Thread: WIP Shaker Workbench with Split Top

Hi Mike. LOOOOVE the grain! Do you know what it would be called traditionally? Flame? I have always thought that fiddleback was more curly interlocked grain than the rays you have. But I am sure I have seen your pattern on the back of lots of instruments. Great knob idea but how many more will you have to make (and how many #7's will be sacrificed)???

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Mike. LOOOOVE the grain! Do you know what it would be called traditionally? Flame? I have always thought that fiddleback was more curly interlocked grain than the rays you have. But I am sure I have seen your pattern on the back of lots of instruments. Great knob idea but how many more will you have to make (and how many #7's will be sacrificed)???

Thanks MA.

It was described as "fiddleback" by the seller (Sapherion) in the Marketplace and to be honest I have no idea what the technical definition of "fiddleback" and "flame" grain are and what differs one from the other.

And for the record, no #7's were harmed in the making of this workbench !!

No.....I haven't done any more work on the bench


Last year someone made a comment along the lines that I'd be too worried to ding up the bench to really use it. I can't remember who it was and I can't find the post. It doesn't really matter because I don't really blame who ever it was and I certainly didn't take it to heart. I'm sure there are others that thought the same. I think my reply at the time was I'll probably start out by being careful but that would soon go out the door as soon as I was in the thick of my next build. Well, I 've had several builds since then and have inflicted several booboos to the bench. I thought I'd share my most recent and biggest one thus far.....


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This arvo I drilled through my workpiece (Rosewood drawer front) and straight into my top by about 10mm. I didn't realise it at the time and proceeded to pour epoxy into the hole for a Purpleheart dowel. Yep, I almost doweled and epoxied a drawer front to the top of my bench !


It's a good thing I decided to move the piece somewhere else to cure because that's when I realised what I had done. My solution was to drill the hole deeper into the top and plug it with a Tassie Oak dowel.


As I've said previously, a workbench is a tool and not a piece of furniture. Anyhoo......I'm off to give the workbench some more "patina" !!!



Cheers,
Mike

Originally Posted by KahoyKutter

... This arvo I drilled through my workpiece (Rosewood drawer front) and straight into my top by about 10mm. I didn't realise it at the time and proceeded to pour epoxy into the hole for a Purpleheart dowel. Yep, I almost doweled and epoxied a drawer front to the top of my bench !
...

Congratulations, Mike; you have invented a stuff up that I have not yet made!

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Congratulations, Mike; you have invented a stuff up that I have not yet made!

Yep, if there's a way to stuff up, I'll be sure to find it !!

I've finally pulled the finger out and have started making the drawers. First step is to fit the front and back faces. I'm going to be doing them in batches starting with the bottom row.



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Here are the faces just press fitted. The fit is still quite tight requiring to be tapped in. It's been so long since I made the drawer faces and as a result of not storing them correctly, they all have cupped as can be seen in the above photos. I jointed the back sides to get a flat reference surface to work with, but I couldn't flatten the fronts with the thickie because of the protruding handles. I'll deal with the fronts after the drawers are built and assembled.


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I crept up on the fit with my shooting plane and board. In the past I would've just used the table saw but I'm making a concerted effort to get less gaps in my joinery.

I milled the drawer sides at the same time when I made the drawer faces, but because they're quarter sawn Tas Oak, they didn't cup like the drawer faces. As such, I could cut the dovetails once I cut them to the finished length and squared the ends on my shooting board. I decided to do these in pairs by sticking them together with double-sided sticky. That way the two sides of each drawer will be identical.


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My handsawing hasn't improved so I decided to cut the dovetails on my table saw with a custom ground blade. The blade has been grond for a 1:6 dovetail angle, or 9.5 degrees.


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I didn't realise it would be so hard to separate the two sides. I ended up using a putty knife and cap iron.


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I guess I made a rookie error by using so much double-sided sticky. Next time I'll know to use it sparingly. I also used 2 different brands. I'm not sure where I got the wide tape from, but the narrower tape was from TayTools and it seems to peel off a lot easier without leaving the sticky residue. I had to use metho to get rid of the goo.




TBC....

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Next step is to cut a 1~2mm rebate on the backs of the dovetails. For this I chose to use a LN skew-rebate block plane. I really enjoy using this plane.


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The rebate on the back of the dovetails, along with my shop-made alignment jig, makes transferring the tails onto the pin board so much easier. I use a clamp to make sure the board doesn't move while I'm transferring the tails, but it's probably not necessary.


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To cut the mortises for the dovetails, I decided to use my trim router to hog out the waste. To do this I have to use a a couple of blocks of wood - one to clear the protruding handle and allow me to clamp the board, and the 2nd as a sacrificial piece to protect my moxon vice. The two blocks also support the trim router instead of just trying to balance it on the end of the board.


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I think this is the first time I've tried this method. At first I used a dozuki to partially saw the sides of the pins, but I've since learnt that this is an unnecessary step. Now I just hog out the waste and use chisels to remove the rest.





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Here it is all cleaned out. I use a Starrett 453E square to make sure the sides of the mortices are plumb or slightly undercut. Again an added step in my quest to get better joints. Installing the LN Twin-Screw Moson Vice on the end of my bench was an inspired move on my part and it was the MVP on this build so far.


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Here's the result. I'm quite happy with the outcome. The largest gaps are on the half-pins and it's because I decided to cut the shoulders on the dovetail board on my table saw. The problem with this method is the waste piece got sandwiched between the blade and my stop block which resulted in deflecting the blade a smidge. Next time I'll use my dozuki and chisel down to the line.


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Here is the drawer dry-fitted. I'm happy to report that it sits completely flat without any twist or wobble. I still have to cut the rebate for the base and then fine tune the fit. Judging by how long it has taken me so far, I reckon it'll take me a week to complete the bottom row including flattening the faces.

Hi Mike. Happy New Year. Great to see some updates.

Beaut work Mike, I don’t envy you cutting all those dovetails but….

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Mike. Happy New Year. Great to see some updates.

Happy New Year to you as well MA.

Yep, I figured it was about time I did some work on the bench. I've now functionally got some drawers. I still have to pretty them up and apply some finish, but I think I'll do that once all 9 are done for some consistency.

Stay tuned for more photos of the drawer build to be posted soon.

Originally Posted by AndrewPatrol

Beaut work Mike, I don’t envy you cutting all those dovetails but….

Thanks AP.

Yep, I must be a sucker for punishment. 9 drawers, with half-blind dovetails on each corner, is bordering on masochism. I considered using through dovetails throughout and then just sticking a thick "veneer" of the figured Tassie Oak to the front, but for some reason that escapes me at this moment, I discounted that idea in favour of the method I'm currently using. I must have rocks in my head.

Glue up time !!!



I'll share a few photos and tips of my glue up for the benefit of the inexperienced, which I count myself as one not that long ago.


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The first thing I do is sand the inside faces to 180 grit.


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Then I chamfer the leading edges of the dovetails, which will be hidden once assembled. This is to help ease the pieces together and just in case I didn't clean out the corners of my mortices thoroughly.


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One final dry assembly which includes attaching some clamping pads to protect the pieces and help direct the clamping forces. This final dry assembly includes clamping the pieces together. This has the benefit of preparing my clamps to their desired lengths/positions. Even with the extended open time of Titebond 3, glue ups can get pretty hairy with the Brissie heat and humidity.





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Here's how much glue I generally apply. It's probably a bit too much but I'd rather a messy glue up than glue-starved joints. Note the wheelie bin doing double duty as an improvised work surface and clamp rack. You can see the clamps are still at their optimal lengths from the dry assembly. It's not shown in the photos, but nearby I have a bucket of water with a couple of shop paper towels to wipe any squeeze out and to dunk the glue brush to stop it from drying out.



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Nothing left to do other than assemble the pieces together and clamp the heck out of it. By my count, I used a dozen clamps.



TBC......

Originally Posted by KahoyKutter

Thanks AP.

Yep, I must be a sucker for punishment. 9 drawers, with half-blind dovetails on each corner, is bordering on masochism. ....

The pain will be quickly forgotten KK and then you can be quietly pleased with your craftsmanship.

A feel good story.

Michelangelo left extensive correspondence, and Vassari also wrote extensively about him and other Tuscan artists. It took Michelangelo four years from 1508-1512 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, working overhead on high scaffolding. He complained repeatedly and bitterly about the commission, including:

Bad. Working overhead for four years, Michelangelo had a constant sore neck and sore back,

Worse. Painting overhead, Michelangelo was constantly splattered with paint - it was "worse than pigeons," and

Worsest. His commissioning patron, Pope Julius II, constantly offered advice to Michelangelo on how the ceiling should be painted. "The sky should be bluer," "Another Cherub over here," and so on, but was eventually pacified - "Oh, you have depicted Adam in my likeness; how appropriate."

Even Worse. Michelangelo thought that he should have been paid more for this commission, and all his other commissions.

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Here are all 4 corners right out of the clamps.


The bottom row of drawers are approximately 555mm wide x 660mm deep (not incl the protruding handles) and 270mm high. The height presented a problem as it was more than the capacity of any of my vices.


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To clean up the corners with a hand plane, I first tried clamping the drawer to the top of my bench. This was not ideal because it meant I had to stand on a step ladder to plane the corners.



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So I came up with this solution using 2 lengths of 32mm MDF boards cantilevered off the bench. The RH board is clamped at one end and is stopped from sliding by a Veritas 450mm planing stop. The 2nd MDF board is also clamped at one end and pushed hard up against the inside face of drawer by a Veritas Quick Release Wonder Dog. The drawer is further secured to the bench with a couple of 1500mm Bessey clamps. This really did the trick although I did have to learn to plane left handed.




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Here are a couple of photos after planing. I'm very pleased with how they turned out with most of the gaps closing due to the end grain fibres breaking as a result of the handplaning. I'm particularly chuffed with the half-Purpleheart dovetail. It certainly wasn't planned, but it does show that that the dovetails were cut as half-blind DT and not through DTs with a thick "veneer" glued on to give the appearance of half-blind DTs.


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Here are all 3 drawers finally installed. Final shaping of the handles and planing the faces flush to be done at a later stage.


Fitting them proved to be more difficult then I was anticipating and it was one of those rare instances where I wished I owned the LN carriage makers plane. I learnt a very valuable lesson regarding material selection especially when it comes to drawer runners. When I installed the drawer runners more than year ago, I played no consideration whatsoever to the pieces I chose to use. I knew I wanted to use a harder species of timber than the plantation-grown Tassie Oak I had decided to use for the drawer sides. This was so the much simpler to repair drawer sides would wear out before the drawer runners. So with this being my only consideration, I opted to use some scrap pieces of Spotted Gum one that just happened to be fairly figured without thinking about how it would behave in time. One of these runners ended up bowing. It wasn't by much (about 1mm), but it was enough to cause a huge problem. I tried using a couple of my rebate block planes but they were no match for the interlocked SG. What I found to work was using the back of a chisel as a scraper. It was slow going but at least there was no tear out. It's times like these that knock me down a few pegs and remind me of how much I have still to learn. At least I'll know for the next time.




Cheers,
Mike