Legs not at full width, an issue with alignment

[Afro Boy]

Hi folks,

 

I'm part way through my build and unfortunately I don't have stock wide enough for the legs. The legs I've made up are around 4" wide. I've only now just noticed an issue ...

 

When I line the base up on the top with the shoulder vise, I notice that my leg vise leg doesn't fall right in the middle of the dog hole strip gap. Wondering what options I might have (aside from building the entire base again!)? 

 

Also, is the narrower legs going to be an issue for the leg vise?

 

Cheers,

Af.

 

[Barron]

Trying to understand the problem, I went out and measured my bench and I believe that with the narrower legs, and assuming you want to keep the "front" leg aligned with the gap for the shoulder vise, you are concerned that the "rear" leg-vise-leg will now block one of the dog holes, assuming you built the stretchers and located your dog holes exactly according to the plans. At least on my bench that's the impact of narrower legs. If that is the concern, I think you can still get an effective mortise for the leg since the tenon is still pretty large on a 4" leg. Losing a dog hole isn't a big deal, and if your top is full thickness you can probably just modify one of the dogs and still use that location. I don't think the narrower leg will impact the vise function, but if you are using Benchcrafted hardware it's worth checking with them. If I misunderstood the problem, please clarify.

[Afro Boy]

Thanks Barron. Yeah it's a bit tricky to explain. Basically because the legs aren't as wide as the plans call for, the long rails I made (to plan size) are slightly too short. I've just gone and made some new rails which now place the legs in their proper positions.

 

Should all be good now me thinks.