I've decided that to hold boards the long ways on the bench (say for a bookcase or dresser, the long tall sides) a wagon vise would be nice. This guide has a bit of info: Lumberjocks -- wagon vise
I didn't quite know if just having the face of the vise against the 'wagon' (the moving bit) would be enough so I thought I'd try a thought experiment with capturing the head piece. Here is the head piece:
And a quick picture of how it attaches to the vise. Basically, the screw turns in the near of the two black pieces, which is held still in the end of the bench. This then moves the handle and the little black piece towards and away from the center of the bench.
And these are my ideas about capturing. Drilled a hole through a board, and then hollowed out a place for the screw using a chisle. Then drilled from the side to the center so that a screw driver can work the screw that keeps the end from just slipping out the black piece.
I also used a chisel to clear a bit of space for the end to rest gently against the block of wood.
At the end of the day, I decided that this is just too complicated to work well. Worst of all, if anything goes wrong with this wagon it'll be basically impossible to repair without serious headaches. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
