Workbench without a vice

[Ttrees]

Nice to have a blank canvas worthy of a bit of elbow grease!

 

[Joschua]

I have been looking through a few videos on workbenches as I need to make one soon and I gave some thought to a viceless bench. I saw the youtube vid from Mike Siemsen here and I found it really interesting. He seems to be able to do most stuff without a vice, and in some cases it looks quicker to do it the way he does it.

I know that there will be a different type of bench needed depending on what you make and how you make it (hand tools vs machines for example) so I'm not looking to start a debate on which setup is best, but it got me wondering what the wise people on here thought about Mike's setup in general?

As I say, I know it's suitability will depend on the 'what' and 'how' as mentioned above, but I'm still interested in general opinions on this setup and if anybody uses something similar and if they ever miss the vice? Or if you did want to start a debate then feel free

Martin

I started with nearly no tools and no workbench. My first bench was built from two beer crates and an old lumber plank. To fix the workpieces, I kneeled or sat on them. Was good enough for the beginning. The best thing I bought was two holdfasts. This changed my woodworking. Many of the possibilities shown in the video can also be used with my roman workbench. So I do have a little experience with that. A lot of things are easy to do especially if you have to change the position of workpieces fast. I enjoy this instead of clamping or screwing a workpiece with a vice. I read a book and watched some videos from Christopher Schwarz to get some ideas about how woodworking happened in earlier times.
In the next few days, I will post a picture of the last roman workbench I built. I am not able to go to the shop at the moment.
The picture here is the book cover from Schwarz.

And the philosophy part at the end (of a workbench): advice is when you add a vice

 

[Joschua]

Some other ideas in this video perhaps
Yes I see Simon does have a vice

Thanks for sharing. I got some new ideas!

 

[thetyreman]

I couldn't do much without a vice personally, however I do use holdfasts, a planing stop in my bench and square dogs, all of which are useful.