wood holding problem: tapered legs

[overland]

I made some tapered octagonal legs over the weekend. My bench has a face vise but no end vise, and I had a tough time holding the legs to plane them from four-sided to eight-sided, which involves planing down the corners to flats. Any suggestions on how to do it?

[Dennis Puskar]

Could you use a pipe clamp to hold your leg and then put your pipe clamp in a vise ?

[Phil S.]

I had the same problem, but I had a psuedo-tail vise-



a Lee Valley Inset Vise.

I made a V-block to support the leg while I planed the upper face -



You could probably do the same without the tail vise, but with a bit more frustration by just planing against a stop.

[LongLook]

I use one of the rectangular aluminum clamps held in my bench vise. Certainly the pipe clamp works but the rectangular body is less prone to twisting in the bench vise I think. This technique makes it easy to turn the leg to the exact position you need for hand work.

[Arlin Eastman]

Make a V block and then you can do it.

[MarvW]

Here's a vise I use for odd shaped holding... Both jaws will swivel.


Can be purchased here... Vise with swivel jaws.

Stew Mac is a great company to do business with. When I bought mine, it arrived damaged. When contacting them, they immediately sent me a replacement, no questions asked and included an authorization to return the damaged one. No cost for shipping.

I use the vise for so many things. It's not made in the USA and is not precision made. I did some work to it to make the parts less loose fitting. I really like the round crank handle and how easy it is to rotate it as it is mounted to my bench. You could mount it to a thick board and clamp the board in your bench vise so you can adjust the height. The jaws are padded with a layer of polyurethane that is a little flexible so as to not make marks on your work piece.

[overland]

Excellent suggestions all. Thanks.

[Strokes77]

This concept will help with almost any extra workholding you need done.

[rjdankert]

Dennis Puskar said:

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Could you use a pipe clamp to hold your leg and then put your pipe clamp in a vise ?

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Similar to this?

[Strokes77]

rjdankert said:

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[blockquote]Dennis Puskar said:

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Could you use a pipe clamp to hold your leg and then put your pipe clamp in a vise ?

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Similar to this?

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[/blockquote]

Sure, but using the face vise would eliminate the need for the wooden clamp and the C clamp... But same concept. It's a game changer in my opinion...