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Thread: Dogs Split Top

  1. #1
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    Default Dogs Split Top

    This is going to be another WIP thread.

    A bit about me first. I am ex military, and when I left the outfit I was operating overseas for a number of years as a private contractor. I finally came home after a few close friends were killed and my wife declared enough was enough. We ended up on Thursday Island as her work brought her here and I was between opportunities. We have been in shared style accommodation here provided by her employer for a year and a bit, and finally ended up with a place with a garage that we can keep. As the plan was to stay here for a few more years I jumped at the opportunity to convert it into a workshop and rekindle my life long love of woodworking. Everyone needs something to unwind with, this was my little pleasure.

    My first project was always going to be a workbench. But things are a bit tougher up here. We don't really have a reliable hardware shop, let alone someone that sells timber or gear. I have no access to anything recycled as most of the construction up here these days is concrete and the white ants have eaten the rest. So I have to ship everything in, and often sight unseen. Power tools are out because I just don't have the room in a small one car garage. I'm no stranger to hand tools but I am certainly no guru either. So I bit the bullet, did a lot of reading (thank especially to Derek for his amazing website) bought a heap of gear both new and second hand and waited for it to turn up.

    In the mean time I started researching workbenches. The bench I started off designing was very different to the finished article, as it morphed more and more into a Roubo. It seems to be the "style" these days but this bench makes a lot of sense to me. I tend to read and research everything and follow whatever makes sense. This thing has a split top, and the first time I saw that it was like a gun going off - just immediately snaps you into an alert state. So I changed my design, drew it up in sketch up and was rather happy with that. The top will be 1600 long by about 600 wide including the gap, as that's all the space I can spare. Without decent second hand timber available, and without decent timber available at the local shop I had to shop in Cairns. All over the phone I hammered out a deal with the boys at Far North Timber and ended up choosing Northern Ash and Kwila for the build. This is not going to be a cheap bench, and I plan to keep it as long as I can still work tools, then pass it on. After the timber was ordered the Ash was coming in at 140mm x 40mm. My original plan was for a 100mm top, so rather than hand rip a lot of northern ash down by 40mm I just decided to keep the top that thick. Then the legs started to look a bit spindly, so I bumped up their dimensions as well. Before I knew it I had a very stout looking bench. Now all I have to do is build it.

    IMG_0285.jpg

    The current bench, two half pallets supporting a door. It's not that sturdy, and not that tall. Interestingly this is at the right height according to Chris Schwarz topping out at my pinkie join. Now I may not be a hand tool aficionado, but this is way too short for me. I stand 186cm and this bench tops out at 840mm and I have to really stoop down to work on this thing. I know people say you get more leg power this way, but I can generate just as much locking my elbows in with a higher bench. In fact I kept adding section of my new bench top timber until I hit a height that was comfortable for me. This ended up at 960mm. Now if I change my mind in future I can always lop off up to 100mm as that is going to be the distance from the deck to the bottom stretcher. I can't see this happening though, stay tuned.

    IMG_0292.jpg

    The crosscutting marathon begins. This was quite easy work actually considering the ripping marathon that followed with the legs. Each section of Kwila came in at 240mm x 40mm and my legs are going to be 140mm x 120mm. So they not only need to be ripped down, but then the offcuts need to be joined to make up part of the 120mm thickness as I don't have enough timber to cover. I will show that more when I get there. For now I spent a good part of the day ripping 1200mm lengths of Kwila down to length and width. That was hard work but my sawing improved greatly, even from the start to the end of the day.

    IMG_0297.jpg

    I also started gluing up the top, just a few sections of two. I bought a press of a forum member here while he has a sale going and thought I would give them a try. I only laminated up 2 sections of 2 while I wait for a lot of clamps to turn up to complete the top.

    IMG_0295.jpg

    These worked really well, but did work better on the second run with a couple more clamps helping out.

    IMG_0296.jpg

    Lastly I have the tale of two planes.

    First up I bought a few HNT Gordon planes, a jack, smoother and trying plane. I wanted to support an Aussie manufacturer and they truly are a work of art. It's almost a shame to use them, but use them I did and I have some thoughts. In fact I bought these months ago and have been trying to get them working on some pine.

    The art of "zen" blade setting is beyond me at the moment, really really beyond me. I spend more time tapping at the plane than I do using it. This is really frustrating but nothing I can't deal with. Luckily I am a patient man, and I don't like to lose. So I persisted and can actually get a decent shaving out of these planes. However after tapping away to set it up, invariable I will need to pull it apart to unclog something, and then the tapping starts all over again. It was getting to me so much I bought another couple of planes, a Veritas bevel up jointer and a LN #4 smoother. The difference was night and day, especially with the LN. I could set this up and be planing within a couple of minutes, and it was really comfortable, like it just moulded into my hand. The LV is a little different and I am finding the handle uncomfortable at this point. This may change when the bench height comes up and may not, only time will tell. Plus they have a little screw in the mouth to allow rapid setting of the mouth opening, but this catches shavings as they come through. There are a few things about this plane that bug me and generally this means it will move on in due time.

    That's the big problem with living so remotely. I pretty much try things by buying them. As much as I love the HNT planes they are beyond my ability at the moment and will be sold soon to finance another LN plane instead. I would like to come back to these one day, but for now they have to go.

    Next step is getting the legs glued together while I wait on my long clamps to finish up the bench top.

    I'm loving being back in the shop again. Sorry for the long post, I just had to get some things off my chest.

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  3. #2
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    Default

    The beauty of a wood working forum is you can ask questions on just about anything and even wood working tools. Might be an idea to ask about the planes you are having trouble with in the hand tool section. Could be an easy way to set them.

    Looks like a great start to your bench.

  4. #3
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    Cheers Christos.

    I have been lurking on the hand tool section and taking in all the advice I could find. It all comes down to feel and practice but I am just not getting it.
    Right now I am willing to admit defeat and get something that I know I can get to work. I want to come back to these planes when I have a few more miles under my belt and maybe a trip to one of the wood shows to have a good chat to Mr Gordon. Until then traditional planes suit me right now.

  5. #4
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    If we haven't already I would like to welcome you to the forum.

    Ross

  6. #5
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    Hi Dogs,
    Great start to the bench looking forward to the rest of the build.
    Regards rod.
    Rod Gilbert.

  7. #6
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    Great to see another saga begin Dogs

    And great to see yet another confirmation that the old Record/Stanley style planes are WELL worth restoring and using. More and more I am being weaned off my lust for those expensive, beautiful museum pieces .

    Keep posting!

  8. #7
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    Wow Dogs, you're really putting in some hard work there! A table saw with a good rip blade should be on your shopping list, but I'll bet doing it by hand is keeping you mighty fit, it must be pouring out of you doing this on TI! I don't think that most people use their panel clamps to glue up posts, but if it works go for it. They're obviously a little more versatile than I had previously thought.

    It somehow seems wrong that PNG is so close but you can't source any timber from there. Good luck with the build.

    Cheers,
    David

  9. #8
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    Thank you everyone for the likes and comments so far. We've only just begun

    Bendigo Bob the more I use these planes the more I think that they were built that way for many years for a reason. The LN plane just works, and I am certainly gravitating to that style of plane far more now. I will say again however that I completely own the fact that my lack of success with the wooden planes is purely down to me. I still get them out every time I go back into the shop, one day it may all just fall into place. Just not today.

    David how are things going?? Thanks for the press it's a great bit of kit. It works quite well gluing up the top but only 2 boards at a time. I did find though with stock this thick that adding clamps to the bottom edge between the posts really helps out. These are face glued and then laid on edge in the clamp, no worries. If you ever need someone to give you a good wrap for a sale of these point them in my direction.

    Today I had to fix up a crap effort with my sawing. It was one of my first boards and I wandered a bit, well a lot actually. So to fix it up I decided to practice squaring up my stock. So I flattened one face, then squared one edge and then marked the miss sawn side to width. There was a lot of stock to remove and in hindsight I could have sawn a bit off with a coping saw, but I find that planing is just so almost hypnotic. Does anyone else find this?? With a sufficiently soft board I could be in trouble of just shaving it away to nothing with a weird smile on my face.

    This however is not a sufficiently soft board and I am short on timber so I was paying a lot of attention. Firstly because I wanted to prove to myself that I could square and dimension a board by hand, second because I need a minimum width or I am going to have to do a lot more gluing which will certainly compromise my bench legs. As it is I have a plan so the mortises are always going into solid timber, so I couldn't screw this up.

    After a few hours on and off, two blade sharpenings and a lot of effort I hit my goal. One flat face, two square sides and dimensioned. Proof of concept, I am a big fan of that.

    IMG_0299.jpg

    I couldn't take a photo of the whole thing as this was as far back as I could get. When I say I have a small one car garage as a shop it's more like half a garage. The rest is used as storage.

    One question I have for hand tool users, how common are unexplained cuts??
    In my last shop, which was all power tools, I was fastidious about blade safety and never suffered a cut. I respect blades and what they can do, especially when they are spinning at a million rpm.
    After planing today however I ended up with a series of slices taken out of my front hand. I have no idea how it happened, never felt it happening, and don't think it drew any blood. I can only surmise it happened when I was using my hand to guide against the side as I was planing the edge. I tried to replicate the method but couldn't get my palm near the blade again, probably because I was aware of it.

    Here is what I am talking about

    IMG_0300.jpg

    Is this just something that happens??

    I need to get a move on and get these legs finished over the next few days. I have a long weekend coming up and will try and crack on. There is a bit of a rush as my lovely wife has just given birth to our first child. They are staying in Sydney for a bit (we don't really have sufficient facilities here) and come home soon. So I am getting a lot of sleep and time in the workshop while I still can.

    Cheers,

    Dogs

  10. #9
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    Congratulations! So in addition to the bench we need bub details and photos

    Jane

  11. #10
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    Wow, you've really got a lot going on! Congrats on the birth of your first child. Make sure you make plenty of time to see them growing up, you only get one chance.

  12. #11
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    Hi again Dogs,
    Dimentioning by hand tool is all possible it is how it was all done at a time when woodwork wasn't a hobby. Has you're hand been cut by the side of you're hand plane, as in you're hand rubbing back and forth against a sharp edge of the casting, I started getting cut's to my fingers from a new set of chisels from the sharp edges of the chisels just looks like where you're hand would cut if from a sharp edge rubbing below you're pushing hand on the handle. Sorry just reread the post you say front hand so I presume you are left handed as looks to be base of right hand has been sliced so what I have described would be only for right hand to handle and rub the bottom edge against the edge of casting. No help at all. But still impressed with the work with the hand saws wish my shoulders were up to it but no way keep up the enjoyment.
    Regards Rod.
    Rod Gilbert.

  13. #12
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    Cheers everyone.

    Yep number one son and the good wife are home this Friday so I really need to pull my finger out before workshop time grinds to a halt. I promise I'll include a picture of the little bloke on the bench when it's done.

    Rod you are correct, I am left handed and still not able to figure out how these cuts happened. It hasn't repeated so maybe just one of those breaking in the planes things.

    Well this weekend was what every good gym rat should do, but few bother to put the time into - leg time.

    First offcuts were joined to make up the thickness I was after, then resized and the posts were glued together. Then it was a lot of planing to get everything squared up and ready for cutting to length.

    IMG_0306.jpgIMG_0310.jpgIMG_0301.jpgIMG_0311.jpgIMG_0305.jpgIMG_0318.jpg

    And here is Gecko the foreman keeping an eye on things amongst the shavings.

    IMG_0314.jpgIMG_0322.jpg

    The legs are 145mm x 122mm and bloody heavy. The face sides are yet to be finished. Kwila is tough to work and I am still mystified trying to pick the grain direction. Luckily it tears really easily when you are going the wrong way, you just have to catch it before it rips a bloody great patch out of the face. I think the smoother and scraper are going to finish this job.

    I have also had a major rethink about my proposed bench height. After a week of solid planing I can confidently say that I was very wrong. This temporary bench is actually a bloody good height for this kind of work, who knew all those experienced hand tool workers were right all along
    My idea of a 960mm bench height is really not a good idea, in fact I am going to knock that down to 850mm. Time to break out the saw again.

    On that does anyone have any advice for squaring the ends of large timber like this?? Especially when I am committed to a power free workshop. I can saw it close to square with care but what's the best way to level it off after that?? I was going to just clamp it to something really solid and plane it off. I did consider building a shooting board but that will still leave a section in the centre that the plane can't reach.

    Up next is the bottom and top stretchers while I wait on my clamps to finish the top.

    Standby.

  14. #13
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    Wow babies sure do take up a lot of time don't they

    As expected workshop time has ground to a halt and I am doing bits and pieces here and there. At one point it took me 4 days to shape the tenon on the top of one leg, every time I started cutting the boy started crying. Lucky I'm not in a rush.

    So in the hour or so I get here and there (generally after 2200 when he finally gets to sleep) I have been making slow but steady progress. I've hit a bit of a stopping point at the moment while I wait on some gear to turn up. The good people at Henry Eckert are supplying me a tenon saw but it seems to be taking quite a while. I'm guessing that it's on backorder. Equally the good folks at Carbatec owe me some clamps but appear to be having the same issue. The final shaping of tenons and glueing of bench tops will have to wait a bit until stuff turns up, and I've gotten to the point where I am looking for what to do in the mean time. It looks like I will start cutting the clearance holes for the leg vice and getting that all ready to go. There is always something you can work on.

    Here are some more progress pics.

    IMG_0329.jpg IMG_0332.jpg IMG_0337.jpg IMG_0340.jpg

    One leg in all it's glory, Both RHS legs, Top and bottom side stretchers (I don't have a back saw deep enough yet to form the tenons) and finally front and back stretchers with the top and bottom side stretchers.

    Once I get my saw I can get these cut down and installed into the legs. Until then it looks like it's leg vice screw time.

    Take a seat, this could take a while.

  15. #14
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    Just caught up with this thread (again). Great to see you take the 'quiet' approach.

    Thanks for the pics too. Looking forward to seeing the one with the boy sitting on it

  16. #15
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    cool build - thanks for sharing

    it's funny - I'd heard that when servicemen came home the population increased - congrats on No1 son
    regards
    Nick
    veni, vidi,
    tornavi
    Without wood it's just ...

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