The min-bench vise's movable jaw

 

This drawing shows the layout of the front, or moving jaw, of the bench vise. One of the issues I inadvertantly created for myself was one of scale. I outsmarted myself once again. I drew the three construction drawings full size so that anyone wishing to make a similar vise for themselves would not have to fuss around to much. However to load these diagrams into the blog I had to reduce their size in Paint before inserting them in the blog. So one act cancels another. I just tried copying this image and reloading it back into paint to see if I could re-size it back to the original 8-1/2 inches by 11 inches. No luck.

 

The simple truth is that you can position the holes for the screws, bolts, and even the holes for the screw as you wish. The locations I used are somewhat arbitrary, and not based on anything but personal whim. Looking back, it might make sense to lower the height of the holes for the bench screw a little. I didn't leave alot of meat between the top of the threads and the top edge of the rabbet in the back side of the fixed jaw. This is compensated for by the rabbet being lag-bolted up against the bottom of the bench. If you intend to use a larger diameter tap and die set, I would definately drop the height of the hole a little. The main concern in laying out the multiple holes in the blocks that make up the jaw is that you don't cause one screw to interfer with another. One of the iron laws of physics, if there is such a thing as an iron law in physics these days. At least in the reality of my shop, given the multi-verse, you still can't put two things in the same space.