Thread: Another workbench WIP

I have more progress to report (but no photos yet). The mortices and tenons for the stretchers have been completed at one end of the bench. So we are now halfway through that process. I will then bore the holes for the drawboring and, with luck, assemble.

If I get a few evenings in the shed this week, who knows the legs may go together and be joined to the bench next weeked! (But I'm not holding my breath )

I'm glad to see you are back on this and looking forward to seeing progress.

Originally Posted by BobL

I'm glad to see you are back on this and looking forward to seeing progress.

As most of you already know, sometimes things just don't seem to go right! So very little progress was made this weekend.

I had thought that I would do the stretcher mortises and tenons for the last two legs. However, when I looked at those legs, I discovered that I hadn't done the tenons on the ends of the legs to fit them into the mortises in the benchtop Don't know how I convinced myself that I had done it already, but there you go!

Time was at a premium this weekend (supermarket shopping required; cricket matches to umpire for the son; ballet concerts for the daughter to attend; rubbish to be taken to the tip; lawn edges to clip), but I thought I would have enough time to at least do the tenons for one leg.

I marked the tenons out carefully, measuring two, three and even four times before starting to saw. I cut carefully to the lines (just a little on the waste side of the line). Then I held the tenons up to the mortices.

Surprise, surprise - they did not fit! They were out by between three and 5 mm! Expletives followed (deleted).

Exit from workshop, grumpy.

Last night, when I had more time and had calmed down a bit, I went back to look at the damage. Again I could not work out how I had made such a hideous botch up of the marking. Then dawn broke - I was trying to fit the tenons into the mortises on the other side of the benchtop from the one I had used for the marking! When I tried to match the tenons to the correct side they were much closer to fitting - just need some work with chisel and rasp!

So the result is no great loss, except for being delayed by a weekend.

Ahh... one the the classic mistakes. I have taken to marking all my joint components with matching numbers (Part 1 goes with 1, Part 2 with 2 etc) to try and avoid these botch ups. I still manage to make mistakes in other ways though. Gotta love the "what the hell" moments when you put things together and they clearly don't go. The relief when you realise you are holding the wrong parts is fantastic.

Originally Posted by pampelmuse

Ahh... one the the classic mistakes. I have taken to marking all my joint components with matching numbers (Part 1 goes with 1, Part 2 with 2 etc) numbers to try and avoid these botch ups. I still manage to make mistakes in other ways though.

I try the numbering stuff, too. But I generally wait until the first joint has been fitted - so I don't get multiples with the same number (DAMHIK)

Originally Posted by jmk89

I try the numbering stuff, too. But I generally wait until the first joint has been fitted - so I don't get multiples with the same number (DAMHIK)

The image of how organize you are has been shattered.

I've missed this Somehow!! Shame on me!!

Things are looking good!! The retrieval job with the mortices was well done. Keep it coming!

The third and fourth legs now fit into the benchtop! I just need to do the mortices and tenons for the stretcher and leg joints and then there may be a grand glue-up!

Here's a photo of the bench this morning:
Attachment 190775
Points to note:

1. the fourth leg has been removed to start work on the mortices

1. the legs at the far end and the double stretchers and the leg at this end are all just dry-fitted.

1. among the mess on the bench are the two long stretchers

1. my shed and bench are no tidier than usual, but maybe when this is finished.....

A case of two steps backwards.

As you can see from the last picture, the long stretchers were made from some treated pine fencing rails I had lying about. Error. That stuff is hopeless and waste of crapiata that could otherise be burned! After dry fitting the tenons into the mortices in the legs, I noticed that each of the tenons was beginning in crack at the base.

That would be very setrious, so the remedy was to rip some replacement stretchers out of some old (60-70 years as far as I can tell) reclaimed oregon. That stuff is much nicer to work with. One stretcher is almost completed and I hope to get the other one done tonight and tomorrow.

So delay has been suffered, but the bench will be better for it!

So the project has gone backwards a bit, but the

Glad you didn't use the treated pine Jeremy

Looking forward to it taking shape!

Today, I managed to glue up the under carriage and attach it to the work surface.

Here are some photos. You will see that I only just had enough big clamps.
Attachment 193962

Attachment 193963

Attachment 193964

Attachment 193965


Screwing up in new ways every day

After a bit of a delay, I have got back to work on the bench. This weekend, I installed the fixed leg vice.

Over the last few months, I have picked up a couple of old cedar vices with metal parts including a nice coarse Acme-threaded screw, garter and bottom part (I've forgotten its name). Here is a photo of the one that I am going to use for the sliding leg vice - it is similar, but not identical to, the one I used for the fixed leg vice.
Attachment 198345

Here is a picture of the leg part with the bottom bit pegged and glued with epoxy and the screw.
Attachment 198341

The leg itself has a hole for the screw and the plate for the bottom piece to slide in.
Attachment 198342

On the back of the leg is the threaded piece for the screw to run in (sorry no photo - the quality was such that the threaded piece was just a black blob).

Here are some photos of the vice in position.
Attachment 198343Attachment 198344

You'll also notice that I have created a line of dog holes. The next task will be to put an end vice at the right hand end to be able to use those dog holes effectively. I will probably install an old Record 52 that I have floating around to use as the end vice.

I like that first vice. I wonder what its initial purpose was.