embedding nuts in a work bench

[tablesawtom]

I just sold a work bench in the S@S section of this forum. And I got a question from a person who has purchased some Moxon hardware from me. the question is how do I embed the nuts.

I have been building for 50 years now and I am out of room to build anything more for the house including the kitchen cabinets. The bench is the 4th work bench I have sold. I still have one for myself And I like building work benches. I plan on building and selling more.

First of all I prefer a bench with a shoulder vise, a tail vise and square dog holes.  Round dog holes are much easier to put in, But if one purchases round dogs they are much harder to move up and down and to me a real pain in the behind. If you disagree with me and prefer a different type of top, or vise, or like round dogs, please feel free to do so by writing about it in your own post. This post is about building a moxon vise into the work bench, not adding one after the fact.

I do like a shoulder vise and the vise screw on my present bench I shortened the shoulder vise screw I purchased from Lee Valley by 2 inches. I like to get up close and personal when cutting dovetails. I at my age I find I have to lean over to far when using the shoulder vise. 

Here is a picture of my first moxon vise.

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The things I like about it is I can screw the studs in far enough that only a small length of thread sticks out, ON the other hand it is to big and bulky I have to get clamps out and storing takes up a lot of room

 I can drill a hole the size  of the flats on the nuts and chisel out the rest so I can insert the nut. I dowel the board onto the rest of the top  and the board that goes on after to my holes will line up. I drill a hole the rest of the way into the bench so I can thread to screw in as far as I want.  The length of the tread sticking out should be adjustable, The first picture is from a different bench

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I use 3 nuts One in the middle so it becomes a vise for a vise up to 12 inches wide. The key comes out and moved over to the position for a 24 inch wide vise. That way the chop needs only to be 1 inch thick and not thicker. The bench backs up the back jaw and it only needs to be 1 inch also.

The next ting it to find the right height for sawing. I like my elbow to be at 90 degrees. The keys peel the board being cut in the correct orientation for cutting. I like standing when cutting. If you like setting then find the height when setting. The floor may not be level so the bench top may not be level but the top of the rear jaw was planed lever before the keys were cut.

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And a finished vise.

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And one last thing to plan for, hold fasts.

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I hope I have answered the persons question. If not let me know

Tom

[tablesawtom]

Wood makes steel rust rather quickly so I paint the outside of nuts first. I put very little oil on the threads and they come out of the bench when removing the vise its self.

Tom

[Hank Knight]

That looks familiar. I used stainless steel T track nuts. They have stopped threads to keep fixture hold down bolts from damaging machine tables, so I had to cut the threads all the way through with a tap before I glued them into my workbench top. I have two sets of imbedded nuts, one for a long vice/clamp chop (34") and one for a shorter one (about 18"). I have found the set-up to be very handy for attaching fixtures and clamping wide panels to the front of my bench.