Thread: WIP sort of

Afternoon all,

Well I've finally done it. The magnificence of my yet to be finished bench has rendered you all speechless. I know I should have whacked on a shining coat of polyurethane to impress some people but I thought plain old BLO while not looking so flash, was a better, less slippery work surface.

Jerry

Hi Jerry, this is the first time I've seen your post, somehow I missed it before.
Nice bench, looks like it'll give you many years of faithfull service.
Good thing you didn't put poly on it that wouldn't have matched the classic style of the bench at all.
The BLO, while not being the prettiest around, is a very sensible finish.
Looks very Frank Klause (sp?) I assume you have The Workbench Book?

Don't worry about it being a long term WIP, I started mine in 03' before life chucked a bit of a wobbly in 04' and I had to move house and put all the bits in storage till 3 months ago!

At least you can put it to good use meanwhile.

Originally Posted by Ben from Vic.

Nice bench, looks like it'll give you many years of faithfull service.
Good thing you didn't put poly on it that wouldn't have matched the classic style of the bench at all.
The BLO, while not being the prettiest around, is a very sensible finish.
Looks very Frank Klause (sp?) I assume you have The Workbench Book?

Don't worry about it being a long term WIP, I started mine in 03' before life chucked a bit of a wobbly in 04' and I had to move house and put all the bits in storage till 3 months ago!

.

Thanks Ben. Actually it has already given many years of service,(how many I can't remember,) which is why I had my tongue in my cheek about WIP. It is a Frank Klause design and I built it from an article in FWW which was very vague in several areas including the vice which is why the end vice was not fitted.

I know how you feel about life's wobblies. I copped heart failure about four years ago and spent six months in a hospital bed. Rebuilt the heart but muscle wastage was massive and so I manage far less than I did of yore. But as Ned Kelly said, just before they hanged him "Such is life". Ned had an Irish sense of humour.

Jerry

Jerry, if you can get your hands on the book, they go through the two different vices in detail. You probably wouldn't even need to buy it, seeing the progress you've already made without it.

Ben.

yeah, looks like a beauty.
what type of wood did you use on the bench top jerryc?
there is also some good tail vice details under "big stuff" and WIP in "general woodwork" if i recall. when i was at Carbatec the other day, i just stuck my head under their show room workbench and did a rough sketch of their tail vice setup.
regards
the block

Ben,

In the photo you can see under the shelf a vice mechanism I bought from McJing to make the tail vice. It's a sliding metal system that sits inside the wooden tail vice.

Blockhead,

The bench top is a fairly complex lamination. Because the original design calls for a long threaded rod to support the shoulder vice, I made a base from a piece of commercially laminated beam into which I cut a channel. Over that I then laminated wider planks of 25 mm mountain ash. The result is a thick bench top, from memory about 75 to 80 mm that will never warp because of the laminations. Around the edges it is finished with 100x 100 mm merbeau beams You can see it is, as I have said, a working bench and not a show pony. I work on a bench not in it, so there are no digs and saw marks. One picture shows just how flat the bench has remained. IMHO when you use a bench properly it has to be absolutely flat because it is a reference point for all the work you do. Occasionally I scrape it flat and oil it which is the only maintenance it needs. And yes, as I said I will try to find time to fit the vice and a sliding support along the front edge to support long lengths of timber.

Jerry

Jerry, that is a very nice bench. Well done!! The vice is great when you make drawers.

So I guess you have not had a chance to use the dog holes yet right?

Wongo,

Thanks for the compliments fellas.

In fact I do use the dog holes. Often as a planing stop and sometimes with a wedge between the work and the rear one. Another reason I haven't got around to the tail vice is that when planing I only use a planing stop. Locking the wood front and back can distort it and also being held only at the front means you have much more awareness of how you are planing. Planing a piece of wood on edge against a stop quickly lets you know if you are planing out of square. However since the dog holes are at 88 degrees (memory again) the wedge doesn't hold as well as I would like. Therefore a recent mod was to bore the bench top for cast iron hold downs.
Not sure if you are suggesting I put in drawers underneath. If so the answer is no. Drawers under a bench are a pain, you always want something when you've got work in the vice. I use the shelf for stacking wood that is part of the thing I'm working on at the time.

Jerry

No, not the drawers underneath. You know, in his DVD, how Frank Klause uses the vice to hold the drawer when he is fine trimming it?

Sorry about the misunderstanding. Never seen Frank's DVD. Like I said earlier, I built this years ago from an FWW article. But yes I agree that the shoulder vice is great for all sorts of jobs.

Jerry

A fine bench indeed. It looks vintage with that pleasant shine to it.

Now that´s a workbench!!