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  1. #16
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    Oct 2014
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    Caroline Springs, VIC
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    I don't recall ever having purple hands though I believe Walnut can do it. I've certainly ended up with black hands from leeching tanins out of the timber into my hands. I had a purple thumb before, and that was definitely caused by a hand tool. Never look at your thumb when you a mid-swing with a hammer, and if you do, hope you can't aim well enough to save your life! I have deadly aim

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  3. #17
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    Sep 2010
    Location
    Port Sorell, Tasmania
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    592

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    Lance, I have sometimes noticed a purplish stain on my hand after working with blackwood.

    Tony
    You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~Oscar Wilde

  4. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Hobart, Tas
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    1,211

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    Ooh, I hadn’t considered the wood doing it. I have been working lots with myrtle for the first time in the last couple of weeks, which does coincide with my colourful hands. I’m pretty much done now though. Will see if the issue goes away.

    Now back to the scheduled viewing and Kuffy’s jaundiced hands!

  5. #19
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    Sth Gippsland Vic
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    4,355

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    Quote Originally Posted by LanceC View Post
    I’m struggling with something in my shed turning my hands purple! It’s something to do with my hand tools.
    Try squeezing a lemon on a hand and let it soak . Ive not tried it but thought it may work ?

    Oxalic acid definitely works . The stuff in Deck cleaner . I have tried it and washed it off within a minute . I wouldn't recommend doing it if you have a cut .Yow it burns ! Probably better its not done at all . Beetroot leaves are strong in Oxalic acid .
    I'd love to hear back if the lemon helps .

    I had young guys working . Some sets of hands get it worse than others doing the exact same work .

    Rob

  6. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Caroline Springs, VIC
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    Because I have made my life difficult for myself by angling the legs out slightly to resist racking, but mostly just to make the bench look cool, I produced a full sized MDF layout template. I will be able to use this template to physically place the components in the correct position so that I can then transfer deadly accurate knife lines for the tenon shoulders when needed. I probably could have fudged my way through without the template, but since I am also selling plans for this workbench, the template makes it easy for others to make adjustments to the length, width and height to suit their own requirements.
    IMG_20191222_165321.jpg

    I am producing videos for YouTube to document this build for anyone interested. The first video was recently published detailing how to make this template and how to make the adjustments to suit your own requirements. The video is longer than I had hoped, but I am guessing most of these videos will end up running long. Better to have too much information than to be left with nothing but unanswered questions.


  7. #21
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Caroline Springs, VIC
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    Now that I am holidays for the next few weeks, I can get stuck into this build good and proper. Today I milled the lower frame components to their final dimensions. It's a bit of a risk to do this, because the timber sizes are large enough that any cupping or twisting can be significant enough to really cause me trouble down the line. All in all, starting with the horrible crap that had been sitting outside for a decade, I've ended up with enough clean faces and edges to produce a good looking bench. I think the ugliest part of the finished bench will be the end grain of the two top slabs. I could redesign and add end caps to the top, but it's a lot of work just to cover up something that is sub-optimal.
    IMG_20191223_145509.jpg IMG_20191223_145457.jpg

    The following four photos are of both faces of two different boards. You can see that I end up with one bad face, and one less bad face. The less bad face will look pretty decent with a lick of polish. The bad face would look terrible regardless of what I did, they have so much face checking that it just looks like crap. And therefore all of the face checking will be hidden away on the inside of the frame never to be seen again.
    IMG_20191223_144955.jpg IMG_20191223_145007.jpg IMG_20191223_145130.jpg IMG_20191223_145116.jpg


    After milling the legs, I stacked two on top of each other and started to think that they sure do look good as 5x5"s. I have the material here to do it, but luckily for me I know that it is more work so I quickly separated them never to think of it again
    IMG_20191223_144736.jpg

    I made the layout template yesterday. I wasn't happy with the photo I got of it. So I went over the lines with a fine point marker, and I also added in some of the hidden details like the side rails and mortices/tenons. That was a lucky move, because I had forgotten that I had splayed the lower side rails out to be in line with the legs. That meant the blank needed to be wider so I could cut the edges at an angle to match the legs. The two lower side rails that I had already glued up to make the width wasn't quite wide enough. Short by about 4mm. It doesn't really affect anything except for my pride, so I'll let it be and put the bad edge to the bottom of the bench.
    IMG_20191223_144750.jpg DSC05781.jpg

    I'll start the boring joinery tomorrow.

  8. #22
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    Nov 2011
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    Melbourne
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    I think you have become a timber snob [emoji3064][emoji3064][emoji3064][emoji41]


    Cheers Matt.

  9. #23
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    Oct 2014
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    Lol, am not! I'm just used to rejecting this sort of garbage timber on behalf of the customers because they are timber snobs for sure!. I'm willing to use this stuff for myself because I know it'll end up looking good enough, but mostly because it's cheaper than the alternative by a long long way

  10. #24
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    Oct 2014
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    Today I squared off the top of the legs. Remember that the legs are set to a slight angle, and I wanted the joint between the top rail and legs to be squared off because it looks better. The squared off face needed to be accurate. I first tried to make the cut on my panel saw using a terrible tapering jig and an unbelievably dull saw blade. My natural action was to grab the piece with my left hand and then push forward. The problem with that was my left hand was directly over the top of the cut line. So after a union meeting with my boss (he supplied donuts), we decided I would cut the waste off with the bandsaw and smooth the face with a hand plane making sure everything is kept square and accurate. All four legs are slightly different, but the joint faces are all square and plumb. The variance in the joint faces will result in the two upper rails having a slightly different shoulder length +/- 0.5mm.
    IMG_20191226_110943.jpg IMG_20191226_110922.jpg

    Then I could cut the mortises in the top of the legs to accept the tenons on the top rails. I would have preferred to use a router and edge guide, but because of the short taper on the top of the legs, there isn't really enough surface to balance the router on safely while making a ~50mm deep cut. So I had to dig out my poor mans festool domino. It's just an MDF mortise jig, but it's a bit of a pain to setup, not difficult, just time consuming. I also want to end up with squared mortises because it is much easier to place components accurately with squared mortises rather than rounded tenons.

    So after marking out the location of the mortises I went ahead and cut them using a 1/2" upcut spiral. I'm not a big fan of these spirals because the helix is too aggressive which is great for extracting the swarf as it is cut, but it also great for pulling the cutter out of router collet. I just do the router collet tighter than normal and check the cut depth often to make sure it isn't getting gradually deeper (a sure sign that the cutter is being pulled out of the collet). It didn't pull out today which is nice because it usually breaks the bit when it happens.
    IMG_20191226_111841.jpg

    I set the mortise jig to cut a slightly shorter mortise than needed so that I could square them off with chisels afterwards.
    IMG_20191226_140050.jpg IMG_20191226_140114.jpg

    You can see that the cut mortise is clearly short of my marks. Puuuurfect. You can also see that there are several practice marks, not so puuuurfect. I may or may not have forgotten that the top of legs will have a tenon to locate the top slabs. If I didn't make a full sized template before doing anything, there is a 100% chance that I would have cut all of the mortise and tenons before even realising that I screwed up.
    IMG_20191226_153628.jpg

    Then I could add a block of timber which was the correct width to limit the routers side travel so that I could create a twin tenon/mortise. I've never been a fan of wide/long tenons because of the small chance of breaking the side wall of the mortise out when test fitting the tenon. Mostly I dislike wide tenons because if the tenon is too thick, I can force it into the mortise and the mortise simply widens by bending the side wall out. By keeping a small web of material in the mortise, the mortise dimensions have a greater chance of remaining constant when test fitting tenons.
    IMG_20191226_154350.jpg IMG_20191226_154355.jpg IMG_20191226_154611.jpg IMG_20191226_154605.jpg

    I also had to move one of the stops on my jig to allow me to continue the shallow part of the mortise to form the haunch. Wasn't a big deal because none of my stops were accurately positioned. The top of the legs will receive a tenon later on, so the haunched section of the mortise didn't need to run all the way to the top of the leg yet. You can also clearly see my harry hack squaring of the top leg face. If they were the same, the transition from square to angled would happen at the same point
    IMG_20191226_163332.jpg

    Then I could square off the ends of the mortises. My mortise chisel is 12mm, but my router bit was 1/2" (12.7mm). It just meant that I had to pair down the inside walls of the mortise after squaring off the ends.
    IMG_20191226_171342.jpg IMG_20191226_181120.jpg

    I also have a second video up on YouTube for those that are interested. It all about milling and laminating the timber for this workbench. You may find an new/interesting technique for straightening long lengths on a short bed jointer. It works for me, for lengths much longer than the short 2250mm piece I was using in the video.

  11. #25
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    Oct 2014
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    Caroline Springs, VIC
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    With the upper rail leg mortises done, I could move on down to the lower rail leg mortises. It was a pretty simple because my mortising jig was already mostly setup. I just had to move the end stops on the jig to match the wider lower rail mortise. Once again, I have created a twin mortise so that it retains its integrity while test fitting the tenons.
    IMG_20191227_120245.jpg IMG_20191227_120404.jpg IMG_20191227_121228.jpg

    By using a block of timber, I limit the router travel to create the twin mortise.
    IMG_20191227_121419.jpg IMG_20191227_121624.jpg IMG_20191227_134216.jpg

    Then I could square up the mortises. Because the mortises are angled to the edge of the legs, I used a sliding bevel as sight guide to line up my chisel angle to.
    IMG_20191227_144748.jpg IMG_20191227_144759.jpg

    Apart from some dog holes drilled into the faces of the legs, the legs are done except for the top tenons. The top tenon is just a lug of timber which I use to locate the top slabs to the base frame. I have the choice of cutting the top tenon now before assembly, or after assembly. It is easier to make the actual cuts now while the leg is free from the assembly, but I don't know 'exactly' where the top shoulder should be or the exact angle that shoulder should run at because it needs to be perfectly inline with the top edge of the top rails. It is also difficult, not impossible, to get the shoulders of the top tenon to match each other because of the angle of the leg. So I opted to cut the tenons now, but just shy of my guesstimated marking gauge lines. I can then assemble the front and rear frames and chisel away the excess waste on top of the legs.
    IMG_20191228_114117.jpg

    To make the cuts on my panel saw, I have raised the blade to the approximate height and set my crosscut fence to be square to the blade (it's usual position that it very rarely moves from). Then using a piece of MDF which was made at the same time as cutting the legs to length and angle, I was able to push the legs off square from the crosscut fence to the approximate angle, +/- 0.1° which isn't close enough just to cut to the line. By cutting each shoulder on either side of the crosscut fence, I am able to get it all done without too much fussing about.
    IMG_20191228_114311.jpg IMG_20191228_114317.jpg
    Rinse and repeat on the other side of the fence with the leg flipped over.
    IMG_20191228_114428.jpg IMG_20191228_114440.jpg

    The panel saw setup was pretty close to getting the cut to be parallel with my marking gauge lines, but it is slightly out. I'll chisel away the waste after I have assembled the front and rear frames.
    IMG_20191228_114501.jpg

    It's only 1pm today and still plenty of work to be done on the base frame of this bench, but I have to catch up on a load of computer work. The house could use a clean too, but it will just get dirty again so maybe later

  12. #26
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Caroline Springs, VIC
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    Happy New Year everyone. My new years resolution is to work on a better bench of my own sometime "before the end of the year", I reckon I have given myself enough time

    This installment involves the most critical part of the build. Because I'm not just building your average square vertical legged bench, the splay of the legs creates a possible headache if I screw it up. By following a process meticulously I was able to fit the upper and lower front/rear rails without much of a problem or major gaps.

    First up I used my full sized template to locate the legs. Then I could lay the rails on top in the correct position. From there it is extremely critical that I don't bump anything while I mark knife lines onto the rails.
    IMG_20191229_123016.jpg IMG_20191229_123035.jpg IMG_20191229_123044.jpg IMG_20191229_123054.jpg IMG_20191229_123104.jpg

    If those knife lines are wrong, I will end up with gaps in the joinery. I have no choice to trust them, so trust them I did. The lower rail has angled tenon shoulders. I could set up my saw to cut to these lines perfectly, but it's a lot of farting around for a few cuts and I already have the knife lines that I can use a chisel on. The upper rail shoulders are supposed to be exactly 90°, but they were slightly off 90°, so I could use a chisel for those too. I used my saw to hog away the bulk waste and then chiseled to my knife lines. I made sure that I cut the cheeks slightly fatter than needed so I could refine the thickness to each individual mortise width with a HNT shoulder plane.
    IMG_20191229_151333.jpg IMG_20191229_161500.jpg

    Once I got the first 15mm of the tenon fitting into the mortise, I could cut away the cheeks to match the geometry of the mortise.
    IMG_20191229_162345.jpg IMG_20191229_165701.jpg IMG_20191230_155700.jpg

    After a bit of refinement, I have each tenon shoulder hard up against the legs with minimal gaps if any.

    IMG_20191230_135128.jpg IMG_20191230_135438.jpg

    Getting each joint to pull up hard against the leg is the easy part. But when you need four joints to pull up tight in what is effectively a rectangle, you need each joint to be an average of 90° (90° x 4 = 360°). If you end up with three joints at 90° and one at 91°, that extra 1° needs to be compensated for by way of introducing gaps into the joints. I did have a slight gap in each frame which was handled by removing some material on the shoulder or the edge of the leg. Both frames fit accurately into my full sized template which confirms my process, but more importantly confirms that I haven't introduced twist into the frame...yet.
    IMG_20191231_164405.jpg IMG_20191231_164709.jpg

  13. #27
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    Nov 2011
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    Melbourne
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    That’s looking really good Kuffy,an I personally like the “features” in the timber.
    365 day build time whooo that’s cutting it fine.

    Cheers Matt

  14. #28
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    Oct 2014
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    Quote Originally Posted by Simplicity View Post
    365 day build time whooo that’s cutting it fine.
    Nope, it's 2020. An Olympic year, a leap year. I get an extra day for the 29th of February. Tis the year to be building benches

  15. #29
    Join Date
    May 2010
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    Not far enough away from Melbourne
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kuffy View Post
    Nope, it's 2020. An Olympic year, a leap year. I get an extra day for the 29th of February. Tis the year to be building benches
    Hi Kuffy and Happy New Year.

    I am really enjoying your build, loved the youtube video. You really present well on video.

    I had better get a move on or you might finish your bench before I finish mine.
    I got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.

  16. #30
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    Oct 2014
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    Caroline Springs, VIC
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    Thanks Doug and Happy New Year. I worry about the presentation on YouTube, and I think that is justified given the little traction my videos receive. But slowly and surely the channel grows a little each day. Each video being viewed by a few more people each time. I've been doing this for 20 years and most days I hate it, but when I think about the future, woodworking is always in the picture.

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