I am currently working on building the base for my workbench, but I have been thinking a little ahead to how I will mount and install the vises. I am going to use four Grizzly H7788 Cabinetmaker’s Vises on the bench, so I will need to find a way to accurately drill the holes for all of them.
I already have the vises, so I opened one of the boxes to see what the instructions say.
A Grizzly H7788 Cabinetmakers Vise.
Guess what? No instructions. I thought this can’t be right, so I opened another box. Again, nothing. So I went on the Grizzly website, nope… no instructions there either.
I did a little searching online, and found some forum posts where people had said they contacted Grizzly and were told no instructions or drilling templates were available. I don’t get this. How can they not have this information? The company that makes these for them in China must have the specifications. How hard would it be to give a one page .pdf that states the correct drill sizes and has a template showing the distances between centers?
I even searched online to see if some disgruntled purchaser had created one of their own. No luck.
I figured that the first thing I ought to determine was the diameters of the screw and guide rods so that I can order the right size drill bits/augers.
In imperial, the screw measured 1.181 inches.
The main screw measured about 1.181 inches. The closest fractional measurement for that is 1 3/16 inches (or 1.1875) which is a little oversize and the hole might be a little lose. I looked online for augers in this size and they are few and far between.
It then occurred to me that the vise was made in China and it may be metric. I switched the caliper into metric mode.
The screw measures between 29.76 and 29.99mm depending how you hold the caliper.
That’s more like it. It must be a 30mm screw.
I then measured the guide rods and the calipers showed 0.782 inches which is close to 25/32 inches. Good luck finding an auger bit in that size. And, if I tried to use a ¾” bit, the hole would be too tight.
In imperial, the guide rods were 0.782 inches.
I switched over to metric once more.
The guide rods measured 19.76 to 19.95mm.
The calipers read between 19.76 and 19.95mm depending on how I held them. This must be a 20mm rod.
I contacted the folks at Traditional Woodworker and explained my dilemma. I had hoped to buy the WoodOwl auger bits, but they didn’t have them in 20 and 30mm. They suggested that I use the Colt TwinLand brad point bits that they carry. I ordered the 20mm bit and the 30mm bit. I also ordered a 5/8 inch WoodOwl ultra smooth auger for use when I draw bore the stretchers to the legs and a 3/4 inch WoodOwl ultra smooth auger for drilling the dog holes in the benchtop. I also found a set of 7 brad point bits that some how sneaked into the cart by the time that I had finished the order.
When I have the bits in hand, I’ll have to experiment with some scrap wood to see if I can’t come up with the proper spacing for all the holes. Once that is accomplished, I can make myself a template out of some hardwood that I can use as a guide to drill the actual holes in the chops.
I’m still amazed that Grizzly didn’t provide this info in the box.
More on my plans for the vises later.
