Started my workbench!

[cpowell]

I took a big step toward finishing the bench yesterday. I found a guy on sawmillcreek who had bought the BenchCrafted kit but never installed it. It should be in the mail very soon .

That solves my vise dilemma and the plans should help me finalize on some of the jointery aspects. Stay tuned for pictures of very nice vise hardware .
Salem

Wow, talk about an understated drive-by gloat. That is incredible!

I have lusted after the tail vise for a long time. Man, I'm happy for you. :gar-Bi


Chuck

 

[eyekode]

As I hinted in my last post I came across a deal on the sweetest bench hardware made. <Cue the music> Bow chicka wow-wow!!!

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I know it looks like I use a very small tape measure but it is an optical illusion caused by the larger than life nut used on the leg vise .

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Pictures cannot do this hardware justice. It is sweet in every way. It is completely overbuilt. My guess is it adds 40lbs to a bench.

I now officially have no excuse. I HAVE to finish this bench!!!

PS: I probably will not use the bench bolts and I now have a spare set of Gramercy holdfasts which will be for sale soon.

Salem

 

[cpowell]

OH, go ahead and GLOAT away!!

Man that's some kinda nice stuff you got there.

I really like my Grammercy holdfasts a lot. Are you planning on keeping one set or not using them at all?


Chuck

 

[eyekode]

Chuck,
I wasn't planning on buying this hardware so I had already picked up a set of Gramercy holdfasts. Now I have two sets. I am not sure if I will actually use more than two holdfasts. I do plan on doing a sliding deadman but I am guessing the screw-type hold downs that LeeValley sells will work better on the deadman.

Re: gloat - this hardware is even more impressive in hand then the images on the web. Really, really nice stuff.

Salem

 

[Bill Clemmons]

That looks like some really sweet hardware. Now I'm dying to see the finished bench. :eusa_danc

Bill

 

[bluedawg76]

awesome find. i love the wagon wheel design!

as for the holdfasts, mine work surprisingly well in a sliding deadman considering it's thickness is only 1 3/8" and I'm clamping 3/4 boards. that's assuming the board is also clamped in line with a face/ leg vise.

fyi: check your holdfasts for the best hold. I have 2 and one has a death-like grip and the other doesn't. it holds, but can and does come loose (this is after sanding the shaft as recommended).

Sam

 

[eyekode]

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a shot before I sell my extra pair.
Salem

 

[MarkE]

That really is some impressive looking hardware.

Looking forward to seeing this bench completed. Maybe you can bring it to the picnic so we can all drool. :rotflm:

 

[KenOfCary]

I used the BenchCrafted Wagon Vice on my bench, but opted for a wooden screw for the front vice.

I agree that the BenchCrafted hardware is really well engineered. The Wagon Vice took some fiddling to get straight so that it runs smoothly, but was worth the effort. I'm finally making more progress on my bench and should be updating the pics over on that thread soon.

You won't be sorry for choosing the BenchCrafted hardware.

- Ken.

 

[eyekode]

Good to hear! I would love to see more pics! I am sitting in my garage righ now puzzling over the dog strip... I may finish this thing by christmas. Sigh...
Salem

 

[KenOfCary]

You're welcome to come by sometime and look at what I did with mine. Not that it is particularly pretty, or the best way to do things. But I can at least show you what worked and what gave me some fits along the way.

A Whiteside 1073 bit and a good up-spiral router bit are your friends.

- Ken.

 

[eyekode]

Ken,
I would love to see your bench as you are quite a bit further in the process then me.

I did manage to get over my indecision tonight and start the dog hole strip. I used a jig very similar to the one described by Jameel in his FAQ:

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And here is my prototype dog (I know walnut isn't a great choice for the spring ):

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I laid out the location of the legs and dog holes and started roughing them out with a router. But I didn't heed Jameel's advice and blew out the top edge of the first dog hole:

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After that I scribed the line and made sure when routing to move in the correct direction to minimize tear out:

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I also experimented with using a back saw to cut along the edges and use a chisel to remove waste. I must say it was a similar speed as the router and was a heck of a lot less noisy and dusty .

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I didn't finish my 10 dog holes but it is a start. Maybe I will get some more shop time on Thurs?

Salem

 

[eyekode]

Last night I spent some time on the square dog hole strip for my bench. I started out with the router jig I mentioned last time. I used a top bearing pattern bit and successfully routed out one hole. There were a few technical issues though. Make sure your pattern bit can route to the depth you need (note the jig adds 3/4"). And also note that if you don't remove some of the waste to start with the first cut is going to be very deep to get the pattern bearing down to the jig.

All went well for the first hole but on the second hole I somehow ruined my jig:



I think I was going too slow (thanks McRabbet) and pushing too hard because somehow I cut into the pattern.

2 down, 9 to go and no jig. What to do? Since I was not 100% what went wrong and I was tired of wearing hearing protection and a dust mask I decided to finish the work with hand tools.

First I marked out all the edges:


I thought about using a marking gauge to mark the depth of the holes but instead I used my router plane which worked wonderfully for this.

Next I cut the sides of the holes with a backsaw:


Then I cut some extra kerfs to make it easier to remove the waste:



After the kerfs are cut a large chisel easily removes most of the wood. Only take a little at a time though (< 1/8?) otherwise you may easily blow out the other side:



After the majority of the waste was removed I cut down to the baseline with a chisel. This is in preparation for using a router plane:


Next I cleaned out the majority of the waste and flattened the bottom of the channel using a router plane:



Finally I removed the small remainder of waste with a mortise chisel and cleaned up with a bench chisel and gouge:


I was quite pleased with this flow and the result. The other 9 work great and I estimate it only took 3 or so hours (an hour of which was spent futzing with the jig!).

Hopefully I will get the other side of the dog hole strip laminated tomorrow night but I have to find a piece of suitable wood first.

Then comes a task I am dreading! I wasn't very careful when gluing up the top with respect to the width of the boards. So now I have to rip these monsters to width! I have one side squared with a hand plane but even with good infeed/outfeed support I don't think I can cut these perfectly straight with the table saw.

Wish me luck!
Salem

 

[KenOfCary]

If you don't want to struggle getting that thing fed through the table saw, I have a Festool TS-55 Track Saw and 2 55" sections of track if you want to try to cut it that way. I think your top was only 3" thick so it would go through it with a pass from each side.

Mine being 5" I had to cut 2" from either side and finish the 1" in the middle with a hand saw.

- Ken.

 

[eyekode]

Ken, I will take you up on that offer! Sending my contact info via pm.
Salem

 

[eyekode]

I made some progress last weekend. I laid out the region that needs to be excavated for the tail vise and removed the waste with a router (man that was a mess!):

Next I laid out the tenon for the end cap of the tail vise:

I cut this with a back saw. For the short shoulders I removed the waste with the backsaw. With the wide shoulder I used a chisel:

It was a bear to cut those wide shoulders. Couldn't figure out the right angle to get on the work piece. It is too big to stand up of course. So I cut close to the line and used a router plane to true it up:

For size reference the tenon is 4 1/2"x1.25x1 (WxLxH). I thought it looked great but when I cut the matching mortise I have quite a gap on the top of the bench. I thought the shoulders looked good but I will have to check again.

I also completed the dog hole strip, glued it to the bench and flattened it. Here is a picture of gluing the 3/8" strip to the dog hole strip:

And finally a picture of gluing the completed dog hole strip to the workbench top:

Hopefully I will get some time this weekend and finish installing the vise. I still have to fit the end cap, drill it for the vise screw and other hardware, build up the thickness to 4" for the vise runners, cut the dovetail for the front rail and finish the moving dog block.

And thanks to KenOfCary for swinging by and also letting me go by his place and check out his workbench build!
PS: for those following my saga of not being able to embed images with the

button it is still not working. These I just copy/pasted the link using the

button.
Salem

 

[MarkE]

Moving right along. Looks good. :icon_thum

 

[KenOfCary]

Your excavation for the traveler vise looks a lot better / cleaner than mine.

I'm making progress on the Mortise and Tenons for the cross pieces and the front vice. I'll have to update my thread after this weekend. Hope to be close to glue-up of the leg assembly. Need to run by Woodcraft first and get a 2-5/8" Forstner bit for the front vice screw clearance hole.

- Ken.

 

[eyekode]

Wow that is quite a big hole. Does it need to be a tight fit? If not you could drill 5 or more smaller holes in a circle and then clear the waste. I think I remember a Christopher Schwarz blog entry detailing how he did his clearance hole for the wooden screw on the Roubo he made last year.
Salem

 

[KenOfCary]

The wooden screw is 2-1/2" in diameter and this will be the clearance hole in both the leg and the vice chop so it needs to be a tad larger. The screw then engages in a block attached to the back of the front leg.

In the book and video Chris does indeed drill 6 smaller holes and chisel out between them making a hexagon shaped hole which would work just fine, but I figured a single hole large enough would be easier and cleaner since I need to make 2 of them. My chisel work never looks as clean as Chis' (a matter of practice makes perfect I suspect) so the single hole will look better on the inside of the vice where it can be seen. The outside face of the chop will have a brass plate covering it.

I'll post some more pics of progress after this weekend. I finished the mortises on the legs and am working on the tenons on the cross-pieces.

- Ken.