Thread: WIP - Groggy's Workbench

Spent a very nice hour in the shed tidying up the mortices tonight. Doing it manually and have got about 1/3 of the way there. A bit of solitude, concentration and the quiet patter of rain on the tin roof. Add to that the dog's chin on my knee as I sat on the stool and chopped away. I hope it rains again tomorrow

Originally Posted by Groggy

I hope it rains again tomorrow

You sure the rain wasn't just slober on your knee?

I can empathise with that. Spent a while painting the floor of my shed today with my two beasts lying outside waiting for me to go outside and do something interesting. Great feeling, especially in my case - they're young enough that a moment of peace when they're outside is still appreciated.

Solitude, non-demanding company and the steady tok-tok-tok of the mallet on the chisel. Very valuable things.

Originally Posted by Groggy

Spent a very nice hour in the shed tidying up the mortices tonight. Doing it manually and have got about 1/3 of the way there. A bit of solitude, concentration and the quiet patter of rain on the tin roof. Add to that the dog's chin on my knee as I sat on the stool and chopped away. I hope it rains again tomorrow

Tonight I completed the bolt recesses. Lots of chopping finished with a pass with a roundover bit. I enjoyed doing them, as I said in yesterday's post, and it rained again.

Next up is chopping the waste from the tongues, then the end caps followed by the large dovetails for the front skirt. After that maybe I can fit the wagon vise, flip the top and chop the big mortices for the legs then do some drawboring.

I started nibbling out the bits around the holes tonight but the bugs got the better of me. It is hard to concentrate on chopping a notch out with a big beetle break-dancing down your back and all his mates waiting for their turn

Hit 'em with the old Peebo.

Major sharpening day today, nearly 20 chisels, marking knives and anything else that looked a bit dull went to the stones. As a result not a lot was done on the bench however I am now ready to start on the caps themselves. The end of the bench has been scraped to a very slight hollow, maybe 0.5mm, to ensure the top and bottom engage firmly. Where the holes are there will be a few mm of play to allow for lateral movement. The bolts will only be done up firmly and can pivot with any movement.

That's some nice work there Groggy. Shame you'll be covering it up.

Finished attaching the first end cap today. A nice firm fit but I need to do some adjusting to get it dead square. I'm finding that surfaces this big can be a challenge to get to fit exactly.

This cap is the wagon vise end so I can begin to get it ready for the vise itself. I have the front skirt off while I am doing this and will need to start thinking about the dovetail. In this size I reckon it is more of a peacock tail but there you go.

Has anyone seen any nice dovetails used in benches? Got any pics or links?

Have just started reading this WIP and top job so far mate, keep it up

Originally Posted by Groggy

Has anyone seen any nice dovetails used in benches? Got any pics or links?

Nope, sorry. Seen some nice mortices on an impressive scale, but you know about those...

Originally Posted by Groggy

.....
Has anyone seen any nice dovetails used in benches? Got any pics or links?

Is this what you mean, Grog?

There are other D/Ts between the left cap & front skirt, and on the back piece that connects the end caps. The left cap protrudes in under the shoulder vise to carry the nut (or IS the nut, if you use wood screws as I do), so no D/Ts there...

Sorry - I don't have pics of the side or back D/Ts, but they are similar.

Cheers,

Thanks Ian, kind of you to get a pic for me.

Since I started thinking about the dovetails I decided there are two things working against me. First, the timbers are the same, so no contrast, and secondly the timbers are so thick that a simple one or two dovetails will look very agricultural.

I am thinking I'll need at least two with possibly three, four or even 5 pins of different lengths. I've attached some screen captures from various sites around the net.

Note there is a small pic in the middle there somewhere that highlights why I am not a fan of seeing end-cap hardware.

I like the dimensions of the first pic but in the scale of my bench I think it will be too clunky. I like the ratio of pin length to cap thickness, it looks 'right', as opposed to the 5th pic which looks 'fat'