The last step in my work bench build has finally arrived. It has been quite a journey, and I can certainly say that I never thought it would take me this long. But I have greatly enjoyed the process and have learned much along the way.
The last remaining part of the project is to line the vise chops with leather. I mentioned in an earlier post, How to Make Round Benchdogs – A Pictorial, that I had purchased a half hide of leather from Brettun’s Village. My original plan was to line both the vise chop and the inner jaw (edge of the bench). After some consideration, I revised that plan to only line the vise chop. This will keep the edge of the bench in a single plane a not have a piece of leather glued to it.
A half hide of “book-binders” leather.
To get started, I removed the chops from all four vises and placed them on the leather. I spent a little time trying to find an arrangement that would waste the least amount of leather.
Arranging the vise chops for the most economical use of leather.
This should minimize the waste.
Once I had the layout that I wanted, I went in search of my white china marker. No luck, it must have grown legs and walked out of the shop. Or more likely, the kids took it. So, I went a raided the kids crayons. No white, but I did find a yellow. It’s not ideal, but it does show up on the dark brown leather… just.
I couldn’t find my white china marker, so I grabbed one of my kid’s crayons.
I drew around all the vise chops and then cut the leather out with some scissors.
I cut out the leather with scissors and placed each piece over the vise chops to confirm they were the right size.
The four pieces of leather cut out.
The next step was to glue the leather to the vise chop. I have read a few online opinions about what glue to use for this task and either hide glue or common PVA seems to be the most frequently mentioned. I had planned to use one of these myself, but my recent success using contact adhesive while making my benchdogs had me rethinking this plan. I decided to try attaching leather to just one of the vise chops to see how well it worked. I applied the glue to both surfaces and waited for it to start drying.
I coated both surfaces with contact adhesive and waited for it to dry.
The leather absorbed quite a lot.
Once the glue had just turned dry to a light touch, I attached the leather and went over it with a pressure roller to make sure I got a good bond. I then trimmed the leather flush with the wooden chop and from the holes.
I cut out the holes with a scalpel.
I also used the scalpel to trim around the edge.
I was very happy with the bond and repeated the process for the other three vise chops.
And reassembled the vise.
The holdfasts also got some contact adhesive and leather.
I also put two layers of leather on each of my holdfasts.
After gluing the leather to all four chops, I reassembled the vise hardware. Up until this point, I have never installed the screws that hold the vise face plate tight against the chop. This is mainly due to the way I drilled the holes for the main screw and guide rods. There is no slop in these holes and they fit the metal parts with very tight tolerances. When you unscrew the vise, the chop stays against the face plate and doesn’t sag or move. This is caused by the thickness of the chop and these tight tolerances. I have had to assemble, disassemble, and reassemble the vises several times in the building of this bench, and saw no need to install the face plate screws until the very end.
Now that I see no further need to disassemble the vises, it is time for the screws to be installed.
The vise face plate has holes for three screws.
I mounted a center finding bit in my drill and drilled pilot holes in the three holes in the face plate.
Brass screws to finish the vise installation (and a steel screw to pilot the holes).
I bought some brass screws (to match the gold paint on vise hardware) but these can be softer than you might be expecting depending upon the alloy blend used in the particular batch of screws you bought. When using brass screws, it is advisable to first install a steel screw that is the same size, length, and pitch. This will cut threads into the wood that the brass screw will then follow.
After drilling with the center-finding bit, I installed a steel screw.
I removed the steel screw and installed the brass ones.
My son came out to the shop and installed the last screw.
So…. That’s it… It’s done. One year and one month from start to finish.
It feels a little anti-climatic actually. Not that I was expecting the heavens to open or a fireworks show to ensue, but I sat back and thought, “Wow, it’s done!”
I took a load of pictures of the finished bench and I’ll try to publish that post in the next day or two.
More soon.
– Jonathan White
I’m going to hold off with leather in my vise chop until you have used a while.
Thinking ahead, wouldn’t hide glue be a better choice for gluing the leather? How easy is it going to be to remove the leather and get a new piece on? Fresh contact cement doesn’t melt it an old coat. With hide glue glue a little heat and some water and you can remove the old one and slap a new piece on.
Hi Ralph,
You make a very good argument and are probably right. I hope this leather isn’t too hard to remove should I ever need to replace it. I have a feeling though, that a razor scraper with a new blade would make short work of removing any old glue.
All the best,
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
Having worked in the countertop business for a number of years, I can tell you it should be relatively easy to remove the leather by applying heat from a heat gun. That’s how we would remove old laminate from a countertop that had been applied with the same glue as you used. Love your blog.
Hi Scott,
Thanks! It’s good to know that others have had success removing things that were glued with contact adhesive. I’m hoping that I won’t do too much to damage the leather and that it will not need replacing for several years. So long as I am only clamping wood in the vise, I would expect it to last a while. Anything metal will go in my metal bench top vise.
Thanks for take by the time to comment. I really appreciate it.
All the best,
Jonathan
Nice work. Any special reason for using book binders leather?
Yes, there was a very specific and important reason for using this leather… It was on sale. I paid $50 including shipping for this half hide.
Brettun’s Village does a deal of the week, where they put one item on sale and sell them until they’re gone. These hides just happened to be the current deal when I was shopping for leather. The other type of leather that I considered was pig skin suede. I think that I would have rather used the pig skin, but at the time I was shopping, I was still planing on lining both jaws of the vise. The pig skin hides are much smaller and I would have needed to by several hides to get all 8 pieces of leather that I wanted. The guy from Brettun’s sent me a swatch of pig skin in with my order and it was very nice.
All the best,
Jonathan
When I get around to adding suede to my vise chops, I wasn’t planning on putting any liner below the vise screw and alignment rods. That area really isn’t a clamping surface, and I would think it would save some time not having to trim all that out. It does look nice to cover the whole thing, though. That bench really turned out well.
-Eric
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your comments. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. I lined the whole vise chop for two main reasons:
First, when I made the skirts that cover the vise hardware (You can see that post here: Vise Squad), I made sure that they were the same design profile as the chop and also that they were perfectly flush with the edge of the benchtop. This means that the entire surface of the vise chop can be used as a clamping surface. I do, however, agree with you that I’m not likely to want to use the area below the guide rods a screw for clamping.
Secondly, if the leather is only on the area above the guide rods, then it will create a gap (perhaps 1/16th-inch) around the main screw and guide rods when the vise is closed. If you then tighten the vise beyond this point, the bottom of the vise will close a little further, and the top of the vise chop will want to rack vertically, and open at the top. This was the other main reason that I made the vise skirts as precisely as I did and kept the flush with the edge of the bench.
It’s all probably overkill, but after spending 13 months making this bench, I figured this was not the place to cut any corners.
Thanks again. All the best,
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
I used thick cowhide lace leather, rough side out, to line the jaws of my bench vises. The grip is excellent. Details here: http://www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/2015/01/31/vise-jaw-liner/
Rob
Hi Rob,
It looks good. I considered doing the same thing. I only went with grain side out after looking at the leather that I bought. Had it been a thicker harder smoother leather, I would have done it like you. Thanks for sharing.
All the best,
Jonathan