Thread: The bench that goes with the tail-vise

In the spirit of the build, the legs are made from more salvaged material. They are from a slab off a Bluegum log, which was full of splits & gum veins, and put aside as firewood. However, I decided there was enough wood between the defects to be useful, so it was saved from the flames. The wood isn’t properly dry, & still about 18% MC, but that shouldn’t cause any problems (I hope!), as long as everything shrinks together. (Well, houses used to be framed with green hardwood using M&T joints, & most of them are still sound 100 plus years on.. ).

The leg assemblies are just two independent frames tied together with a couple of wide stretchers. 9.jpg

Each leg is through-mortised into the top & bottom member, & secured by glue & wedges 10.jpg which, if applied correctly, pull the shoulders up tight against the rails, needing no clamping. 11.jpg

The stretchers have 15mm stub-tenons to locate them during assembly, and are pulled against the legs by 150mm bolts. I drilled the holes in the legs in the drill press before assembly, to ensure they were square, then used the leg holes as a guide to drill the stretchers. 12.jpg

The leg assembly is stable & solid & the bench could simply sit on it under its own weight, but I prefer to put a coach-screw through each top cross-member, because benches often get dragged about, for various reasons, and having the top secured is safer: 13.jpg

So that’s it, bench #8 done & dusted, apart from a front vise, but I’ve got several weeks before delivery to think about that... 14.jpg

Lessons learned on this build:
I’d forgotten how heavy & tough Spotted Gum is! These trees were growing on a stony ridge & seem to have incorporated good deal of that stone in themselves. Even my best & toughest plane blades lasted but a few minutes between sharpens, but I was pleased how well my Titan firmers stood up to it, they did a great job chopping mortises & trimming saw cuts, & gave almost as good an account of themselves as my A2 Lie-Nielsen BE chisels which were used for cutting the dovetails. My ¼” HSS skew chisels didn’t fare so well – I broke the corner of the bevels a couple of times, which necessitated a heavy re-grind (at a reduced angle to try & improve their strength!). 15.jpg

And Spotted Gum splinters are fearsome! They leave painful, festering wounds, even when extracted immediately. Planed edges can be razor sharp, too, so I made more than the usual blood sacrifices during this job. This bench had better serve many lifetimes!

Cheers,

Wow really nice, I could read about bench builds all day.

It's refreshing to watch somebody who knows what they are doing build a bench.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

It's refreshing to watch somebody who knows what they are doing build a bench.

Hmmm, not sure you'd say that if you saw me in action sometimes, Fuzzie! Lately, I have developed a knack for putting tools down & having them disappear. I seem to spend a good proportion of shed-time just looking for tools I was using 5 minutes ago. What with that, plus numerous interruptions to attend to other things, this build took a lot longer than planned.

The good news is, time doesn't matter nearly so much, now....

Cheers,

Ian, I was glad to read that you are "losing" tools that only a few minutes before you were using them. At times I may be doing a small task that requires the use of say bench grinder then drill press then something else. The journey between machines is where I "lose" small parts to my job. On more than one occasion I have had to enlist SWMBO to come out to the shed to look for said part. And the most annoying part is when she goes straight to the item in question which was "under my nose" the whole time. Senior moment?.....

Originally Posted by chambezio

...... And the most annoying part is when she goes straight to the item in question which was "under my nose" the whole time. Senior moment?.....

Nah, blame the shed gremlins, they are just playing mind-games with you!

Girls do have this uncanny knack for finding things, don't they!? They also read instructions, which has caused me acute embarrassment on occasions!

I know all about those instructions!!!!!! This will make you laugh. A couple of Christmases back I was sent to the super market to buy some Anti pasto. I stood at the deli counter until it was my turn to be served and asked for the "Antipasto", the girl behind the counter looked at me strangely and told me everything that was in the display case in front of me was Anti pasto. How was I to know it was a name for a group of differing stuff.
Another thing I tell the wife and what ever female may be around is to say to them that I have had a "man look". I have found that saying that saves a lot of embarrassment

You make it look oh so easy Ian. Undertaking my own build now makes me appreciate your build & others so much more.

makes my attempt at a bench look like fancy firewood.

Bravo Ian!

That bench is exactly the size bench I had in mind when embarking on my journey but as you know things got a tad out of had over at my place!! heheheh!

Spotted gum splinters!!! don't even get me started whinging.....oh my Lord my hands look like Freddy Kruger got hold of me, I've spent many a night digging those bastards out of my hands.

Great work mate! Who is the bench for???

P.S I have put in an order for a set of 7 Bevel Edge Classic Narex Chisels and their set of mortising chisels too, will pop round for a show and tell!

P.S.S Tail vice going on this weekend.

Originally Posted by Milo

......That bench is exactly the size bench I had in mind when embarking on my journey but as you know things got a tad out of had over at my place!! heheheh!......

Now that's a slight understatement, I think. Your bench would have to be three times the weight of this one, at least!

This sucker is plenty heavy enough for my ageing body - I had trouble lifting the top onto the legs for the photo, and even more taking it off again, so I doubt it will bounce around too much in use.

I'll be around Sunday, but not Saturday, this coming weekend.....

Originally Posted by Milo

......Who is the bench for???.....

It's for my brother, though actually it's his better half who is going to use it most; bro. prefers oil & engines & mucky stuff like that...

I wasted spent a good deal of time tracking down some ball catches for the bench dogs. (Side note - I started looking in Bunnings, having seen them there before. I was gazing at the rack where they should have been, when a young female assistant asked me if she could help. Took me a second or two to twig to the look on her face when I said I was looking for "ball catches". It made an otherwise fruitless trip worthwhile. ) It turned out they had one only, which at 16mm diameter was way too big for my needs. Is this yet another hardware item destined for extinction?

Anyway, thanks to the internet, I tracked some down not too far from home, & fitted them to their dogs. These are the ones I like for this job, a good squeeze fit in a 10mm hole. They hold nicely, & a 10mm hole doesn't weaken the shaft of the dog much: Dogs.jpg

So total cash outlay on the build was somewhere south of $30. That was for bolts, coach screws and the ball catches (at $3.75 each, they were the most expensive items!). The glue would've amounted to 40 or 50 cents' worth.

Cheers,

I read it.

Did not skip to the end.

I have to really get me act together and make a bench for myself.

Ian

bwahahhaha ....I had the same reaction re the "ball catches" at Bunnings....in fact in asked another female assistant on purpose, she in tern got on the internal phone and asked her colleague for the said item, I was beside myself!

The old crusty guy at the Paddo hardware ( who's head is peeling off (nasty!) ) new exactly what a ball catcher is.

Classic.

Originally Posted by Milo

.......The old crusty guy at the Paddo hardware ( who's head is peeling off (nasty!) ) knew exactly what a ball catcher is.....

You mean as opposed to that bit sticking out from your new bench?

So it was YOU wot cleaned Paddo Hardware out, eh?!! I was trying to avoid the trip up to Paddington (all those Range-Rovers & monster BMWs & Kamikaze drivers & narrow streets!), but ended up there anyway, after trying Bunnies & every hardware store in between. So I wasn't too pleased to find they had only one in stock in the size I wanted. If I'd been one of you young fellas with these fancy internet-connected phones I would've found what I wanted was just a few minutes further on, at a place called"Authentic Hardware & Lighting" (Windsor Rd, Red Hill). But I had to drive all the way home, do my search, & drive all the way back!

If your happy to wait for the postman, Goods & Chattels has a very good selection, at much better prices than I paid. For this job, I prefer the cheaper steel cased ones, because they press-fit into their nominal size hole, and it's only a bench, after all......

Cheers,