Extremism in the Defense of Frugality is no Vise!

 My apologies to Mr. Goldwater...

 In setting up this new shop, I wanted a real wooden bench vise.  That is something I have always dreamed of.  They sell mighty nice hardware sets like this at a very reasonable price:

However, I can't stand to spend money on something so blatantly easy to make for free, so I decided to take a hack saw to an old jack I had lying around.

The work from here on out is basically the same, since you are building the vice itself in either case.  An oak block I had set aside for just such a purpose made the moving jaw.  

Here you see the board that will be the face piece of the work bench lying on the edge of the bench with the vise jaw hanging from the jack hardware. The inch dowels are the only bits that came from the store.  

The bar with a little ball on the end is a piece of an old metal chair that I saw bits off of for this and that.  A few threads cut into the end hold a retaining nut and the whole thing is captive.