Thread: WIP - Kman's Traditional Work Bench

Swinging a mallet to make just eight mortices doesn't sound like hard work, does it? A 25mm forstner bit gets rid of most of the waste, but cutting the corners alone (all 32 of them) for just one end of the frame is making me re-think the wisdom of this many mortice and tenon joints.

I did a training ride for the 'Around the Bay in a Day' bike ride yesterday, so now I'm sore all over. It's been almost 18 months since I rode, so even the 50km Westgate Bridge ride will be a challenge for me I think.

Anyway, as you can see I've completed the joints for the left end of the frame and they all fit nicely. Just a little mallet persuasion is all that's required. Even just dry joined I'm unable to make this frame wrack at all. The lines around the tops of the legs are the level of the bottom of the bench top, I haven't cut the tenon into the legs yet.

Of course, next will come more sore arms for the right end.

Looking good, nice crisp joinery

Been off work all week with a chest infection, so I spent a half hour here and there to get the other end finished. The Harold & Saxon chisels have taken a severe pounding while making all the mortices, particularly the 1/2". It hasn't yet been sharpened and it's now a little harder to pare with, but it's held up considerably better than any other chiesl in my collection, including the Titans. Most impressive.

Next I'll have to select/scrounge some timbers for the front and rear stiles. I also haven't decided whether to make this a knock-down frame.

Did you want some timber? Still got a fair bit if you need it.

I may take you up on that offer, though I still haven't been through the stock pile. I'm looking for a length of ~120x30mm @ 1.5m for the front stile and runner for the deadman. I'll be in touch if I can't find anything.

Had a bit of luck recently; firstly I found a scruffy looking 2"x6" board about 2m long in the hard rubbish. Not sure what the timber is, but it's red like Jarrah and somewhat more brittle... well seasoned though. This has already been used for the front stile, though I had to mill it down to about 130mm x 40mm, no pics yet. I've left a few of the original saw marks in it for character. Have also completed the rear stile, but alas there are no pics of that yet either.

Secondly, it looks like we'll have no trouble keeping warm next winter. One of the big gums across the road was dropped and I managed to collect the lion's share of the useable timber from it. All up I have well over two tonnes now, so I think we'll be fine and warm.

I'm going to aim low this Christmas and attempt to complete the frame before I go back to work. Seriously, that's about a days work. I reckon I can manage that.

I thought that when they pulled that school down you would have had a good ferret around and dragged some timber home. Good to see you found some elsewhere and have put it to use. Pictures are required you know

I did ferret around actually and it was one of those that I brought home the first time, one on the other side of the school. This time it was one of the big gums directly across from me. Didn't even have to bother with the car this time, just the wheel barrow. Had to share this loot with someone else in the street, but he only wanted the smaller stuff because he has no means to split it, so I got all of the big bits. YAY! The only reason I haven't gone nuts over there is becasue I've never felled a tree before and, well, safety first, you know. If it's already fallen or someone else is doing the dangerous work and getting payed for it, I'm happy to do the rest.

I've worked in IT all my adult life, felling trees just isn't exactly my thing.

Hi K man, just had a read through and a very enjoyable WIP

Love those double tenons, very neat, and what a great idea for producing them

Coming along Kman, as the guys have said, lovely neet work.

Very nice workmanship there mate - i'm looking forward to seeing more pics !

Keep up the progress reports!

That joinery looks so crisp and clean, look forward to the next installment

Thanks for the encouragement folks. I have made some good progress since the last set of pics were posted, but I've been rather focused on getting organised for Christmas lately.

I've also been gathering the few extra tools I need to get this job done. I didn't own a sliding bevel until last week so I will have some pics of that and a marking knife from Chris Vesper to post as well.

I'm working on a novel approach to laminating the top also. Rather than laminating the peices on a seperate bench I'm looking to use the completed frame as a base. Traditionally a Roubo bench wouln't have rails on the frame ends, but because I don't realy have a big bench to work on or a lot of clamps to work with I'm thinking I'll use the leg tenons and rails as a frame for the glue-up. I haven't worked out all the kinks in this thinking yet, it's a work-in-progress.

I will get out to the shed soon and take some pics.