Thread: WIP - John's "Jack-Bench"

Originally Posted by johnredl

Oh...a question - my HW came from an 80 year old house which was demolished by the demolition company, and was sitting in their yard for a couple of weeks getting rainsoaked. I've had it on my concrete floor inside garage for a week or 2 now. Do I have to wait long before I can join it for the top?

Have a nice day

Should be fine to joint now. You have of course had it sitting on stickers so the air can circulate around the timber.
I wouldn't get too carried away with the hand tools. If you have the machines to accurately dimension and joint the timber, go ahead and use them. Using hand planes is fun but it is hard work. Especially on large, old, hardwood timbers. There will be plenty of opportunities to use hand tools as the build progresses. Just my 2c worth but I will be pulling up a chair watch this one.

I seem to be matching Groggy's pace for my bench! Not much has been happening lately. I've created a huge tripping hazard in my workshop thanks to the Jarrah, and I've been researching sharpening methods...goodness what a minefield!

I've decided on DMT Diamond Stones, and have bought an extra-coarse, coarse & fine grades. Do I need an Extra-fine grade (8000 grade, 3 micron)??

Now the plan is attempt to sharpen...everything . Still waiting for the plans to arrive, but I'm going to start making the mallet (I liberated some Tas oak from a relative a while ago, is this suitable?), and squaring up the timber.

Watch this space

Originally Posted by johnredl

I seem to be matching Groggy's pace for my bench!

Not that there is anything wrong with that...!

Originally Posted by Groggy

Not that there is anything wrong with that...!

No not at all my friend. In fact I'll be glad if my bench is half as good as yours

Originally Posted by johnredl

..I'll be glad if my bench is half as good as yours

It'll probably be half as heavy
Am interested to see how this one comes together.

John

I am going to sound like a party pooper, but here goes ...

This is your first bench, so I think that you lack experience with benches and are not able to consider the frustrations that will occur when the scissors do not work smoothly, or when both you and your wife want to work similtaneously, or how rigid the construction will be for use with handplanes (why otherwise build a solid bench?). Just how much effort will it be to wind up, or down, this construction each time? And to do so without damaging threads? I cannit say that I am enthused. This design really appeals to noobs.

Have you considered a split bench ... half at your height and half for your wife? Or a bench that goes on top of the bench? Or a platform for your wife for in front of the bench? Or two benches?

Regards from Perth

Derek (the party pooper).

I'm interested in how the wheel mechanism works (might ask for a sneak look at the plans!)

Originally Posted by derekcohen

John

I am going to sound like a party pooper, but here goes ...

This is your first bench, so I think that you lack experience with benches and are not able to consider the frustrations that will occur when the scissors do not work smoothly, or when both you and your wife want to work similtaneously, or how rigid the construction will be for use with handplanes (why otherwise build a solid bench?). Just how much effort will it be to wind up, or down, this construction each time? And to do so without damaging threads? I cannit say that I am enthused. This design really appeals to noobs.

Have you considered a split bench ... half at your height and half for your wife? Or a bench that goes on top of the bench? Or a platform for your wife for in front of the bench? Or two benches?

Regards from Perth

Derek (the party pooper).

No, please feel free to advise away. I'll see if I can answer your questions or just make me look stupid!

1. 2 people working at once - Wife and I have enough trouble coinciding time at home together (both shift workers) let alone both working at the same time. But I hadn't actually thought of this one.

2. Rigidity of the bench - I had this thought too. I emailed the designer his reply is in the bottom of this link https://www.woodworkforums.com/f213/j...=jack+bench%3F

3. Effort to raise and lower - There are videos on youtube where the designer has made changes to raise and lower using a cordless drill and hex head nut. Here is a link to his website's video section Workbench Plans Videos

4. Split Bench - I hadn't actually thought of this one. Where were you when I was discussing the potential for making this bench in the "Jack Bench?" thread?? Interesting to read, especially the part where I was successfully talked out of and back into building it - in the same thread!!

5. What is a Noob?

I hope that I am sounding receptive to feedback, because that was my intention on starting this thread. That plus if I fail miserably you all will have someone to point your fingers at and shout "we told you so"!

I'm not a complete novice, I just haven't done much by hand for a while. I am going to take the advice regarding using jointer(, etc) where possible until I am more confident with hand planing.

Have a nice day

ps. rather impressed with the diamond stones by the way. Do definitely need a finer grade to finish polishing tho...

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

I'm interested in how the wheel mechanism works (might ask for a sneak look at the plans!)

shhh...the copyright police might be listening...

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Have you considered

a bench that goes on top of the bench? Or a platform for your wife for in front of the bench?

I'm with Derek
I think a platform to accomodate different heights / different tasks is the way to go

there's nothing worse (in benches) than one that racks when you plane on it

Well, a little progress today, or at least that's how it feels to me.

The plans arrived today. I must give Charlie (designer) credit, they are very in-depth and well drawn. It makes me wish that I could use 'Sketchup' as good as these are done. Not very environmentally friendly mind you...the bundle of paper must be about 1cm thick!

Having given the plans a fairly quick checkover, I must say this project might actually work. Going by the plans it looks like this bench will be solid. I can't actually see a weak point (so to speak) that would cause rocking. Still, it hasn't been built yet!

I've FINALLY sharpened my jointer blades. The machine is from the 50's, and I'm not sure how many times it has been sharpened in it's life, but I'm happy to bet that it wasn't many. Not sure what kind of steel the blades are made from. Very shiny like stainless steel, and hard as anything! After spending quite a bit of time on the x-coarse diamond stone, I ended up putting 180grit W+D paper on my orbital sander and made the progress extra quick - in fact I was done in about 5 mins! Why didn't I think of this earlier - doh!

What's next? Cut lengths for the top and try out the newly sharpened jointer. Seems that the plans allow for different sized tops, so I might want to nail down a definite size. Then pour a cuppa, and, during the small window while the kiddies are in bed, see if I can go through the plans better.

Love to give you an idea of what I'm in for, but I'm fairly sure that posting a pic of the plans would be frowned upon.

Finally I am getting to do some work on this thing! I've thought about the advice given to me by the experienced forum members, and have decided to throw caution into the wind and build the 'jack-bench'

But before you all get the opportunity to laugh, point fingers, and generally mock me...I need some help!!

This is part of the sides of the lower part of the bench (the bit that stays on the ground not goes up and down). The purpose is to firstly provide compression support and secondly to hide the pipe clamps (which slide through the hole - bit like putting a cover over ducting/pipes).



These pieces are 46"L x 4"H x 1 3/4"W. The plans want my nice HW to be sandwiched between 2 pieces of 1/2" ply, but I'm thinking of cutting the covers out of 1/2" x 4" HW. There are 4 of these assemblies in total. (The pic on website only shows 2 - plans have been updated since.)

Can anyone foresee any problems with using HW over ply?

(I kinda hope this makes sense...plans r stamped copyright, so I'm doing my best to not end up in the slammer!!)

the 1/2" ply should be more rigid and dimensionally stable than 1/2" thick HW

also, you've sourced the plans from the US where quality 1/2" ply (i.e. ply with no voids) is readily available

A little progress today. I found myself with a morning kind of free...and what better way to spend it than by making sawdust!

I had to drill a 28mm hole 2 1/2" deep into the end grain of 80year old Jarrah. I originally had this romantic idea of building this bench by hand, so I got out my newly acquired Stanley hand drill. All was going well until the new 28mm Irwin Speed Bore Auger bit into the wood and I couldn't budge it. So out came my big Makita drill for the job. It protested loudly I must add...and finally after many unkind thoughts and a great deal of smoke from the drill, I had 8 holes and a huge pile of sawdust.



These form part of the lower sides. Here is a partly assembled view - the jarrah gets sandwiched between 2 pieces of 1/2" ply, with the clamps sliding up the middle.



The holes get chamfered to about 2" to make the pipe insertion easy, so out came the circular rasp...that was quite enjoyable actually - kids in bed, iPod playing...nice and relaxing.



Next? Glue and clamp it all together and start building the middle (bit that jack sits on).

Would you use to 2 glue this all together? Titebond 2? (There are no screws that I can see, and the man at the local hardware was most unhelpful...)