♪♪ One of the best things about woodworking is that workshops come in all shapes and sizes.

Some of us have large freestanding buildings or like my garage shop in the back of my two-car garage.

And along with that come unique challenges and aspects of woodworking that go along with it.

And the great part is, is that you can come up with a lot of those solutions and build them yourself.

So on today's episode of "The Woodsmith Shop," we're tackling two great make-it-yourself shop solutions.

We're starting off with Logan building this benchtop bench.

What I like about it is that it brings your work up to a more manageable level.

You're not hunched down over a workbench and that can come in really handy, whether you're sawing pieces for joinery, working with your router, or carving on a surface up on top.

Then, Chris is going to build a really large scale, deep-reach clamp.

Now, these guys can be pretty expensive if you want to purchase them, but you can make them yourself for a small investment in the hardware and the wood that you need to make your own, and you'll find that the process is pretty fun and you're going to learn a lot of woodworking skills along the way.

If you're ready to tackle some custom solutions for your workbench, you can follow along with us.

The plans are at our web site, WoodsmithShop.com.

Let's get started.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glue -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ So the workbench is probably one of your most-used clamping devices in the shop, even though you might not think of it as such.

It's used to clamp and hold workpieces as you're doing some work.

But we can get a little bit more out of our workbench by adding an auxiliary vise.

In this instance, this is called a Moxon vise.

Now, a Moxon vise is really designed to help you bring some work up a little bit higher and hold wide boards if you're doing something like dovetailing.

This one's a little bit different, however.

Some Moxon devices are simply a front jaw and a rear jaw and they clamp to the bench.

This design is a little bit more.

It's more of a mini workbench that fits on top of your workbench.

We have a series of dogholes that help you hold work if you're working on faces.

And then, these threaded rods move in this front jaw, and that's so you can clamp work if you're doing dovetailing.

Now, here, I've already cut a bunch of the parts for this Moxon vise.

Looking at it, we have a case that's dovetailed, and the dovetails on this are a little bit different.

They're proud, but we'll talk about that in a minute.

The parts really start with the sides.

The sides have a notch on the lower front edge, and that's to hold a clamping cleat.

Now, creating that notch is easy.

I did that at the table saw with a dado blade.

First thing I did is set up a stopblock on the miter gauge to set the location of that notch.

After notching both the left- and right-hand side, I removed that stopblock and then nibbled away the rest of the waste.

And that fits over top of this clamping cleat nicely.

Next we have to tackle these handholds.

Those are notches in the two sides and in the back.

And once you put the top on, you'll be thankful for those handholds because you can reach in, grab it, and move it around your shop.

Creating those handholds starts over at the drill press.

I first defined that lower radius with the drill bit clear through the workpiece.

Then, I headed over to the band saw and we're going to cut away the waste.

First, I cut in from the top edge, and then I went ahead and notched out a little bit of that material so I could spin the workpiece on the blade and then create that long cut to remove the majority of the waste.

Then we have to clean that up.

The band saw leaves a little bit of a rough shape.

So then I went over to the router table and smoothed out that bottom, and I did that by equipping a large straight bit and then using the fence to guide the workpiece.

That blends in that radius from the corner to that flat bottom of the handhold.

Then, the edges are simply sanded with a drum sander and the drill press.

And that gives us a really nice finished surface here.

So after I was done at the router table, we have to take care of the short little sides of these handholds.

And to do that, I simply struck a line with my marking knife.

Then I use the chisel to pare away the waste.

Then, if there's any sanding left to do, you can do at the drill press with a drum sander.

So that leaves our sides and our back done.

And then we have this front chop.

Now, I have a couple of holes in here.

I'm not going to worry about those right now.

Up next is dovetailing, and dovetailing is a little different on these.

First, the sides have a rabbet where they meet the back and that front chop.

Creating that rabbet is done at the table saw, again with a dado blade.

What that's going to do is that's going to allow those parts to really register together even after they've been dovetailed.

Then it's time to get a little bit of handwork done.

I start by cutting the tails.

I'm a tails first kind of guy, and that's just how I roll.

So I went ahead and laid those out and then you use a pull saw and a dovetail guide to cut those down to the baseline.

And I mark that baseline with a marking knife around all my workpieces.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, these dovetails are proud.

So it's not the same thickness of baseline on all the parts.

So you'll need to either set up two different marking knives or go ahead and mark all your parts and then adjust your marking gauge.

But after cutting the tails, then it's time to cut away the waste.

And I do that with a coping saw or a fretsaw and saw that away.

And that leaves me the baseline with a little bit of waste on it.

Then it's just a matter of chiseling away that waste right down on the baseline.

But as you're chiseling, you want to do that carefully.

You want to only chisel away a little bit of material at a time and really sneak up on that baseline before dropping your chisel in that marking knife line and cutting all the way through.

And you do that because, if you take too big of a bite, the wedge shape of the chisel bevel will actually push your chisel past that baseline, and then you'll end up with sloppy-looking dovetails.

So just take little bites, and on your final pass, just take away 1/16 of an inch of material, and that'll be perfect.

After the tails are done, it's time to mark out the pins.

And to do that, I simply registered the front and the back against those shoulders on the sides.

Then I can use a marking knife or a pencil and trace the shape of the tails on to the front and back.

Then it's pretty much the same process, cutting straight down to cut the pins, removing the waste with a coping saw, and then chiseling down to the baseline.

Now there's a little bit of work left to do on this front chop after the dovetails are done.

The hardware to the Moxon vise is a pair of these guys.

These are threaded handwheels on an Acme rod, and there's two steel nuts and a washer on there.

What this handwheel is going to do is it's going to move that front chop in and out and it's going to really help you apply a lot of force with minimal effort on wherever your workpiece is.

Now, because we don't want the nuts to be proud of that front chop, we want them recessed.

We need to create an octagon hole or a hexagon hole.

To do that, I went over the drill press, and I laid out where those holes are going to be for this threaded rod.

I started by drilling a counterbore that's the same diameter as these nuts.

And then, I went ahead and swapped out my drill bit and drilled the through hole for that Acme rod.

Then, back here at the bench, you can go ahead and chisel those corners out after tracing that nut around the hole, and then you'll find it's a pretty good fit.

If it's a little tight, that's okay.

Once we assemble everything, you'll be able to pull it down with the nut that sits on the inside of that chop.

So that leaves us at this point, I have all my parts cut.

I have a front chop that's been cut, but I don't have the holes in it yet.

I'm going to wait till everything's glued up, trim it to size, and then I'll drill the holes in the front chop.

I also have a top ready.

The top's cut to size, and I haven't drilled any dogholes in it yet.

I want to get everything assembled first, see where everything lays, and then decide if I do want to drill dogholes or not in this.

So at this point, I think I can go ahead and grab some glue and get this glued up.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Okay.

There we go.

Now, once this glue is dry, I'll go ahead and give it a sand, apply finish, and then we'll add the top.

Now, there's nothing like a good paste wax to really protect a project before you put it into use in your shop.

Now, over the last couple of weeks, I've added several coats of oil to this Moxon vise using a Danish oil.

And allowing a couple of days in between cures really allows it to soak in, penetrate, and build up a nice protective finish.

Now, even though this is a shop fixture, we want to make sure that if we get glue on it and stuff like that, it doesn't stick.

Now, at this point, we can go ahead and assemble it.

So the first thing we need to do is remove the top and add the Moxon hardware.

Once we get the top attached, it's going to be hard to reach the backside of it.

So let's go ahead and install it now.

That starts with the threaded rods.

We're going to insert those through the front, and that front nut is then going to sit in that recess we chopped in that front chop.

I'll tap it on it.

There we go.

And now, that back nut goes into place.

And we'll snug that down.

So now we have to attach the top.

Now, in the plans, the top was attached using some shop-made wooden toggles.

Those toggles would fit on the inside in a slot and then screw into the top, but what I'm going to use here are these figure eight fasteners.

Now, these are designed to allow the top to expand and contract as the humidity changes, and they're super simple to install.

That's why I like to use them.

So I'm going to drill a shallow hole that slightly hangs off the edge.

I'm going to drill it to the depth of the thickness of this figure eight fastener.

And then, this guy will get screwed down to the base, and then a screw will get screwed up into the top.

Okay.

Here we go.

So now that top's installed, we can go in and install the chop.

Now, the chop, I simply went ahead and drilled a couple of holes side by side to make some slots, and that's going to fit over those threaded rods.

And that's just going to allow us a little bit of racking movement in case we're trying to clamp something that isn't perfectly parallel.

So that slides in place.

And then, the handwheels get threaded on.

Now the only thing that's left to do is go ahead and install a liner in the jaws.

This is just a rubberized cork, but regular cork works, as well.

I'm gonna go ahead and let this finish cure a few more days before I apply it.

One type of clamp that every shop has got to have is a deep-reach clamp.

You don't use them often, but when you do, hey, they're the most wonderful thing ever.

Because every once in a while, you've got to glue up where you've got to reach in 10, 12 inches, and what are you going to use?

Cinder blocks?

That sort of thing helps a little bit, but you really need a good, dedicated, deep-reach clamp.

And that's what we're going to build today.

So I've got a little bit of maple here.

You just need a good tight-grained hardwood.

And there's a couple of parts.

There's a bar, which we have here.

There's going to be a fixed foot and an adjustable one.

And that's about all there is to it.

It's a great shop project, doesn't take too long, and you're going to be thankful you have it.

So what I have here is an oversized blank for the bar.

The bar being the back of the clamp.

The spine will have a fixed foot.

And of course, our movable foot.

The movable foot needs to be able to lock in place so we can adjust to different thicknesses of material.

So the way we're going to do that is with a simple indexing system using a dowel which engages a scalloped hole, and we're going to make that scalloped hole by going to the drill press and we're going to drill a series of half-inch holes.

Then we're going to go to our table saw and we're going to actually rip a portion of this piece off so that we'll have a solid spine with scalloped holes all the way along.

Well, here's our completed bar.

It's 2 1/2 inches wide, 30 inches long, and you can see the scalloped holes there, which will allow the moving portion of our clamp to lock in place.

But what we're interested in right now is going to create the stationary end of the bar clamp.

Now, to make that stationary end, we're going to start by gluing up a package of pieces, and then we'll band saw them to an attractive and finished shape.

So here are the pieces.

We have an outside panel.

We have an upper core, and we have a lower core and another outside piece, and that's all going to be glued up in a package.

So what we need to do now is to go ahead and glue this up in a way that we have our upper and our lower core in just the right place.

Well, what we're going to do is just use a simple spacer during the glue up, and that's going to give us a perfect gap.

So I've got my glue here.

Let's go ahead and start gluing some parts up.

And now we'll take out our spacer, and we should be all set, and we'll let this dry, and then we'll go to the band saw, get it cut to shape.

Our movable jaw is very much like the stationary jaw.

We have two faces, an upper and a lower core.

But a few differences.

So take a look here.

This is the lower core, and you can see that I have a dowel right here.

Now, just like we did with the bar, I drilled a half inch hole, took it over to the table saw, and split off the waste.

So what's with the dowel?

Well, the dowel is what is actually going to engage our bar.

This upper portion of the core has an angle cut into it.

So when it's time to move the jaw, all we need to do is tip the jaw forward.

The bar disengages from the dowel and we can slide the movable jaw.

And we simply tip it back.

The dowel reengages, these scalloped holes and things are locked in place.

It's easy.

It's simple.

With the front and rear jaw blanks glued up, we need to turn our attention to the front jaw blank and deal with the nut that needs to go in there.

And that nut, of course, is going to capture the Acme thread that's going to give us the clamping pressure that we want.

So here we are at the drill press.

I've got my blank clamped to the fence, and I've got 1 1/8-inch, and that bit is going to create a pocket for the Acme nut.

Once I'm done drilling a pocket for the Acme nut, I'll swap bits out, and we're going to do a 5/8 through hole to give some clearance for the Acme thread.

One thing to note is that I've got the back end of the blank wedged up just a little bit because we actually want the Acme thread to drop just a little bit relative to the bar.

And that way, when pressure is applied, it evens out and it's level.

So let's go ahead and drill the hole for the nut, followed by the clearance hole.

Well, now we're ready for the final shaping of both the front and rear jaw, and what that's going to entail is band sawing this sinuous shape.

I'm then going to smooth everything with some sanding.

I'll use a router and round over all the edges, making it smooth to the touch.

And then, we're going to head to the drill press and drill a lot of 1/4-inch holes for the barrel nuts.

With the holes all drilled, now it's time to install the barrel nuts.

I really like these because they bind all the different pieces together and offer a great deal of strength.

And, two, they're bright and shiny and so they kind of look sharp.

You don't have to use them, but I think they look pretty nice.

Well, the next step in making our deep-reach clamp is to deal with the handle and the foot, which will actually bring us the pressure we need on our parts.

So what I have here is a handle that I turned on a lathe.

This tenon is going to go into this ferrule, this piece of steel pipe that I've cut.

It's 1-inch long.

So what I'm going to do now is go ahead and drive the ferrule onto the handle.

I've got a nice, snug fit created.

Now, that's going to create a nice, clean look.

And once we've drilled and epoxied in our Acme rod, we'll go ahead and put a pin all the way through this ferrule, through the rod, through the other side of the ferrule, and flare the ends, and that's going to hold it in tight and forever.

Well, at this point, we've got a lot of parts and it's time to do some epoxying.

So what I need to do is, this Acme rod gets epoxied.

I'm going to apply epoxy up to the tape here, and we'll put it in the handle.

Now, eventually, it's going to get drilled and pinned with this pin.

We also need to take our nut, which I have ground the corners off of for a little easier fit in our 1 1/8 hole.

And we need to epoxy that in place in the movable jaw.

I want to make sure I've got plenty of epoxy filling any of the gaps there, and it looks like I do.

I'm actually just going to let that epoxy set, and then, once it fully cures out, I'll sand that nice and smooth and it'll look neat and clean.

Well, the epoxy is dry, so let's see where we're at.

What we need to do is we need to drill a hole in the ferrule of the handle, and we're going to place a pin through it and then tap that pin in place.

We also are making sure we thread our rod through that nut before we go any further.

We'll need to place the back portion of the foot over the threaded rod, thread this nut on.

We're going to drill a hole through the nut and the threaded rod.

Another pin.

Tap it into place, and then we'll be ready for the final assembly of the foot.

So let's head over to the drill press and drill some holes.

All right.

With the holes drilled, it's time to put the pins in.

First thing, I'm going to go ahead and put the pin in the ferrule, and I'm going to use the anvil of my bench vise.

Tap it in.

And I want it to be extending equal portions on either side.

With that, I'm going to go ahead... start to swell one end.

Rotate it, and keep going back and forth.

And we'll swell out the pin and lock it in place.

And that should do it.

It's not necessary to drive it all the way flush.

We just want to swell the pin out, and it's not going to go anywhere.

So with that done, let's go ahead and put the pin in on the nut.

So, once again, I'm using equal portions extending from the nut, just like we did with the ferrule.

And now we'll drive it home.

Assembling the foot is pretty straightforward.

There's three pieces, a little glue, a few clamps, and we got it.

So let's start by putting a little bit of glue around this ring that we made on the drill press earlier.

And we're going to put that around the nut.

And now I'm going to take this washer and put that in up top here.

And that washer is going to be what the nut actually bears against.

And now we'll go ahead and put a little glue... ...on this cap, and that is going to go on like so.

Well, here's the completed clamp.

I've added my leather pads on each side, cleaned up the foot, and as you can see, the foot swivels nicely on our Acme threaded rod.

We've got lots of space here to adjust the clamp however we need.

There's a slight angle to the rod, so as we clamp securely, it's going to arch back a little bit and things will level out.

It's a strong clamp.

It's a beefy clamp.

It's really going to be handy in your shop.

So think about making a couple.

It's a good project, easy to do, and lots of fun.

One of the best ways to have fun in your workshop is to build something that you're going to use on project after project.

And that's what we tried to cover in today's episode, whether it's Logan's benchtop bench that he worked on or even the large clamp that Chris just got done making.

You know, another great way to personalize your shop is to pick yourself a color scheme.

So, for example, in my shop, a lot of the projects that I've made, rather than leaving them plain, I've painted them a blue color just to make everything fit in a little bit better.

That's what we did on this clamp after Chris got done, painted the heads and the handle and the clamping foot here just so that it stands out a little bit and adds a little visual flair to a project.

You can do the same thing in your shop, and if you're ready to build along with these projects, the plans are at our web site, WoodsmithShop.com.

Don't forget, you'll find all kinds of videos and other project plans and ideas for your shop and for your home.

And you'll even find bonus plans for a miter vise.

We just weren't able to include it into today's episode.

But this project is great for clamping up picture frames or molding and getting those joints nice and tight, whether you're going to nail them or glue them together.

And then we'll see you right back here for another great project in the Woodsmith Shop.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Announcer: If you'd like to get more video tips and techniques, sign up for the free weekly Woodsmith eTip.

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Everything in today's show comes from the newly expanded Woodsmith guild edition, with shop projects, plans, tips, and techniques.

To get a free preview issue of the Woodsmith guild edition and a free Woodsmith book, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

In addition, past seasons of "The Woodsmith Shop" are available on DVD, or you can watch them online from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

For more information, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪