A while ago I made one of those vices used for bookbinding which is called a ’lying press’, not because it is used to print articles for the Lügendpresse, whoever that might be, but because it is a press and lies down, in a bench called a tub. There are many drawings, etc, all over the internet. My press is a little different: I used old windowsill ‘mahogany’, and took advantage of the profile to make one side a ‘backing press’ with protruding jaws planed away after a picture I found in an old book somewhere. Nobody seems much to bother with them these days, but it was fun; in fact the whole thing was fun: finished up to a very high degree of accuracy entirely with hand tools, including planing all the timber square with a marvellous 22" wooden smoothing plane.
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