Workbench project: completed!!!

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update...

The end aprons will not be glued (except at the dovetail joints). They will be bolted to the bench top using bench bolts like these:

These will be in elongated holes to allow for wood movement. The design is intended to allow the top slab to expand & contract all it wants to in that dado that I made in the end aprons. The tenon will keep the top flat.

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Re: Workbench update...

The end aprons will not be glued (except at the dovetail joints). They will be bolted to the bench top using bench bolts like these:

These will be in elongated holes to allow for wood movement. The design is intended to allow the top slab to expand & contract all it wants to in that dado that I made in the end aprons. The tenon will keep the top flat.

Gotcha- I think Schleining did that too. Not gonna be easy to drill the hole for the bolt so it aligns with the hole for the barrel. Can't just take that petite top over to the drill press. :lol::lol: What is your plan for this?

 

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update...

Nah, I'm just gonna lay the drill press down on its side.... that would be easier than moving that top slab!!! :lol:

Seriously, I'll use a hand drill to make the holes, and a jig using a dowel to line up the holes... kind of hard to describe, but a cool little jig. I wanted to work out the spacing and position of the vise hardware before I placed those bolts. Now I think I have that all figured out, and I'll probably drill it out tomorrow.... pics to follow...

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Re: Workbench update...

Nah, I'm just gonna lay the drill press down on its side.... that would be easier than moving that top slab!!! :lol:

Seriously, I'll use a hand drill to make the holes, and a jig using a dowel to line up the holes... kind of hard to describe, but a cool little jig. I wanted to work out the spacing and position of the vise hardware before I placed those bolts. Now I think I have that all figured out, and I'll probably drill it out tomorrow.... pics to follow...

Jigs to the rescue. Nothing like them. :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap Where would Norm and David Marks be without bajillion jigs?!?!

 

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update...

I finished up the aprons tonight by installing the cross-dowel bolts (bench bolts) that will hold the end aprons in place. As I mentioned before, the end aprons will not be glued. The top is supposed to expand and contract in the groove. So the apron has to be attached with bolts in elongated holes. I suppose you could just use lag screws, but you would be driving the screw into end-grain, which lacks strength. That's why I'm using cross-dowel bolts.

First I decided where to place the bolts on the aprons, and I drilled a countersink with a 1" forstner bit and a through hole with a 5/16" bit. I then placed the apron back in position on the bench and used this as a guide to drill a 5/16" hole into the end grain of the bench top. I took my time to make sure I drilled as straight as possible.




Once I had these holes drilled, I took the aprons back off and flipped the bench top over. I then used a simple jig to guide placement of the cross-bore. It's just a scrap piece of wood cut into an "L" shape that holds a 5/16" bolt and a pencil.

The bolt aligns the jig with the hole I drilled, so even if I was not perfectly perpendicular, the pencil would still mark directly over the hole.

When I made that jig, I made sure the bolt and pencil were directly in line with each other by referencing off the drill press fence. The position of the pencil was determined by figuring out exactly where the threads on the end of the bolt would be inside the bench top. To figure that out I pulled my test block out of the trash can and drilled a test hole/countersink just like in the aprons:




I then drilled out the cross-bore by sighting along a square to keep the bit perpendicular (this is the bottom of the benchtop).

The result was right on the money... I used magnets to lower the cross dowel into the hole for testing.

I then took the aprons back off and elongated the holes on the drill press.




The countersink will be plugged with a piece of cherry after final assembly. So... that's basically all that's left to do before starting on the vise hardware. I have my 7" wide vise stock all surfaced and ready to go, thanks to WG allowing me to use his jointer again.

Stay tuned....

 

[woodguy1975]

Re: Workbench update...

So... that's basically all that's left to do before starting on the vise hardware. I have my 7" wide vise stock all surfaced and ready to go, thanks to WG allowing me to use his jointer again.

Stay tuned....

At the cost of a sore finger...

Sorry about that dude.:icon_thum

 

[DaveT]

Re: Workbench update...

Nice work:eusa_clap . Have you determined what finish you will use?

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Re: Workbench update...

The countersink will be plugged with a piece of cherry after final assembly. So... that's basically all that's left to do before starting on the vise hardware. I have my 7" wide vise stock all surfaced and ready to go, thanks to WG allowing me to use his jointer again.

Stay tuned....

Fantastic, really looking good!! I'd insert the plugs dry, without glue in case you want to pop them out to tighten the bolts a tad.

Sent you a PM on another subject.

 

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update...

The finish will likely be the same as I used on the trestle base: General Finishes Seal-A-Cell. I may change my mind though - I want the wood to stay as light in color as possible. Any suggestions?

I may leave the plugs unglued and just see what happens. I can always glue them later. One apron will function as the rear jaw of the twin screw vise, so I can't have any surface irregularity or I risk marring the workpiece.

 

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update...

OK, getting started on the vises now. I jointed/planed the vise jaw stock to make sure they're flat and square. The front vise will have round dog holes, so it was glued up to 3" thickness and will be drilled later.

The end vise stock was not glued up until I decided what to do with the dog holes. I'm using square dogs for the three main rows of dog holes, and those holes were all cut so the dog leans about 3° toward the end vise. That was easy enough to do, but it's a bit more tricky to cut a leaning dog hole in the end vise jaw! Of course, I could just do the simple thing and use round dogs there... nothing wrong with that. But what's the fun in taking the easy way out?!?!? :lol:

To make the dogs lean, I used the dado sled again - this time with a shim to create the angle I needed. I used double-stick tape to attach a thin piece of plywood at the proper distance in front of the fence to create the 3° angle that I needed. The stop block was used for the first cut, and was removed for the other two cuts.

I lined up the other two cuts using pencil marks on the sled.

The blade was raised up to equal the thickness of the dog for the first cut. However, because the dog will protrude into the other face, a shallow dado had to be made in the back face as well. I just lowered the blade down to be even with the shim to make that cut. Hopefully you can see what I mean with these pics:

Then I just marked the location of the brass dog face and chiseled it out:

So there you have it, square dogs on the bench and the end vise that lean toward each other. hopefully I will be able to get the vises installed this weekend.

 

[Travis Porter]

Re: Workbench update...

This is getting out of hand. You are really starting to suck with this bench.

I have a strong suspicion that you will be done with the construction this weekend.

 

[D L Ames]

Re: Workbench update...

Thanks for the update Monty. Your bench is coming along nicely. I really appreciate the way you have documented all of your progress in this one thread. This will make for an excellent reference when I get around to making my bench. And to think, this all started with your 2006 New Year's resolution to get started on your bench.

D L

 

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update... "vise squad"!!!

Got the vises on this weekend. I'm surprised I got it done considering I didn't have a lot of dedicated shop time.

The front vise is a quick-release vise. I installed it initially just like Kieth Rucker showed on his web site (except I didn't need a spacer block). He described drilling the guide rod holes through the jaw using a bit that is the exact diameter as the guide rods. However, mine were a few thousandths oversized compared to my forstner bit, and it took some pounding to get the jaw on. When I finished, the quick-release was anything but "quick"... :eusa_doh: so I took it back apart and re-drilled those holes 1/8" oversized. Now all is smooth as silk!

The twin-screw vise is just plain massive. It's hard to appreciate in pictures just how big this thing is with a 27" long x 7" wide x 3" thick jaw. It was a bit of a chore to put together, but I think it will be well worth the effort.

I made mine 18" on center instead of the standard 16-7/8" OC. This way I have more clearance between the screws - I can clamp up to a 16" wide panel between the screws. Since I bought the standard kit (not the 24" kit), the Veritas vanity cover plate won't fit, so I'll make one. I'm not quite done with fine tuning this vise yet - it's still a little too tight, and I'm going to have to figure out why. There is a nice looking troubleshooting algorithm in the back of the Veritas instructions, but I'm just too dang tired to think about that right now.

I didn't take a lot of pics of the process, since I was short on time... vise installation is well documented anyway. Keith Rucker's site shows the steps involved for the face vise (except I would over-size the guide rod holes like I mentioned above), and the Veritas instructions are thorough and easy to understand. I will take some more detail pics as I finish things up...

 

[woodguy1975]

Re: Workbench update... "vise squad"!!!

Awsome Dude!

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Re: Workbench update... "vise squad"!!!

Monty- does or will the the jaw face on the end vise slope towards the table top? I know they sometimes slope the face on smaller vises (3 deg?) and was wondering if that is ever done on end vises. It would have made cutting your square dog holes easier.

Great work. You'll be ready for finish soon. It will be a shame to actually "work" on that bench and chance dinging it up!:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap I wish I didn't have so many other things to do- I would really like to start on my bench.

 

[Monty]

Re: Workbench update... "vise squad"!!!

There is about a 2-3° angle on the face of both vises - that is, the top edge contacts the apron while there is still about 1/16" gap at the bottom. Another fraction of a turn on the handle brings the face flat. Cutting that bevel (and the thumbnail profiles) was the very last thing I did to the vise jaws before mounting them - it is extremely important to have perfectly flat/square stock to do the marking and drilling. If I had made the dog holes at 90°, then I would have had to tilt the jaw stock up on a wedge on the drill press to drill for the vises, and I didn't want to do that. It was actually pretty easy to make the dogs lean on the dado sled. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Wilmingtonian]

Re: Workbench update... "vise squad"!!!

Still looking great! This must be a record for the largest thread!!

 

[Monty]

Re: The Workbench ..... WORKS!!!

OK... back on the workbench project. I've been pretty busy with my "day job" lately, and I was out of town for a week... but now I'm hopefully back on track.

I mentioned before that the twin screw vise needed some tweaking. Actually, it turns out that it was really fine... I was just too tired at the time to do the necessary troubleshooting. I thought I would have to shim it, but I didn't. I just needed adjust the alignment of the two screws. The instructions explain exactly how to do all of this, so I won't go into too much detail. I'll just say this vise seems a bit finicky until you get it all dialed in.

The face vise also was not quite aligned with the front apron - it was about 1/32" out of parallel. The mounting plate shifted very slightly as I was tightening the lag screws, and this really can't be fixed. So, I just used a hand plane to take down that 1/32" off one end of the vise jaw - now it fits perfectly.

You may recall that I lost about ½-5/8" in the length of my benchtop because the woodmaster rounded over the edges (see reply #109). Well, the vises would have fit perfectly if not for that. :-? So, I had to modify the trestle base slightly to make it all fit. I used a 3/8" McRabbeting bit on the left side:

... and I used a forstner bit to drill out ¼" on the other side, to clear the twin screws:

I hated to do it... but now it all fits just fine. The walls of the mortises on the top of the trestle are ¾" thick, so I really don't think the trestle was weakened. I would have had to drill out more if I had used the dimensions called for in the FWW article. :roll:


Just to prove that the workbench "WORKS"... here it is in action, holding that front vise jaw down while I planed down the face:

I could get used to this!!!!


Now I just have to glue it all up and plane the aprons & vise jaws down flush with the benchtop, make the tooltray bottom, and apply a finish.

 

[cpowell]

Re: The Workbench ..... WORKS!!!

I love it when a plan comes together. It sounds like there was a lot of learning curve in that bench project. It looks like you've passed the course! Thanks for continuing to share progress pics with detailed descriptions. I enjoy the reading.

Chuck

 

[D L Ames]

Re: The Workbench ..... WORKS!!!

Outstanding job Monty.:icon_thum Thanks for your continued effort on keeping us posted with all of the WIP pix and comprehensive tutorial type information. I really like the way you have continued posting all of the details in one thread to give others a great source of information when we finally get around to building a bench for ourselves.

Thanks,
D L