5
Veritas
®
Front Vise
Jaw Size & Placement
For strength, vise jaws should be made of a close-grained
hardwood such as maple or birch.
Jaw Thickness
•
The minimum recommended wooden jaw thickness is 1
5
/
8
"
.
This ensures the jaws are securely mounted and allows
3
/
4
"
dia. vertical dog holes to be drilled in the front jaw.
Jaw Length
•
Across the flat face of the carriage, scribe a reference
line between the guide rods and parallel to them. Note
that the lead screw for the Large Vise is off center.
Measure over 4
"
from the straight side for the Large Vise
(70G08.02) carriage and over 3
9
/
16
"
for the Regular Vise
(70G08.01) carriage. Continue to scribe this line up the
front and rear of the carriage.
•
With the bench placed upside down, roughly position
the vise carriage on the underside of the bench where
you would like it to go (see
Figure 6
). It is common to
place the vise near a corner so that one end of the jaws
will be flush with the end of the bench. This allows for
crosscutting a clamped workpiece without interfering
with the bench. Check for interference of the carriage
mounting holes, the guide rods and the lead screw
with any dog holes or the placement of the bench leg.
Transfer the center line of the carriage onto the bench
to determine the length of the jaws. A good length for
the Regular Front Vise (70G08.01) is 12
"
to 15
"
. For the
Large Front Vise (70G08.02), it may be up to 18
"
long.
Racking problems may be experienced if jaws are longer
than 18
"
(see
Vise Racking
).
Note:
One situation where you may want to make the jaws
longer is for a full-width end vise. On benches up to 24" deep,
you can place the vise at the end of the bench. With this set-up,
your jaws can be as long as your bench is deep. This set-up
offers a long clamping surface and, with rows of
3
/
4
" dia. bench
dog holes in the bench top and front jaw, it also provides a
clamping capacity between bench dogs that is nearly equal to
the length of your bench, plus the vise’s clamping capacity.
Jaw Height
•
To determine the minimum jaw height (or composite jaw
height if your situation is as per
Figure 2)
and resultant
throat depth without the use of a spacer, refer to
Figure 5
and complete
Table 1
(in pencil). As with any vise, the
closer the work can be clamped to the lead screw, the
less stress is placed on all its parts. However, the vise is
strong enough to withstand a deeper throat. If you wish to
increase the throat depth, a spacer may be added between
the carriage and underside of your bench top. This will
increase your throat depth accordingly. An optimum
throat depth is 3
"
to 4
"
. Adjust your entries until you are
satisfied with the throat depth and jaw height.
Note:
If your jaw confi guration matches that of
Figure 2
,
your rear
half
jaw height will be equal to the calculated jaw
height less your bench top thickness.
Figure 5: Vise capacity and throat.
Figure 6: Positioning carriage to determine jaw length.
A
(1
1
/
2
"
Min.)
B
Workbench Top (Slab)
Spacer
Carriage
C
D
Capacity
Throat
Align Carriage Flush to Edge of Bench
Leg
Center Line
Cr
oss Br
acing
Dog Hole
1
/
2
Jaw Length
1
/
2
Jaw Length
Jaw Length = 18
"
Max.
