The Benchcrafted Tail Vise can be mounted in any thickness top. The important thing to keep in mind is the vertical placement of the vise, specifically the hand wheel. The top of the handwheel needs to fall below the top of the bench, and far enough below to allow for some future flattenings.
Our templates provide about 1/4", but you can make it whatever you like. The lower you place the vise in the bench, the thicker the end cap will need to be to accommodate the flange adequately. 4" minimum.
For benches less than 4" thick you'll need to shim the under side of the top to move the vise vertically down. If your top is a uniform thickness your shims will be the same thickness (see again, our template for thinner benches.) For example, if your top is 3" thick, your shims need to be 3/4" thick. This places the vise in the same vertical placement as if your top was 4" thick. See illustration. Shims are green.
If my top is 3 7/8" thick, can I just use a 1/8" mortise for the rails and not worry about shims?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jameel. Nice to get confirmation from the Benchcrafted Guru. I'll be making my cavity 1 15/16" deep on my 3 7/8" thick top which should leave me room for 1/8" deep mortises for the rails. Thanks again.
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