Thread: WIP - Groggy's Workbench

Originally Posted by Christos

Come on Groggy
Come on son
Get this done

And build another one.

Bite me

When the Groggy Bench Order goes in, put me down for one!
Think it might be a longer wait than for the plane blades though...

Long day today. Whipper snipping the entire garden after months of neglect took hours . Then another hour of giving the old machine a service.

Finally, off to the shed to play with the bench. First, a bit more planing to get the top close enough to flat. Then, lots of careful measuring and marking of diagonals to make sure everything will be square, done twice to be sure to be sure.

Tomorrow I'll make up a jig for the PSU9 circ saw beastie to run on so I can trim the ends for the caps to go on. I think I may need a long blade in my reciprocating saw to trim the ends off as the circ saw does not have the depth of cut needed.

Originally Posted by Groggy

Tomorrow I'll make up a jig for the PSU9 circ saw beastie to run on so I can trim the ends for the caps to go on. I think I may need a long blade in my reciprocating saw to trim the ends off as the circ saw does not have the depth of cut needed.

Just flip her over and cut from the other side as well

Originally Posted by Groggy

Tomorrow I'll make up a jig for the PSU9 circ saw beastie to run on so I can trim the ends for the caps to go on. I think I may need a long blade in my reciprocating saw to trim the ends off as the circ saw does not have the depth of cut needed.

That's the trouble with circular saws, they are wonderful tools but at times you wish....

How would you go running a cut with the saw then using a handsaw. I've done that before today!

Since I need to cut a kerf before routing the end caps I thought I'd make a jig so I knew exactly where the blade was going to cut. It took 1/2 hour to make, most of that was traipsing around trying to find some suitable materials and then clearing off the TS so I could cut it. Just a piece of mdf with a plywood fence glued and screwed in place. The base is oversize by a few mm so that when the saw does its first pass the edge is cut, leaving a perfect alignment point for your cuts.

I used a bit wide enough to use both sides, this serves two purposes: I get a second side to use once the first is chewed up and, secondly, it allows the clamps to hold the jig and be out of the way of the saw when it slides along the jig. The finish is uBeaut Traditional wax so the saw slides easily, there is no finish under the jig so it doesn't slip.

The second picture shows the jig in use for the router, that is why the edge is so far back.

Cutting the endcaps is tricky, well I think so anyway. One end of the endcap is flush with the bench, the middle is rebated and the other end is a dovetail. Underneath the endcap is four 25mm holes for the nuts to slide into. The bolts themselves will go into slots under the benchtop and thread into the endcaps in the opposite direction to normal. This is so the endcaps do not have hardware visible (pet peev of mine, what can I say )

Step 1 was to carefully layout and check for square.

Step 2 was to build the jig.

Step 3 was cut the kerfs

Step 4 route the 45 x 35mm rebate

Steps 6, 7 and 8 clean up.

Best idea I had all day was to put up the sheets around the shed to stop the saw and router from throwing sawdust into the racks and storage areas. You can see only a little bit of the mess, I'd already swept up a pile of muck into the dusty; about half a bag worth. I found that having the dusty hose running on the ground under the cut kept a lot of the dust out of the air. I wore a mask but decided it did not do the job properly as I had brown Jarrah stains on my nose under the mask. Next time I'll use a full face mask with proper filters.

During the week I'll complete the trimming of the ends and run some planes over them to tidy them up.

I hope the old white dog didn't hear you calling her square.

G'Day Groggy,

Nice to see it coming along. Always nice to see HNT gordon tools in action.

Though I'm worried about you moving that top around on your own.

Daniel

Coming along nicely now.

Going well, Greg.

Have you got the "ssssssssshhhhhhhniccckkk" for your ringtone yet?


Cheers..............Sean

Originally Posted by scooter

Have you got the "ssssssssshhhhhhhniccckkk" for your ringtone yet?

*chuckle*

Fun day today, couple of visitors; some family friends and KMAN. I worked on the ends getting them ready for the end caps and I am now happy with them, or rather, I will be once I flip the top and plane the other side of the tenon.

The end bolts look like they will work well. I've positioned them the way they will be in use, slots will be made to lay them in and then I'll drill through from the end. The end caps will only have the round nuts in them, inserted from below so no metal will be visible.

1. Left end
2. Right end
3. End cap bolts in position
4. End cap nut 1" x 1"
5. Bench dog

The large offcut was good to finally remove, surprising how much room it took up, and forced me to walk around it all day. Much better now

The offcut will become chisel handles eventually.