Tail vise install, excavating a deep cavity

[Jeremy German]

I'm considering shortcutting the bench building process by buying the top from Highland (http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/maple-workbench-top-pair-12-4.aspx).

 

To install the Benchcrafted tail vise I'll need to excavate a deep cavity, or two if you want to think of it that way, one all the way through and the other partway. Partway should be no issue, Benchrafted demonstrates routing that out on their site. 

 

The through part is effectively a mortise with an open end, I'm not quite sure how to remove that material from a 4" slab. Rout halfway then flip it over and try to line it up to rout the rest?

 

Any suggestions?

 

 

Maybe I should sell the vises and buy a Lie Nielsen bench (the only one I've found that I liked, though options on buying a bench seem limited) if this is going to be a huge pain in the ass.

[Tpt life]

If you rout, make your pattern so large that it references on two sides and a corner of the slab.

What about ripping the slab in two? You would have a single glue joint but would still have saved hours of other glue up and prep time. If you rip the one rip edge can be a reference for setting the hardware parallel.

What about drilling the corners and then sawing and cleaning with chisels? The tricky part is getting a "plumb" drill hole to start.

[Jfitz]

>> Rout halfway then flip it over and try to line it up to rout the rest?

 

That is how I'd try to do it.  Use a template and a pattern bit to start it on one side; then you can use the pattern bit against the walls of the mortise itself to keep going deeper.  Then flip it open and use a another bit (bearing on the bottom of the bit), using the walls of the mortise as a guide.