Thread: (Another) Workbench WIP

It's going to be a nice workbench. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Hi Alistair,

You have been busy. Well done. Looking great. Thanks.

Cheers
Pops

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Nice going. I particularly like the dog hole jig.

Hi WW, I can't take the credit for that. I'm largely dependent on the wisdom of Keith Rucker at:

http://pages.friendlycity.net/~krucker/Bench/index.htm

After a weekend away down the coast, I took an extra days’ leave, to make up for the lost “shed time”.

While not all that much got done, this was rewarding effort, as things start to look like they are getting somewhere!

The DHS/ endcap assembly was dry fitted, and the length of the DHS marked off from the slab. The excess was cut off, and the fine adjustment at the tail vice end done on the disc sander. Taking care to keep any glue out of the big dovetail, glue was applied to the DHS, and the assembly eased into place and aligned, before clamping. (pic 1) Once the clamps were snugged up, the endcap was driven out, and the clamps fully tightened, and left overnight. The whole top was turned “right side up”, and it was time for some exercise!

To avoid having to plane “cross grain” later, I planed the DHS down flush and square to the slab. For the same reason, I also planed both ends of the slab, to remove the leftover tracks from the router planing. An interesting exercise! That stuff is cranky. The conventional 45 deg planes, (Muji, Record, Woody, homebuilt) were NOT HAPPY. They either skated, dug or chattered, and even where they didn’t, the grain tore out spectacularly. Further, only a couple of strokes took the edge off them. I have not yet got round to turning my “Thumbsucker” blades into 60 deg smoothers, a la Terry Gordon so I resorted to taking an old coffin smoother, which had a substantial blade, and reversing the iron to”bevel-up”, giving me a 75 deg “scraper plane” (with a very wide mouth. While a b*gger to push, and very slow, this did an acceptable job on the slab ends. I might leave the main area of the slab until after I make the new plane, however!

Next was to glue the left endcap into place. Glue was liberally applied to the dovetail, and the first 100mm of the rebated end, and the endcap “coaxed” into place with the mallet. It was then clamped at the dovetail, and an improvised long bar clamp used to snug the back up. (pic 2) The rest of the breadboard end was left glue free, to allow for movement.

Taking a step back while waiting for the glue to dry, it was nice to see that it is starting to look like a bench at last. (pics 3 & 4)

With a long week-end since this update, there is more to come this week.

regards

Hi Alistaire,

Coming along very nicely. Looks great already. Certainly gave those F clamps a pressure test. Top thread, waiting for the next instalment.

Cheers
Pops

I have again been “doing” rather than “writing”, so a catch-up installment.

The next thing to get attention was the RH endcap. First this was cut to measured length, and the hole and cutout for the tail vice done. The tail vice screw was also fitted. (pic 1)
While also set up with the same sliding breadboard construction as the left, the execution is different, due to the need to absorb the clamping forces from the tail vice. No glue used here, instead, the same technique as for the stretchers in the base ----- drilled to take a 5/16 bolt, and access chiseled from under the slab. Following tightening, I doubt if this will budge, and wood movement is still possible! (pic 2)

With the endcaps in place, it was time to start on the rear apron and tool till. The machined apron was clamped up to the endcaps, and the tails marked with the marking knife. (pic 3) Tails were then cut on the bandsaw, and waste chiseled away. In the meantime, the toolwell bottom was resawn, and jointed and glued. (pic 4) As I have adapted Keith’s design, but deviated in a number of aspects, I now had to get clever. My (much) thinner slab would have meant a very shallow well, so I decided to add some depth. I had some scraps of Cedar, which would serve, but I first had to extend by scarfing on a bit. (pic 5) After machining up, this was then clamped to the edge of the toolwell. (pic 6) The appropriate slot was routed in the rear apron, and the dovetails fitted, and glued up and the apron clamped into place. (pic 7) Once that had been cleaned up with the plane, the finally machined tool well bottom was eased into place, and screwed down. (pic 8)

It was then time to pick up on some of the detail bits. First some of the offcuts from the toolwell bottom were pressed into service to close off the back of the dogholes. (pic 9) and the supporting beams (radiata) were cut and fitted. Again due to changes to the design, this was a bit fiddly, as they had to be fitted around each other or machined to fit. (pic 10)

With all that out of the way, it was time to regroup, before moving on to the next stage.

regards

Back with the next installment!

It was time to move on to fitting the front vice. Again this meant fitting in the best solution around the “as-built” constraints.

Again the thinner slab intruded, as it would have left me with a very shallow vice. I solved this by packing out the hardware, to bring it down to the bottom of the vice jaw. (pic 1) With these dimensions established, the vice jaw was roughed out, and the carriage position transferred, to allow it to be marked for drilling. The appropriate drill was inserted to locate the starting points for the 3 holes. (pic 2) The holes were then bored, (exact for the rods, and 5mm over for the screw) on the drill press. (pic 3) I drilled until the tip broke through, and then completed from the opposite side, to prevent breakout. I was accurate enough here, and the hardware slid home snugly. (pic 4)
To provide more “meat” where the rods pass through the DHS, and to match depth of the vice jaw, a support block was machined up, allowing clearance for the dogholes. (pic 5) This was glued and screwed into place, before drilling the DHS. (pic 6)

Family duties beckoned, so a temporary hold was called.

regards

Looking better every day Alastair. It makes me wish I had some time to get back to mine.

As the long weekend wore on, we continued to make progress, albeit more problematically!

The drilling of the front went less smoothly. The vice jaw was clamped into place in the correct position, and the drill bits again used to mark the position of the holes. These were drilled by hand drill, relying on the combined efforts of myself and no. 1 son to keep them mutually perpendicular. Between the marking and the drilling, however, we drifted a bit off, and a bit of “drill reaming” was needed to get the jaw into place. Even then, we had ended up a bit shallow, (pic 1) and had to thin down the packing pad to get a final fit. Once satisfactory, the hardware was replaced, and the “vice” screwed up tight in its correct position. The carriage holes were drilled, and the carriage attached with coach bolts. Once secure, the vice was retracted, and the rest of the bolts inserted. (pic 2) I doubt if that baby will be moving, but I hope NOT to be proved wrong.

That concluded work on the underside, and marked the point for a clean up, and some status pics. Firstly a couple of pics of the underside, with the hardware installed, and the apron cleaned up. (pics 3 & 4)

Finally, and at long last, no.1 son was dragged from the X-Box, and the top turned over, and with some necessary trimming of the top bearers to fit, the beast was revealed in its (raw) state for the first time. (pics 5 & 6) I then finished up the long weekend by starting the clean-up of the top slab, but soon decided that I was tired, the planes were blunt, the slab was too hard, yada; yada…….. and it was time for a few cold ones. I couldn’t however resist sanding up patches of the top, and front apron, and applying some shellac, to see how it might scrub up. No too shabby, I thought! (pics 7 & 8)

Just the tail vice to go!!!

regards

Originally Posted by Alastair

No too shabby, I thought! (pics 7 & 8)

Just the tail vice to go!!!

regards

Hi Alistair,

Yes you thought right, not too shabby at all. Can't wait to see the whole thing with the shellac treatment. Is going to be a beauty.

Looking forward to the detail on the tail vice construction, (there are so many variations). Keep the photos coming.

Cheers
Pops

After 4 days off at the office, I felt recovered enough to leap in again!

Did I say “just the tail vice to go”?

Once again I was confronted with the consequences of my design changes, together with the confusion engendered by multiple serial changes from inches to mm and back. I was tempted to put it in the “too hard” box, and looked at reverting to the box design seen elsewhere on this forum in Lord Nibbo’s spectacular bench, but my dimensions did not easily adapt, and I definitely did not want to be confined to the single dog hole in his design. In the end, I took Keith Rucker's advice and built a mock-up from scrap, to try and fit the adapted design together.

Ultimately this was the right decision, as first of all, it highlighted a number of areas where I had missed the point from his descriptions, and it allowed me to see exactly how the functionality of the various elements fitted together, and also how I could adapt them to my changed circumstances. (pic 1) What is not obvious from the pic, without a close look is the number of times bits had to be bandsawed off, and/or glued back, (circled in red) until it all made sense! What was the most significant was determining the correct positions for the runners and the notch, (arrowed in blue).

With that out of the way, it was off to the Timber merchant, and 2 more boards of Vic Ash. Once again, these were cut to size, thicknessed, and laminated up to the size needed. Once glue had dried, it was time to cut and machine the fairly massive components to final size. (pic 2) At this point, some 4 ½ m of 125 x 25 board was already included!.

The components were marked up for the joints, (through dovetails for the main pieces, and finger joints for the rear runner), and they were cut on the bandsaw. The cuts for the pins were made using the previously made jig. There then followed an eternity of chisel bashing, to chop out the waste. One thing became obvious, and that was my old trusty Record chisels are not up to the task, particularly in VA, with the edges turning back almost at once. By the end I was getting very good at freehand work on the oilstone!

The cleaned up pins were again used to mark the tails directly, and once these were cut out, and the joints fitted, the positions for the slab cutout and runner notch were determined, and cut in the front jaw. (pic 3)

The next stage was to rout out the dogholes in the DHS. As these need to incline the opposite way to the bench holes, I had to reverse the jig, by gluing on another fence, and then bandsawing off the original, thus preserving the exact jig layout. (pics 4 & 5) I also decided to use a split top cover, both to match the timber I used for the slab, and to avoid the problem of chopping out the top holes. To do this, the prepared cover strip was clamped in place with the doghole jaw, the jig added, and the assembly routed in its final orientation. As the jig etc was the same, it matched the dogs I had already made. (pics 6 & 7)

Then came “The Great Glue-up”. Although I had adjusted the joints to give a (tight ) fit, I underestimated the amount of swelling the glue would incur. Getting it together became a close run race, with energetic use of mallet , followed by the addition of copious numbers of clamps. Fortunately it finished within 1mm of flat and square, which was a better result than I expected. (pic 8)

Once the glue dries, it will be on to the fitting. With luck I should break the back this weekend.

regards

Your new bench is coming along quickly Alastair.

Plan changes do make life interesting. One day day I will make something exactly to plan.

I like the dimensions of your bench and the tool well.

Have fun with the tail vice this weekend.

It is a change when you have a weekend where you don’t spend all that much time on a project, but seem to make great progress.

With the clamps removed, all accessible joint surfaces were cleaned up with the plane, and the top surface planed flat. It was then time to cut and dimension the front runner. This was sized with the vice in place, and then glued and clamped in place, and rechecked. (pic 1) Even with this, I ended up with some rocking once the vice was in position. Some judicious trimming of the vice jaws dealt with that. With the clamps removed, the runner was drilled and screwed to ensure it stayed in place. The rest of the exposed doghole backs were then covered with a panel of 1/8” ply glued in place.

Next was to laminate up the end block, (pic 2) followed by jointing and machining to size. While waiting for the glue to dry, I cut out and fitted the bench dogs, using offcuts from the (very) hard bench slab. (pic 3) Thanks to Ian on the forum for the brilliant idea of using “ball and spring” cupboard latches for holding the dogs in position. Recessed and pressed into place with a drop of CA, they work perfectly!

With everything laid out in position, the position of the cut-outs was marked out, and then cut on the bandsaw.(pic 4) Once done, the slide and block were clamped in place. (pic 5) As expected, the whole assembly locked up solid!. There followed a series of fine adjustments, until with everything clamped up, the vice would slide smoothly, but without any play. (pic 6) The blocks were then drilled for the coach bolts to hold them in place. Before bolting down, the vice jaw assembly was taken to the drill press, and the finger joints drilled and dowelled for strength. In addition the hole for the vice screw was marked. As this could not be managed on my little drill press, drilling was done using hand drill, and help of no. 1 son, with more success than for the front vice. (pic 7)

With everything tidied up, and sharp corners and edges chamfered, the whole was bolted into place with coach bolts, and the vice screw installed. While a little stiff, operation was acceptable, with no free play. (pic 8) A quick wipe of shellac onto non-working surfaces, and it was time for the moment of truth!!

No. 1 son was again dragged away from his studies, and the top turned right side up. I then couldn’t resist grabbing one of the neglected pieces from my lowline project, slipping a couple of dogs into place, clamping it up, and having at it with the jointer. Bliss!!!!!!!!!!!! (pics 9 & 10)

Now it is time to do the finishing off. Top cover on the tail vice to be glued up and fitted, Front vice jaw to be tapered, and detailed, followed by the dreaded planning and sanding.

Target is completion this week, as SWMBO has me lined up for gardening next weekend.

Regards

Love your work!