Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw

The end vise is a 13 1/2" wide 8/4 beech board ripped up the middle to show bookmatched grain along the top. One of the halves was dovetailed into my top frame, and the other half tapered and drilled for dog holes.

I built in a pencil sharpener, an idea I hope will save me a minute a day for the rest of my career. Searching online led me to KUM brand sharpeners, when I saw the beech model I knew I had it. I got mine from pencilthings.com, and was treated very well.




To inlay it I used cyanoacrylate glue to tack it in place. I then outlined it thoroughly with a knife. A sharp blow knocked it off again, and a chisel was used to define the border. I used a small straight cutter in a laminate trimmer to hollow out a space as close to the outline as I dared. A chisel cleaned up the recess, and a sharp brad point drill made the access hole.



The tail vise is a modified Veritas Twin Screw.






The two screws are linked by a length of chain. The only part about the Twin Screw I don't like is the twin handles. The unused handle bangs around, and when your screws are as close together as mine are, they interfere with each other.

I set the vise up as per instruction, and it worked great. One at a time I backed out the setscrews in the slave screws sprocket, drilled a shallow hole in the shaft, then deeply reseated the setscrews. I then removed the springpin in the handle yolk, and cut off the protruding shaft.

Now I have only one handle, and when I pull the pin the left screw stops turning. I wanted a tail vise the full width of my bench, but the tool tray prevented me from putting a screw close to the back rail. Putting the master screw next to the tool tray makes it act like a horizontal leg vise when clamping stock to the right of it.

A custom cover was made to cover the chainworks from 8/4 steamed beech with light curl.



I like to clamp between the screws, dovetailing there is perfect. I inlayed ebony guides for slopes 1:5 and 1:8, it's a quick reference for my bevel gauge or to align my stock for sawing.



The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs