Veritas Twin Screw Vise Review and Installation Notes

As the Sawmill Shop has grown, the need for a proper traditional workbench has arisen. The workbenches we used before building this one are nothing special, and I was desperately lacking a good vise. This started with a white oak frame, using wood from this article.

I was going off loose plans which took inspiration from various traditional workbench designs. I did however decide to keep things simple. Partly because workbench design has been perfected over the past few thousand years, and partly because it's very hard to build something accurately on the ground. (Maybe the next workbench build will be fancier!)

The heart of the workbench is the vise, and I knew this should be a "no expense spared" endeavor. I ended up going for a Veritas Twin Screw. The main reason for this is that I wanted things to be extremely stable, and the capacity was a big plus. It was about 3x the cost of the rest of the bench at $300, but I think it will be well worth the investment. 

Installation of this vise can be a bit tricky, and I found the instructions sorely lacking. The best way I can describe it is that the two square metal threaded pieces are what mainly hold the vise to the bench and align it. These should be secured to thick wood, near the front of the bench. The rest of the screw doesn't matter too much, but a hole drilled for the screw to go within wouldn't hurt. The instructions even say this can help for when the vise is fully extended. They do not have to be at the same depth as each other. 

Another plus of this vise is the custom width. I went for about 20in, and it's been great to put a board between the screws and have it secure for anything I could want to do. 

So far the vise has worked well. There was a bit of fine tuning as far as the chain was concerned. My only real gripe is that it is pretty hard to turn compared to single screw vises. Perhaps this is something I did, or just the nature of the vise, but it hasn't prevented me from using it at all. I will update this review periodically with how the vise is doing. I expect it will need fine tuning from time to time, so if that isn't an issue I would recommend it for someone building a workbench who wants a serious vise to go with it. 

 A few more tips for the bench, for the vise, the block you use for the outer jaw can be a bit proud of the bench and sized later. Same for the top, make it larger and use a flush trim router bit to even it with the sides of the bench.