IN JOE’S WORKSHOP

It was a long month but I finally got back in the workshop and in a few days made great progress on my bench. The punchlist of things to do is now very short, and most are cosmetic.

For the tail-vise I’ve still got to turn a handle. I’ve attempted two and had one crack from an unseen defect, the other I snagged with the skew and it exploded on the lathe. I’ve also got to scrape the top, oil it, and make 2 holes for bench dogs.

For the drawers I need to turn the knobs, apply finish one drawer, and figure out what to do for knob/handle for the small one in the middle top. I also need to finish the face frame.

I also need to make a couple of wooden bench dogs, and the top could use another 5 gallons of oil/wax. Other than that I am done. How far done? Today I took the old bench, chopped 16 inches off the end and took off the old vise. I’m going to chop it down a foot and use it as an assembly table.

So here’s where we stand. This is a pic of the bench from a distance (I had to stand at the door behind the t*bles*w to get the whole thing in the frame, besides it hides the defects of which there are a few…)

I'll finish the last false front tonight, maybe turn a few knobs.

Here’s the front vise. It’s 24″ long. The handle is about 20″ and is from a piece of maple. That one turned easy once I sharpened my tools. Don’t know why the one for the tailvise is giving me such fits. The wood is ash in the middle with oak laminated on top and bottom. You gotta work with the wood you’re given.

One knob is held on by a dowel and can be removed if the handle needs to come off the vise.

Now we get to the tail-vise. I went with the LV hardware, which came with instructions written in some long forgotten dialect of latin. Many people sent pics or advise on how they assembled or made their vise, but without an example from the exact same hardware I just wasn’t getting it. Then Chuck Myers saved the day. He sent me 33 photos (14 megs!) showing IN ORDER all the steps he took to make and assemble his LV tail-vise (done in figured maple no less – everyone who sent me pics had some sort of figured maple. Is this a right of passage thing to make a bench of $900 a bf lumber, or am I the only guy in America not getting free figured maple from my neighbor?). THANK YOU CHUCK!!! I have no doubt that without these pics I would still be vise-less. For my vise I’ve still got to turn the handle, scrape the top, and make 2 holes for the bench dogs. But here’s a pic of where it stands now. The dark wood is goncallo. The top will look like the side once I get done with it. I had enough small scrap to glue-up these pieces. the trim is maple and is used to hide the imperfections where I didn’t miter every piece correctly (you try and make a hollow cube with all sides mitered, starting from a less than square center!) On the trim I learned the importance of installing all the trim so grain runs in one direction – those corners were a real pain to plane flush. Oh yea, I need to put a leather face on it too. Here’s the pic of where it stands so far:

Still needs some work, but its functional now. THANKS CHUCK!

You still with me? Last thing to look at are the drawers. There are 17, in 3 columns. They sit in a carcass that can be disassembled if I want to reconfigure the whole thing into 2 or 4 columns down the road. The drawers sit on L-shaped runners that stack on top of each other. These keep the drawers from racking, or tipping when pulled out. Many people suggested these to me and I have to say they were easy to make and install – I just measured them to be about 1/16th – 1/8th higher than the drawer sides. I assembled the bottom ones and then it was just a matter of stacking one on top of the other. I still need to finish one false drawer front, turn 32 knobs (the one in the 1st pic was just to see if I liked the look, I didn’t) and make one small drawer pull. I also need to finish the face-frame, which is also easily removable/replaceable if I want to reconfigure the drawers.

The Drawers. The front for the top-middle is drying somewhere. The top-left needs finished still.

I really thought I’d have the top 100% done by now, but if there was a mistake that could possibly be made, I’ve made it. And I’ve studied every diagram I can get my hands on, but still can’t figure out how to put the tail-vise together.

Here’s where I am now:

Top glued-up, flattened, front-vise installed. Need to fix a few dings, one big gap, and put the tail-vise together.

It came out at 7′8″ long, 36″ deep. Once I got the main part of the top done I flattened it. Because I had some trouble with the glue-up it was a bit warped so I used a router and jig to get the very high spots and to make some reference lines at 12″ intervals, moved on to a smoothing plane, then a #7 jointer. It is super-flat, except for the very front which I screwed up (I may have to rout 1/4″ off the top front strip and put an inlay in there to even it up). Then I added the skirting, flattened that, added the front-vise (the handle is still on the lathe – I was able to make one that worked, but not one that looked good, out of a scrap piece of rock-maple. It planes real nicely but on the lathe it looks like s&^t.) and did some cleaning up. I’ve still got to fix a few dings and one gap in the front-right corner where I didn’t cut a piece perfectly square. I’ll put a filler piece in there and sand it flush, it will be hidden by the tail-vise.

That is, it will be hidden IF I can figure out the tail-vise. I’ve got the Lee-Valley tail-vise hardware (looks like a U-shaped piece of metal with a large screw. It comes with one poorly mimeographed instruction page. I’ve got instructions from other people on how they did their vise, which helps quite a bit, but I’m still not 100% certain on how to put it together. I’ve tried a mockup in pine (two actually), but it wasn’t even close to working. I found the LN instructions and thought they were the same, but when I read more I realized that it wasn’t even close.

Once all that is done I need to figure out an oil/wax finish that doesn’t involve double-boilers and explosive liquids so I can put a protective coating on the top. The oak in the middle has some open-grain that I need to fill.

And then I can move on to the drawers.

Should be done by Christmas.

Or maybe New Years – 2015.

It’s been a while since I reported on the progress of my workbench build (37 spam messages to be exact). It’s been slow going. I got the top down from 22 strips of wood to 7 glued up planks, then down to 5. But there’s one piece I’m not happy with so I may replace it before I finish the glue-up. Once the top is glued, I still need to trim both ends, fit the skirting on, dog holes, vises (visii? I’ve got two so let’s go with the Arabic dual form “visayn”.

For the compartment underneath, I’ve got the framing done and have plenty of strips sized for the face frame, I just need to make 15 drawers. It was going to be 9, but then a wise galoot said that they’d be too deep. So I made them shallower and ended up with five per stack, three stacks. That space underneath is 52″ between the legs. The overhang on the left is 16″ once the skirt is on, and about 23 on the right side where the tail-vise will go.

Here’s a pic. Right after taking it I glued together two more of the planks, they’re clamped up now. While they sit I’m going to make 3 of the smallest drawers (the top one in each row).

Here's what it looks like so far. The top isn't all done yet, and I will need to fill some nots on the bottom rail.

The shelf that is underneath the top by about 5″ – right now it’s covered with three pieces of 1/2″ plywood set in grooves. I don’t really like the look of the oak plywood and if it doesn’t stain up nice I’ll take some scraps and glue up regular panels to replace them.

So that’s it, I’m making progress – slowly – and should be done in another month or so.

Spent the last couple of days putting together the back part of the new workbench. It hasn’t been easy. For the bottom rail I picked the nastiest piece of 4×6 to work with. I didn’t notice until I’d cut it to rough length that it was twisted quite a bit – somewhere between a twizzler and a pretzel. The correct method of fixing this would have been to use the little scrub plane (front of pic).

Scrub Plane in Front, #6 in the back.

Of course I was in too much of a hurry for that. Instead I used the #6 because it was right there. I knocked off the high spots, put the somewhat flat side against the tablesaw fence and ripped. Then I took the new face, knocked off the high spots, and put that side against the tablesaw fence. A few iterations of that and I had a straight piece of wood to work with.

Of course that came with a price – more burn marks (like on the top of the top rail). Those will come off quickly with the plane when I do the final fitting and cleaning up. So what’s it look like? Here’s a shot of the back so far. It was supposed to have 3 panels. Now it’s got two. I’ve got one done, and one ready to shape tomorrow morning.

Note the burn marks on the top rail. That will come out with a plane.

The top rail sticks down about 5.5″. That will be a shelf above the drawers that is open both in front and back. And you’ll notice there’s room for three panels, but I said I’m only doing two. I decided just before routing out the dado for the middle panel that I didn’t want one. Instead I’m going to put a shelf or box in there. It will be small – 10×17 and 4″ deep. I’ve got some goncallo alves shorts that will stand out nicely. I’m still deciding on final look, but I’m picturing a box that would swing down on a hinge to reveal some tools. If nothing else, I’ve got enough chisels that I can put some in there and some in the front so that I’ve always got something close at hand. And since nothing is glued together yet, I can always change my mind at the last moment and put a panel in there (I’ve got the boards cut and ready to glue up.)

So that’s where it stands. Tomorrow I finish that 2nd panel, do a bit of finessing of the mortises/tenons and then start with the framing for the drawers – Those should be very simple. Of course eventually I have to think about the top, and how I’m going to move a massive glued up plank from assembly area to the top of the bench by myself. I may have to ask around and see if anybody’s got an engine hoist or something, but that is a problem for another day.

I’m almost finished with the ends of the new workbench. Today I finished with the mortises and the panels, dry fitted everything. So far so good. The ends are 32.5″ wide, 32″ tall. I still need to trim the tops flush and I may, while I’m at it, knock the height down to 31″. Here’s a pic of one:

Need to trim the top flush and shorten the middle rail a hair.

The 2nd one came out perfect except for trimming the height. This one (pic above) I need to take a shoulder plane to the middle rail to shorten it just a bit and make the right stile fit flush. Then I’ll do the finish smoothing to make it pretty.

The back will be like the sides, but different. It will have 3 vertical panels, two end stiles like these, two middle stiles, and two long rails – one on top and one on bottom. In the pile of wood I bought were four glued up pieces 3.5″ x 40″ x 6.5″ that I didn’t want to waste. So I ran them through the Performax to see what they looked like with all the glue removed and they weren’t too bad. I cut them down to 33″ and finished cleaning them up. I think they will make decent stiles. The two end ones will be rabbetted into the ends, so I’ll leave them a bit longer, but the two middle ones I’ll rip down to 4 or 4.5″. Here’s what one looks like after a quick run through the sander with rough grit:

There is a hole that runs through each of these. The original glued up blocks had two bolts in each one. I removed the bolts but won’t need to plug the holes because they are on the sides and the panel will just hide them. I’ll pick the two that look best for the middle stiles, use the ones that look more glued up for the end stiles.

I was surprised how easy the panels were to make. I should be able to do all the rough work for the back tomorrow, as well as cleaning up the ends. Then it will be on to the framing for the drawers that will go underneat the top. But before I do all that I need to figure out how long this thing will be – that will determine how long I make the back.  I’ve been leaning towards 7′, but that was based on a depth of 30″. Now the depth is up to about 34″ so I dont’ know – 8 feet long maybe?

My present bench is made of 4×4 pine legs and a glued up 2×4 top.  A good wind coming in the door will move it a couple of inches. So when I saw an ad on Craigslist for some “tan oak” for $75 I jumped at the chance. I couldn’t tell by the picture, but when I showed up to buy there was approximately 375 bf of 4×6 beams, and 6/4 boards all 8′ or longer. It took a few days to get it to the house, but now its here and I’ve started on a new shaker-style workbench. I’m kinda winging it. I’d hoped to build something about 30″ deep, 7′ long but now that the frames for the end are cut out it’s looking to be closer to 34′ deep so I’ll probably go 8′ long just for looks. I spend the last couple of days cutting out the 10 pieces that form the frames on each end and surfacing them. I’ve cut the 12 tenons for the rails and am working on the mortises. It took most of the day to chop the 1st 6, but that’s because the first one was a learning experience. Once I realized I had the proper chisels, and found them, it started going much smoother. It’s amazing how much faster and cleaner a 1.5″ mortise chisel chops through wood compared to a 1″ paring chisel. I’ve got 3 of the remaining 6 mortises pre-drilled and hope to chop them out in the morning. (After I hit an estate sale advertising tools…)

Once I finish those I’ll choose boards for the panels – 2 on each end. I’ll post pics once I get the panels for the ends done.

There are already a number of 8′ long boards ripped and surfaced for gluing up into a top, with a little luck I will only need to prepare 3-4 more. But since I haven’t ordered the end vise hardware yet, that’s got to wait.

I’d never heard of tan oak (tanoak) before, and had to ask the Galoots on the Old Tools List. It’s an evergreen that grows acorns. It looked like dirty white oak to me, and once surfaced it looked a lot like white oak but with less of the figure, but still just as hard and heavy as oak. Turns out the tan comes from the tannic acid in the bark. I wasn’t worried since there wasn’t any bark on my boards, but so far every time I’ve touched the wood my hands turn black. It seems to wash off easily, but hopefully this characteristic will go away once the bench is done and a finish applied.