My wife commented that most of what I build seems to have to do with my workbench. I suppose that’s a valid casual observation. Just two years ago I finished up what was supposed to be the ultimate, impossible to beat, best bench in the world. And it was! Then, I ordered and put together a moxon vise (which to my wife’s eye, is just another part of the bench). Now I’ve got the bench pulled apart to retrofit the benchcrafted criss-cross. Neccesary? No. But neither were those holdfasts from lie-nielsen.
While I’m not totally done yet, I’m 90% there. Just need to shape the chop and put a finish on it. The install went really well, and was pretty easy. One thing that made it much easier was ordering a 1/2” end mill roughing bit for my router. Jameel talked about these here. I didn’t order the exact one he talked about because I like to order everything off amazon. I’ve got this one, and I have to say it really worked well.
I hope there’s no downside to using a rather large chop.. This one is a full 10” wide and 3” thick. I’m not sure how heavy it is, but it is HEAVY.
And a picture with the handwheel attached. This thing is pretty smooth, just as smooth as the glide w/roller brackets.
One slight detail for people retrofitting this to their existing bench built from benchcrafted plans.. That mortise in your bench leg runs right through the knock down hardware. Benchcrafted offered some solutions, like doubling the width of your front rail and moving that nut back, but that seemed like way too much work. Plus, I’ve never take the bench apart anyways (and I have moved shops). So I just pulled the bolt out and put a couple pegs in.
Works pretty well! I’ll post some more pictures when done. I’m also almost done with this piece (finally).
Pretty excited!
– Matt