Stupid question about positioning a vice

[Boxer]

OK .... definitely a newbie question here.
I have started building a bench and something is puzzling me.
On all the woodwork bench designs the vice is positioned next to the left hand leg.
However to my way of thinking it would make as much sense to have the vice over the right end leg so that you could use it to hold a board and cross cut it over the void beyond the end of the bench. That way you don't cut your bench up.
So what are the practical reasons for having the vice on the left side ?

Cheers
Chris

 

[marcros]

For the opposite reason that you state- for ripping and so if you have a long board to enable you to clamp the other end to the front of your bench.

Often benches have 2 vices- a face vice and a tail vice, the latter in your suggested position.

 

[barkwindjammer]

The vice is positioned at the left for right handed folks, so that when you clamp a long length for edge planing your planing toward the vice, the right hand side can be supported by a clamp to the apron (or holdfasts ), if fitting an apron its advantagous to make it flush with the inner cheek of the vice, for cross cutting pieces to length a bench hook is used anywhere along the length of the bench.

 

[Jacob]

....
However to my way of thinking it would make as much sense to have the vice over the right end leg so that you could use it to hold a board and cross cut it over the void beyond the end of the bench. That way you don't cut your bench up.
.....

What you'd do (on a left sided vice) is turn the board around the other way. :roll:
But you wouldn't normally be crosscutting in a vice anyway - bench hooks are better, or bigger stuff over saw stools.

 

[barkwindjammer]

There's also an ergonomic reason, if your right handed its much easier to pick up and place down/swap tools to your right, if there's a void there you have to bend down to pick stuff off the floor

 

[carlb40]

I have often thought the same. With my limited space in my shop, the tail end of the bench is always close to a wall. So i end up working on the left half of the bench, where the front mounted vice often gets in my way.
I have been tempted to build a left hand bench to see how it fairs with being used by a right handed person :-k

 

[Boxer]

Aha a lot of this makes sense .......... just picking up on some points

For the opposite reason that you state- for ripping and so if you have a long board to enable you to clamp the other end to the front of your bench.

Often benches have 2 vices- a face vice and a tail vice, the latter in your suggested position.

OK .... so if I do most of my ripping on a table saw or bandsaw then is there less reason to have the vice on the left ?

What you'd do (on a left sided vice) is turn the board around the other way. :roll:
But you wouldn't normally be crosscutting in a vice anyway - bench hooks are better, or bigger stuff over saw stools.

If I had more space in my workshop I would be able to turn the board round ...... but I dont.
If you had the bench hook clamped into a vice then wouldnt it be more stable ?

 

[Dangermouse]

It doesn't make a jot of difference. I have used benches with vices at different ends, at the moment one of my benches has a vice at the left end of the bench and I am right handed. Don't make a damn bit of difference. Just tradition and woodworking myth is all the stuff said about it.