from the top surface of the bench or at about the center of the apron. For normal right-handed use, position the hole to the right of the top of the leg. You can then slope the, jaw across to take the strut on the other side of the leg.
Make the bracket to attach to the bench leg (Graphic 3-10A). Hardwood is preferable because it sometimes has to resist a heavy thrust. Make the slot an easy fit over the wood you will use for the strut. That should also be of hardwood and can be a 1-inch- x -2-inch section. Fit the bracket level with the front surface of the leg and with the bottom of the slot about 4 inches from the floor.
Lay the wood for the vise jaw across the apron. A softwood, 2-inch- x -10-inch section is suitable. Position it to overlap the bracket slot and to center the screw in the width. Mark and cut the top and bottom (Graphic 3-10B). Drill for the screw. Fit the nut inside the apron and make a trial assembly to check for satisfactory action.
Graphic 3-9. A traditional vise has a screw at the top and a strip with holes and a peg at the bottom.
Most vise screws are supplied with a groove a short distance from the head (Graphic 3-10C). This is so you can arrange the jaw to come with the screw as you turn it out. Otherwise you have to pull the jaw back as you unscrew.
To use this groove, you have to provide something in the vise jaw to engage with it. This can be a strip of hardwood shaped to fit in the groove (Graphic 3-10D) and driven into a mortise (Graphic 3-10). Instead of the flat strip and its mortise, you might find it easier to use a dowel rod in a drilled hole. Shape the end of the dowel rod to fit the groove. When you assemble, use plenty of candle wax in the screw groove to ensure a smooth action. Leave a little of the strip or dowel projecting; you can tap it in further, if it is ever necessary.
Graphic 3-10. Size and layout of a traditional vise.
Put a strip of hardwood across the inside of the top of the jaw, using screws deeply countersunk inside. When the strip has become worn and damaged, you can replace it easily. The vise could close directly against the bench top, but you might prefer to let in a matching piece of hardwood there to act as an inner jaw and protect the bench edge from damage.
Make the strut by measuring in position. At the front, cut a tenon (Graphic 3-10F) to go through a mortise in the bottom of the jaw. Mark the position of the first hole to suit the vise when closed. Space other holes at 2-inch intervals, sufficient to allow for the vise being anything up to fully opened. Leave enough projecting to go well through the bracket at the extreme position (Graphic 3-10G). Glue and wedge the tenon in the bottom of the jaw. The holes can be /8 inch for a wood peg or ½ inch for a metal one.
A variety of pegs are possible. Simplest is a piece of dowel rod. If you have a lathe, you can turn a hardwood peg with a slight taper (Graphic 3-1OH). A similar one could be turned in metal. In either case, cutting a flat at the end allows a hole for a cord that can secure the peg against loss. Make the peg long enough to have a good bearing against the bracket and the leg.
Graphic 3-11. An iron holdfast fits through a hole in the top of a bench to hold work on the bench.
HOLDFAST
Besides the occasions when you want to push wood against a stop or prevent it sliding on the bench, you might want to hold the wood down on the bench top. You can use clamps near the edge, but they are no use in the main area of the bench top where you need one or more holdfasts. A holdfast has a rod that goes through a hole in the bench top and an arm that presses down on the wood. It is possible to buy a modern version with a screw for tightening, but a plain type can be made if you have metalworking facilities.
The rod goes through an oversize hole in the bench and a palm on the arm presses down on the wood, usually with a piece of scrap wood to spread the pressure (Graphic 3-hA). You tighten it by hammering the top. You loosen it by hitting it sideways. If you drill plenty of holes in the bench top and have several holdfasts, almost anything flat can be held down. Its maximum thickness will depend on how long you make the rod.
Round iron or mild steel between a ¾-inch and 1-inch diameter is suitable. To forge a solid holdfast, first upset where the bend will come, so you can get a fairly sharp angle there, rather than make a radiused bend, which would not be so good for hitting in use. Taper the arm (Graphic 3-11B) and spread a palm at the end. Round and smooth the palm where it will bear on the wood.
Another way to make a holdfast employs welding. Bend a piece of mild steel at least ¼ inch thick and upwards of 1 inch wide to a similar curve to that of the forged version. Weld it to the top of a round rod (Graphic 3-11C). How long you make the rod in either version depends on your anticipated needs, but it is wise to give it plenty of length—18 inches is reasonable.
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