I had always been a fan of wood screw vises and most of my later benches had Lake Erie wood screw vises with pinned guides until my last build. On it I used a BenchCrafted metal screw with the 14" crisscross. While the wood screw vises work well the the BenchCrafted screw with crisscross takes the vise to another level. So much so the benches with wood screws get little love or use in the shop.
I've had a BenchCrafted screw and 14" crisscross stored for a couple of years, the planned bench build hasn't happened and isn't likely to happen anytime soon. The "off" bench has a wood screw vise that works well but once you experience the BC with Crisscross it is hard to go back so two things happen. One, the bench and vise get little use and two, I keep looking at retrofitting a BC vise to the bench. The 14" crisscross needs 17" between the top of the bottom stretcher and bottom of the slab. The bench has 16". I've spent the last couple of years scratching my butt trying to find another inch with no joy.
I may have figured out the answer other than building a new base for the bench:
While it may compromise the stretcher I believe once everything is together it will be strong enough to make no never mind. If I'm wrong there is always the option of building a new base for the bench. BTW, that is the old backer board for the wood screw and guide on top of the stretcher to the right.
My bench building days are likely over, wrangling bench sized hunks of timber by myself is getting to be a problem. I know work smart and all that rot but you can only be so smart, sooner or later you have to pick the parts up. It's a shame, I really enjoy the bench building process but the old body is crying no mass, no mass. This may be my last rodeo.
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