Face Vise Installed (Finally!)

I think I mentioned once before that I am not the world's fastest woodworker.  No?  Well, I'm not the world's fastest woodworker.

Today marked a milestone in my bench build (that I started in a Christopher Schwarz class in June).  I got the face vise installed.

This thing works fantastic.  I saw that Benchcrafted is offering a special on their CrissCross.  I wasn't planning on buying one, but the price is definitely tempting.

This install went well.  I am not sure why it took me so long, other than that there always seems to be something else more important to do.

Now that I have this face vise, I'll have to see how I like my tail vise.  So far I have been unimpressed with the Record-knock off quick release vise I chose.  A bit too sloppy for my taste, but until today it was the only vise I had.  This pressed it into uses in which I didn't intend for it.

You can see in the bottom of the photo my cross pin for this vise.  I was going to take it to the Army woodshop to use the drill press to drill the small 1/8" hole in it to insert the cross piece that acts as a stop for the pin, preventing it from going in to far.  It dawned on me that I have some cheap metal drill bits, and a 3mm one worked nice in my eggbeater drill.  It is a Millers Falls #5, from what I understand was intended as a metal-working eggbeater.  Remembering this inspired me to lock this thing in my new vise and drill a hole in it the old-fashioned way.  It worked great.

I excavated the area for the plastic bushing with my Lie Nielsen router plane.  Does anyone else have this problem with this tool?  It tends to leave ugly black marks on the parts of the workpiece, requiring cleanup afterwards.

Next up, bench-top flattening with my new home-made jointer!