Carpentry and Woodworking - Woodworkers vise and the round pegs

I have a woodworkers vice but, to be honest, not sure what the "proper" setup and use is.

I know that it is used in combination with pegs (and Ive seen pictures) but Im not exactly sure how this is supposed to work.

In a recent wood workers magazine I saw at HD, they had a picture on the cover. It was a table (long and thin) with justa vice at the end and the pegs on the table.

Any experienced woodworkers have details on how to setup and use this kind of vice. Id like to set mine up.

What you probably have is a single jaw vice that relies on the setting of pegs at different points along the table to hold the wood in place. Not sure what you need in order to "set it up". Open the jaw, place a peg in a nearby hole then close the jaw to hold the wood.

Check to see if your vice has one or more little tabs that can be extended up above the top edge of the jaws. This provides one end of of what is essentially a large clamp. The bench dogs (pegs) are the anchor for the other end of the workpiece.

Like said the front of the wood vice should have a metal block like that you can push up some. The pegs set into the bench. You set the pegs and the metal block so they are below the wood top edge. this is so you can hand plane the wood down to the edge of it

ok, I see the point of the vice with the metal block and the peg (further down on the table) making what is basically a large clamp. And if the pegs are set lower than the top of the wood it would be perfect for planing and sanding.

What I dont get are a couple of things:

1) Is it only good for sanding and planing? There is no support for the wood in a perpendicular direction to the pegs.

2) The picture I saw was a nice long bench with the vice at the end. But it was thin. Maybe it was 8" wide and 48" long with peg holes running the length. That doesnt seem very sturdy but I guess the vice is intended to be used only when applying pressure into the pegs - never perpendicular to them.

When I said "set up" what I meant was that I have the vice but its not on a table. I thought a fun project would be to make a table like the one i saw the picture of, but I wanted to understand the way this vice is used first.

I see what you are talking about on "setup", now. As you stated, there is no perpendicular security to the peg/clamp position. It is mainly used for routing, sanding, planing, carving, etc. in the long direction.