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The two frame rails were planed down to 7/8” and cut to make the overall width of the frame 17”. I deepened the mortise for the lower rail over the original design to produce two feet less likely to rock on a patch of wet shavings than if the entire length of the rail was in contact with the floor.
The rails were positioned for the horse to mount cleanly in any bench vise or Workmate.
I enlarged the vise jaws to 5 ½ X 30 X ¾”, and kerfed the frame to accommodate my largest saws. The jaws have to remain true, and the wider the board, the greater the chance for warp. My hardest wood for this application is Pacific Madrone, not the most stable wood, so I kept them narrow and kerfed the uprights to take a 7 ½”-wide saw. An alternative is to make wider jaws, each laid up from three narrow boards, flipping the end-grain cups to make a more stable jaw than one got out of one board.
The inner faces of the vise jaws in both designs must be beveled or coved so only the top inch or so of the jaws bear on the saw. Such tapering leaves insufficient thread depth for the wood screws mounting the hinges to the hinged jaw, so I used machine screws instead. I used flat-headed lags in oversize holes rather than wood screws to mount the fixed jaw, so as to provide some minor adjustment to align the two jaws.
When not on the road in a tool roll, I store my files and spares in a lead-weighted block to prevent confusion and keep them from touching each other, but I like a small bin on the horse for the jointer and saw sets.
A few drain holes in the bin are useful to brush out file shavings or water, and the inside face is a handy spot for notes on file sizes that won’t get rubbed off. I also mounted the mahogany faces of the bin using large, round-headed box pins to provide some texture for wood or leather bench vise jaws to grip. All faying surfaces were bedded in oil-based bedding compound for outdoor use and the horse given several coats of spar varnish.
Finally, I like to scribe my usual fleam angle into the vise jaws to keep me straight. October, 2007
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