www.KitGuitarsForum.com

A couple of quick jaws made to fit the bench dog holes in my little woodworkers bench. Some turned oak pegs and salvaged cabinet material, then a trip to our somewhat local boat top/upholstery shop. The owner was generous and even gave me a part can of commercial foam adhesive.

Looks great! With the sale of my wife's picture framing business and tools, I am gaining some shop space, but losing some work surfaces, and have a need (and opportunity) to build a proper workbench, so I will be keeping your idea in mind.

I picked up a Black and Decker Workmate that had been set out as trash in my mother's old neighborhood.

Padded with a moving blanket, it makes a pretty good body holding fixture.

Put my workboard on top, it's a convenient bench.

I've been using it quite a bit, since a 3' by 5' hickory table top is occupying my main work bench.
Not bad at all, for free.

I also picked up a workmate when I first started building. I still use it.

Love the holder you made.

I should re-visit the workmate. I won one many years ago at a lumberyard contractor's open house. For several years I had a small drill press sitting on it and de commissioned it when my current drill press arrived. The woodworkers bench is pretty versatile though and the end vise works like the workmate in many ways.

A warning about using a Workmate as a body-holding fixture.

I had read somewhere that a Workmate could be used as a handy body vice, and since I have one I seldom use, it seemed brilliant. So when the time came for me to cut out the neck dovetail with a Dremel, I figured that was the perfect use. So I made clamping cauls to match the shape of both top and back so I wouldn't damage the body and clamped it in place. Keep in mind that the neck end of the body is thinner than the tail, so, in effect, I was clamping a large wedge with the thick end at the bottom.

Well, you've probably guessed by now, the vibration of the Dremel, along with the slight downward pressure caused the whole body to just drop out of the clamp, taking a good ding out of the binding. But being determined that it was a great idea, I tried it again, figuring I just hadn't clamped it hard enough the first time. Wrong...it happened again.

Yeah, I should have used some kind of grippy material on the cauls. The Workmate still sounds like it has great potential, but a warning to others to take more precautions than I did.

Workmate tip that may help avoid such an issue - lay a moving blanket completely over the 'jaws' and what ever caul assembly you're using.
Place/push your guitar body between them and down, then clamp.
The blanket makes a sling, keeping the body from heading towards the floor in the event it gets loose.