It Lives...IT LIIIIIIVES!!!

By matthew
Jun 26, 2012

It's time that this build started to look like a bench and not just a couple of butcher blocks on saw horses. It's time to assemble the base and introduce the slabs to it for some base on slab lovin...

With the legs and rails ready to assemble the only missing piece was to lay out the holes for the drawboring and to make some pegs. The layout for the drawbore holes was a quick and easy process of simply dry fitting the rails into the matched leg and marking the center of the hole that was already drilled into the leg with a matched brad point bit.

Drawbore holes marked

With each tenon marked it was a simple task to offset the holes in the tenon by about 1/16"  towards the end of the tenon. The end result being as the peg is driven into the leg and tenon it will suck/draw the rail & tenon nice an tight against the leg.

With the rails and legs ready to assemble I turned my attention to making some pegs. I had initially intended to use some walnut dowel stock that I had left over from a previous project but forgot that the stock was actually 1/2"; not the 3/8" that I needed. Rather than place an order for some new pieces or head to the big box store for some oak dowels I opted to re-size the 1/2" stock I had on hand.

The easiest way to do this would have been to use a dowel plate to down size each peg. The problem? Well...I don't own a dowel plate. I had often thought about getting one for a top secret piece that I make (I may release it to the public one day...but till then all you need to know is that you don't need to know about it...you heard me!) but never got around to buying one. That's when I remembered something I read about another guild member just using some steel plate to make his own dowel plate (sorry but I can't remember who to credit for this...if it's you, let me know and I'll give credit where it's due).

Among woodworking another of my passions is Jeeping...and with that comes a serious amount of metal working...and with that metal working comes a stock of cut off/random pieces of box/bar/plate. As I dug through my scrap bin I happened across some 3/8" thick steep plate that I could make my own dowel plate out of. The best part is that it already had a 7/16" hole in it so all I had to do was drill another 3/8" hole and I was in business. I also took a few minutes to grind down each hole so that the edges were a nice and clean...and sharp 90*

Ghetto Dowel Plate

For those of you in the know you'll no doubt recognize my ghetto fab dowel plate was actually a leaf spring shackle in its prior incarnation...look at me...I'm recycling...

Where I have never attempted a process like this before I was kind of running blind. I had the process that Marc laid out the guild build video but still had a few questions that in all honesty were best answered by simply jumping in and doing it.

I cut my dowels to about an inch longer than I needed and started with the process of downsizing them. My first attempt was...well...a disaster. I took a utility knife and trimmed one end down so that it would fit into the 7/16" hole and started whacking it with a hammer...yeah...not the best idea. I did achieve the end goal of shaving the dowel down to 7/16" but it also crushed the fibers and looked like a rabid walrus gnawed on it for a few hours. There was no way that it was going to put up with another round of whacking it through the 3/8" hole in one piece. There had to be another way.

That's when I turned back to Marc's example and tried shaving the over sized stock down a bit with my block plane...what an eye opener. A few passes of the block plane was enough to allow the stock to be hammered through the plate without compressing the wood fibers and gave me a consistently sized peg.

Shaving the original dowels down

Oh yeah...it also gave me a chance to use the tail vise again...and how sweet it was...

Driving Dowels

Now that I had the pegs, it was time to assemble the base...hooooray!

Even though I opted to drawbore the entire base I also used a fair amount of glue in each mortise and on each tenon. I started by assembling each end of the base first to keep the pieces manageable until the very end. With each rail in place and the clamps on just tight enough so that I could make adjustments I double checked all measurements and made sure that the distance from the bottom of each leg to the bottom rail was the same across the entire base. With everything matching and in square I tightened up the clamps to a comfortable level and then slathered some glue into the drawbore holes and onto the pegs before driving them home. I was a tad skeptical about the whole drawbore process but am now a convert. After each peg was driven home the rails sucked up nice and tight against each leg without having to apply a huge amount of clamp pressure.

Base Ends Cooking

With the ends cooking nicely I turned my attention to the long rails. These were going to take a little more finagling than the ends. Rather than fight the entire base assembly I decided that the drawbore supplied enough clamping pressure that I could work on the piece end by end and then put the entire piece into the clamps, but I was still going to have to work fast.

Finished Base

With everything cooking nicely in the clamps all that was left to do was give it enough time to cure. In order to keep from wasting time I used the next 24 hours to clean out the bench's new home behind the table saw and next to the lumber rack. It's a good thing that I let everything sit for 24 hours, because I needed every minute available to clean that space out.

By the time the clamps were ready to come off, the bench's new home was clean, clear and ready for it to arrive. But before I put the base in its final home I took a few minutes to chamfer the bottom of the legs and give the entire base a good sanding. It also gave me the chance to prop up the slabs so that I could mark the mating mortises before positioning everything one last time.

Marking Mortises in the Slabs

Once I had the mortises marked in the top all that was left to do was to clean them out and get the bench into use.

Slab Mortises Cleaned Out

After hogging out the mortises with a router I cleaned everything up with a chisel, making each one nice and square. Along with cleaning out the mortises in the slab I also cut the groove for the dead man in the front slab. With those tasks down it was just a matter of flipping the entire thing over and mating the base to the slabs. Although it really didn't matter, I took a few minutes to level the base prior to setting the slabs in place. Nothing bugs me more than having a tool or something else roll off a work surface because it's not level...so for me, it was more of a matter of satisfying my inner crazy than anything.

With the base leveled and ready it was time to flop the slabs into place and make things permanent. Thankfully I sized the mortises perfectly and the slabs dropped right into place...what a satisfying thud it was when they dropped home.

 

Slab & Base Are One!

Up next: The Flatter the Better!

Total Build Time:

- 1.5 hours (lumber selection, transport & stacking)

-4 hours (Top Slab milling)

- 1.5 hours (slab prep and glue up*)

-0.5 hours (preliminary flattening of both slabs)

-0.5 hours (Final rough slab milling)

-0.5 hours (trimming end and bringing into flat & square)

-1 hour (cutting and finishing tenon)

-0.5 hours (milling and laminating end cap)

-2.5 hours (milling screw cavity support & routing screw cavity – includes markup/layout)

-0.5 hours (routing mortise in end cap)

-0.5 hours (fine tune end cap fit)

-2 hours (drilling and installing end cap – includes markup/layout)

-1 hour (milling rough stock for dog hole strip and laminate cap)

-2 hours (production of dog hole template & routing of dog holes)

-0.5 hours (glue up of dog hole strip and laminate cap)*

- 0.5 hour (glue up and alignment of dog hole strip to front slab)*

-0.5 hour (milling of front slab dovetail strip)

-1 hour (set up and layout of End Cap Dovetail)

-1.5 hours (milling and fine tuning of End Cap Dovetail)

-0.5 hour (front strip/dovetail glue up)

-3 hours (routing front slab  & installing tail vise)

-22 hours (cleaning, coating, baking and cooling of Vise hardware)**

-1 hour (initial milling of legs)

-1 hour (leg glue up)*

-2 hours (milling base rails to final dimensions)

-1 hour (milling of legs to final dimensions)

-2 hours (setup and cutting leg tenons…includes Mr. Cock Up)

-2 hours (layout & cutting of mortises in legs, drilling dog hole access & hold fast holes)

-1 hour (cutting rail tenons)

-2.5 hours (fine tuning mortise & tenons & dry fitting base)

-1.5 hours (cutting and dimensioning bench dog stock)

-1 hour (routing bench dogs to profile)

-0.5 hour (fine tuning bench dogs to shape)

-1.5 hours (bench dog assembly & fit-n-finish)

-0.5 hour (dimensioning & laminating chop stock)*

-3 hours (dimensioning & carving parallel guide)

-1 hour (fit & finish of parallel guide)

-2.5 hours (design & shaping of chop)

-0.5 hour (drawboring parallel guide & chop)

-2 hours (shaping & finish of parallel guides)

-4 hours (installation of nut block, parallel guides, phenolic bushing & fine tuning vice operation)

-0.5 hour (marking drawbore locations & drilling them out)

-1.5 hours (making dowel plate and dowels)

-1 hour (assembling the base)

-2 hours (leveling the base & mortising slabs)

-1 hour (fine tuning slab placement & attaching slabs to the base)

 

 

-84.5 hours total

*I haven’t included my clamp time in these figures if you want to add those figures in, each glue up sat for 24 hours

** I’m including the baking of my vise hardware into my build. If you don’t want to include this reduce the total by 22 hours

 

Tags: Wood, Woodworking, Maple, Roubo, Split Top Roubo, Split Top, Work Bench, Bench, Bench Crafted, wagon vise, glide vise, leg vise, vise, Alder, Red Alder
Posted in Split-Top Roubo | 0 Responses to "It Lives...IT LIIIIIIVES!!!"

Give'm Tha Clamps!

By matthew
Jun 26, 2012

Before I get too far ahead in the build I needed to take some time to focus on the leg vise assembly. Honestly I could wait on putting this together until the entire base is assembled, but the thought of working on 1 leg and being able to move it easily as needed is a far better thought than having to work around the entire base.

I was lucky to have had 1 board from the lumber yard that was wide enough to meet my needs for the vise chop, but it was only 8/4 thick. What this meant is that I was going to need to laminate two pieces together to achieve my 12/4 needs. The board also had some interesting figure at one end that I opted to use as a focal point in the face of the chop.

Glue up of the chop

Chop Face Figure

 

The next piece to this puzzle is the design of the chop and in all honesty is one of two pieces that I have been dreading. Well dreading is a strong word...more like contemplating ever since the start of the build. The reason I've been in such turmoil over this piece is that it's such a key piece and can be such a reflection on the builder. And have we met? I'm a bubbling cauldron of design indecision...hence the weeks and weeks of fretting over the design. Over the weeks I've come up with several different prospects but could never pull the trigger. Designs ranging from Greene & Greene, Stickley, Molesworth, Western, Southwestern, basic arts & crafts etc...but none blew my skirt up...

So here I am...standing in front of a slab of hard maple, pencil in hand and wrought with indecision. That's when it hit me. The beauty of the Split-Top is its simplicity and what's more simple, yet striking than the art deco movement. So in a flurry of measuring and marking I had my lay out...a simple sun ray radiating from a tapered bottom with the rays stepping consecutively down the sides. But I deviated a tad from basic art deco design. I opted to make each ray slightly wider or narrow and deeper or shallow than the last. The last thing I wanted was the piece to feel machined or mass produced, which many art deco pieces fail at.

Before I started cutting into the slab I needed to layout the rest of the chop to accommodate the vise hardware and parallel guide.

Speaking of the parallel guide I then turned my attention to it in an effort to cement the art deco design in my mind. I was lucky enough to have a piece of quarter-sawn hard maple in my lumber rack that was just larger than what I needed. After cutting it to dimension I started laying out the bazillion and one holes that would ultimately be drilled in it. I also started thinking hard about any embellishments that I wanted to add to the tip of it...This is where I was going to make my mark and truly make this bench my own. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do. After a few minutes I had the piece marked up and ready to start making some saw dust, but hadn't really come up with any great ideas...oh well...I could stall a bit longer by taking a few pictures of the layout process... This is when it hit me. I picked up my phone and as it woke up, I noticed the wall paper I had on it and that's when I knew I had it. Need a hint? take a gander at the picture below of my phone's screen.

Inspiration

That's right...my parallel guide is going to be graced by a robot...and what a better fitting to an art deco piece than the addition of an art deco robot. The profile of Bender fit perfectly as the end to the parallel guide...it was meant to be...my all time favorite animation with the bench of a lifetime.

I decided to take the easy route and printed out a black and white template that I sized down to fit the exact height of the parallel guide and then used that as my hard reference. With the design penciled in I turned to the bandsaw and cut the end profile to my liking and then pulled my old art supply carving tools out of the drawer and started in on defining the rest of Bender.

Bender in the Rough

After a few more minutes of carving I was fairly satisfied Benders shape and turned my attention to the back side. I was a little torn between carving his face on the back side as well or making it...well, his back side. The thought of carving him facing in one direction was hilarious to me, but ultimately I decided to carve his face on the other side as well.

Finished Parallel Guide

With the carving done I turned my attention to drilling the bazillion and one holes for the guide pin and cut then cut the tenon in preparation of mating it with the chop.

I sat the parallel guide aside and turned my focus back to the chop...the best part of all of this was that my decision to run with the rising sun ray art deco design was still standing firm in my mind. With that finalized it came time to start cutting the chop down to size. Because of the thickness I was dealing with and the fact that it was also hard maple I decided to cut the taper at the bandsaw and then cleaned up the cut with an equal number of passes on each edge across the jointer; giving me a glass smooth finish. I then propped the chop up on end and gave it a long look. Were the sun rays still in the correct position? Were they distinct enough, deep enough, wide enough etc... Once I was happy with the design I started in on cutting the rays with a router.

Roughed out Sun Rays

Chop Sun Rays

With the rays finished up I turned my attention to shaping the top of the chop with a simple bevel and routing the mortise for the parallel guide.

Chop is Beveled

After drilling 2, 3/8" holes in the side of the chop I installed the parallel guide. I ran into a problem here...specifically the pegs I made to drawbore the guide to to the chop were a tad oversize. Not really a huge deal except they were being driven into hard maple which had no forgiveness for me. The end result is that the peg split and crumpled under the hammering before it even reached the parallel guide. Super awesome...I know...so in a rush I wiped out all the glue from the mortise and off the tenon and then turned my attention back to the broken pegs. Thankfully they broke in a place that was deep enough in the chop that I could drill out the peg without damaging the holes in the chop. After a few tense minutes I was back to square one and ready to try it again. This time I took an extra few minutes in sizing the pegs and had them to a snug but not tight fit...so with that I gave it another go and this time it worked beautifully. The drawbore pulled the parallel guide nice and tight to the chop and everything was nice and square.

Chop & Parallel Guide Drawbore

Up next was the need to transfer the center line of the vise screw clearance hole on the leg to the chop. In order to do so I had to introduce the chop to the leg for the first time. Amazingly I haven't screwed anything up yet and was able to transfer that line across without issue. With that done all that was left to do on the chop was to drill the vise screw clearance hole on the chop and install the vise.

With the vise screw installed in the chop it was time to locate the nut block on the back side of the leg. I opted to inlay the nut block into the leg rather than simply face mounting it. The problem with this is that I needed a way to accurately remove the stock in the leg. I could free hand the router around the lay out and then clean it up with a chisel, but why do that when I have a template bit that could easily accomplish this without issue, but alas I had no template...or did I.

I traced the nut block onto a piece of 3/4" MDF and then marked up the center of the area to be cut out. Because the nut block is round it actually made this process that much easier because I also have an adjustable circle cutter at my disposal. After over-sizing the hole by about 1/16" I cut the template.

Leg Vise Nut Block Template

With that done I could clamp it to the leg and clean out the material using a template bit. The fit was actually far better than I had expected...the template worked beautifully. I was then able to drill and tap the mounting holes for the nut block and install the vise in prep for the parallel guide blocks.

Nut Block Installed

I did run into a few problems while drilling and tapping the holes for the nut block. Because I don't have a brad point bit small enough I had to use a standard twist bit...the problem with this is that rather track strait in the wood it pushed off course due to the grain patters in the leg. What resulted was that the nut block shifted just enough that it caused some binding. I ultimately had to spin the nut block a few degrees and re-drill/tap new holes. These went much better and cleared up the binding issue I was experiencing.

With everything going rather swimmingly to this point it was time to turn my attention to building the parallel guide blocks. I decided to continue the art deco theme into these pieces too. I laid out several step cuts to the tops of each, each a different depth and thickness than the others and cut them out on the bandsaw. After cleaning the pieces up and installing the guide wheels it was time to bring all the pieces together as a complete vise.

Parallel Guide Blocks

When I installed the vise screw into the chop I initially noticed some binding, but it wasn't enough, nor regular enough that I gave it much thought...I actually chalked it up to the vise binding under gravity etc. Even after I installed the vise into the leg and tried to fine tune its operation with the guide blocks I was still randomly experiencing binding. Ultimately the binding continued to get worse and worse the more I operated the vise.

As I dug through the installation I couldn't really locate a reason for the binding...even after I uninstalled and reinstalled the vise screw several times and adjusted the position of the nut block...nothing seemed to matter. So I gave it 24 hours to sit and think about how it was misbehaving. It just didn't make sense...the only piece to the puzzle that I had was that if I tightened the screw mounting flange all the way I would have binding...but if I backed the mounting bolt off as little as 1/8 of a turn from full tight the binding would go away...I was stumped. As I let things sit I shot an email off to Bench Crafted in hopes of a miracle solution. Jameel was awesome in his response time and suggestions...He was even willing to have me ship the vise back to him (even after I baked it in flax oil) for a replacement. As I thought about his suggestions and the issues I was seeing directly, I decided to pull the screw out of the chop one last time. It was then that I noticed a black smudge on one edge of the washer clearance hole in the screw clearance through hole...after a closer look I found the binding was due to the flange mounting bolt holes slipping a fraction of an inch out of alignment when I initially drilled them (and by a fraction of an inch I mean it was so small that you couldn't see it by eye). After giving a little extra clearance to the washer, any binding that I was experiencing was gone.

This whole experience spoke volumes of the Bench Crafted vise. Their support was top notch and the fact that the hardware is so precise that a bolt being out of alignment less than a fraction of an inch was enough to keep the piece from working optimally is absolutely amazing for a piece of woodworking equipment.

With all of this behind me I was able to get the vise working like greased lighting and could turn  my attention towards the final piece to the puzzle and inlay the phenolic bushing into the front of the leg.

Bushing Inlaid & Ready for Installation

With the bushing in place I was able to finally button up the leg vise.

Leg Vise is Finished

Now that I have both vises installed I can honestly say that I am absolutely tickled pink with the Bench Crafted pieces. I know I said it earlier but there really is no better descriptor than to say that they both work like greased lightning. They are an absolute treat to use.

Up next: It Lives! IT LIIIIVES!

Total Build Time:

- 1.5 hours (lumber selection, transport & stacking)

-4 hours (Top Slab milling)

- 1.5 hours (slab prep and glue up*)

-0.5 hours (preliminary flattening of both slabs)

-0.5 hours (Final rough slab milling)

-0.5 hours (trimming end and bringing into flat & square)

-1 hour (cutting and finishing tenon)

-0.5 hours (milling and laminating end cap)

-2.5 hours (milling screw cavity support & routing screw cavity – includes markup/layout)

-0.5 hours (routing mortise in end cap)

-0.5 hours (fine tune end cap fit)

-2 hours (drilling and installing end cap – includes markup/layout)

-1 hour (milling rough stock for dog hole strip and laminate cap)

-2 hours (production of dog hole template & routing of dog holes)

-0.5 hours (glue up of dog hole strip and laminate cap)*

- 0.5 hour (glue up and alignment of dog hole strip to front slab)*

-0.5 hour (milling of front slab dovetail strip)

-1 hour (set up and layout of End Cap Dovetail)

-1.5 hours (milling and fine tuning of End Cap Dovetail)

-0.5 hour (front strip/dovetail glue up)

-3 hours (routing front slab  & installing tail vise)

-22 hours (cleaning, coating, baking and cooling of Vise hardware)**

-1 hour (initial milling of legs)

-1 hour (leg glue up)*

-2 hours (milling base rails to final dimensions)

-1 hour (milling of legs to final dimensions)

-2 hours (setup and cutting leg tenons…includes Mr. Cock Up)

-2 hours (layout & cutting of mortises in legs, drilling dog hole access & hold fast holes)

-1 hour (cutting rail tenons)

-2.5 hours (fine tuning mortise & tenons & dry fitting base)

-1.5 hours (cutting and dimensioning bench dog stock)

-1 hour (routing bench dogs to profile)

-0.5 hour (fine tuning bench dogs to shape)

-1.5 hours (bench dog assembly & fit-n-finish)

-0.5 hour (dimensioning & laminating chop stock)*

-3 hours (dimensioning & carving parallel guide)

-1 hour (fit & finish of parallel guide)

-2.5 hours (design & shaping of chop)

-0.5 hour (drawboring parallel guide & chop)

-2 hours (shaping & finish of parallel guides)

-4 hours (installation of nut block, parallel guides, phenolic bushing & fine tuning vice operation)

 

-78.5 hours total

*I haven’t included my clamp time in these figures if you want to add those figures in, each glue up sat for 24 hours

** I’m including the baking of my vise hardware into my build. If you don’t want to include this reduce the total by 22 hours

Tags: Woodworking, Maple, Roubo, Split Top Roubo, Split Top, Work Bench, Bench, Bench Crafted, wagon vise, glide vise, leg vise, vise, Alder, Red Alder, Clamp, Parallel Clamp, Bessy
Posted in Split-Top Roubo | 0 Responses to "Give'm Tha Clamps!"

Oofda, My Dogs R Barkin!

By matthew
Jun 26, 2012

With the legs for the base cooking nicely in the clamps I turned my attention to putting together the bench dogs.

I had a few wider cut offs from the top that worked out swimmingly as the bodies for the dogs and some nice clear thin strips for the springs. I cut enough material for a total of 20 dogs. I know it sounds like a tad overkill but where the pieces are small enough they'll be able to sit in a drawer as back up over the coming months/years without worrying about them twisting or warping. This actually worked out in my favor due to an issue I ran into when flattening the top...but more on that later.

Dogs in the making

I made sure that the stock I used was as clear and strait grained as possible...no one likes a crooked dog after all. In all honesty I also opted for the cleanest pieces in order to make the initial dimensioning as easy and quick as possible. I also had to satisfy my natural underlying belief that I tend to transpose a measurement or two by test fitting the dimensioned stock in the top...amazingly everything fit..

It fits..it fits

Once the pieces were to dimension I cut everything to length using my miter gauge on the table saw. With the large number of dogs I was making I looked for the quickest way to mass produce the rough stock. I could cut the face of the dog on the table saw but would then have to turn to the band saw or router to cut the profile. I could cut everything on the bandsaw, but even with my best blade it still left a far rougher surface than I would be happy with as a finished piece. This left me with looking to the router as the best option. It would leave me with the finished surface that I was looking for and would allow me to make 90% of my cuts in one step. To Marc's credit this is the same process that he opted to run with in the WW Guild Build.

With the stock to size all that was left was to lay out the profile and cut my template. From that piece I could then build my router jig and get to making some dogs. The jig is the same piece that Marc built so I won't go into it here...simply because I failed to take any pictures of it...so yeah...there you go.

Bench Dog profile

The only problem with using the router is that it left a cove under the face of the dog that really should be cleared away to ensure that the dog sits deep enough in the dog hole. In order to remedy this I turned back to the bandsaw and gave each one a little clean up.

Rouhged out Bench Dogs

After setting up a quick assembly line the dogs were zipped up in no time.

Dog Assembly Line

With the dogs together I took a few minutes to ease all the edges with a block plane and finally put them into action.

The Dog Pack!

I was amazed by the amount of clamping pressure that the tail vise could apply and at how little pressure was needed to securely hold a work piece in place. Having the dogs together this early in the build definitely aided in pulling the rest of the bench together.

Up next: Give'm Tha Clamps!

Total Build Time:

- 1.5 hours (lumber selection, transport & stacking)

-4 hours (Top Slab milling)

- 1.5 hours (slab prep and glue up*)

-0.5 hours (preliminary flattening of both slabs)

-0.5 hours (Final rough slab milling)

-0.5 hours (trimming end and bringing into flat & square)

-1 hour (cutting and finishing tenon)

-0.5 hours (milling and laminating end cap)

-2.5 hours (milling screw cavity support & routing screw cavity – includes markup/layout)

-0.5 hours (routing mortise in end cap)

-0.5 hours (fine tune end cap fit)

-2 hours (drilling and installing end cap – includes markup/layout)

-1 hour (milling rough stock for dog hole strip and laminate cap)

-2 hours (production of dog hole template & routing of dog holes)

-0.5 hours (glue up of dog hole strip and laminate cap)*

- 0.5 hour (glue up and alignment of dog hole strip to front slab)*

-0.5 hour (milling of front slab dovetail strip)

-1 hour (set up and layout of End Cap Dovetail)

-1.5 hours (milling and fine tuning of End Cap Dovetail)

-0.5 hour (front strip/dovetail glue up)

-3 hours (routing front slab  & installing tail vise)

-22 hours (cleaning, coating, baking and cooling of Vise hardware)**

-1 hour (initial milling of legs)

-1 hour (leg glue up)*

-2 hours (milling base rails to final dimensions)

-1 hour (milling of legs to final dimensions)

-2 hours (setup and cutting leg tenons…includes Mr. Cock Up)

-2 hours (layout & cutting of mortises in legs, drilling dog hole access & hold fast holes)

-1 hour (cutting rail tenons)

-2.5 hours (fine tuning mortise & tenons & dry fitting base)

-1.5 hours (cutting and dimensioning bench dog stock)

-1 hour (routing bench dogs to profile)

-0.5 hour (fine tuning bench dogs to shape)

-1.5 hours (bench dog assembly & fit-n-finish)

 

-65 hours total

*I haven’t included my clamp time in these figures if you want to add those figures in, each glue up sat for 24 hours

** I’m including the baking of my vise hardware into my build. If you don’t want to include this reduce the total by 22 hours

 

Tags: Wood, Woodworking, Maple, Roubo, Split Top Roubo, Split Top, Work Bench, Bench, Bench Crafted, wagon vise, glide vise, leg vise, vise, Alder, Red Alder, Bench Dog, Dog, Dogs, Bench Dogs
Posted in Split-Top Roubo | 0 Responses to "Oofda, My Dogs R Barkin!"

Look at Dem Gams!

By matthew
Jun 10, 2012

With the tail vise all buttoned up I turned my attention to the stack of Alder that's been patiently waiting in the wings. You remember that stack right? It's the giant second stack next to the other giant stack in the picture below.

250' of 8/4 stock Oh MY!

 

I think the euphoria of being at the lumber yard got to me as I was sorting through the stack for my base stock. In my delusion I had forgotten that the legs on the base were actually 5-3/8" wide...not some random number that I don't recall at this moment. Either way the stock that I selected should give me the necessary width, but with my luck probably not. Oh well...who wants fat legs anyway?

So as I was saying...I began sorting through the stack for the widest pieces I had in an effort to keep my legs at the designed width. On top of this I also had to sort through the pieces in an effort to cull the best and most clear piece I had....after all what's the point of having a kick ass, heavy weight, of a slab if the base is just going to fail due to some poorly placed knots. If you haven't worked with Western Red Alder you may not be aware of it, but it is known for its tendency to be fairly knotty...(insert gutter minded quip here)...Ultimately I was able to pull out enough pieces that would allow me 5 blanks...yes I said 5...no I'm not building some sort of mutant inbred red headed step child of a bench with 5 legs. I ran with a 5th leg as a precaution. Each blank would be extremely close to my final dimensions and in it's rough form it was tough to tell just what I was going to end up with after a trip to the jointer and planer. I also had 2 pieces with fairly large knots that I had to work with...the plan was to laminate these pieces to a clear piece in hopes of limiting the knots impact....so again that 5th leg could pose to be a life saver.

After milling one face and one side flat it was time to put everything to the clamps.

Give'm Tha Clamps!

While the legs dried I turned my attention to making a whole mess of dogs...bench dogs that is...but again, that's a post for another day.

When I pulled the legs from the clamps everything looked good. I had minimal slippage and only needed a light pass on the already jointed edge to bring everything back into flat. I also took the time to joint one face in preparation to send everything through the planer.

5 legs? Yes...and don't ask!

As I progressed through the planer I was able to quickly bring everything to final thickness without any issues. However when I got to working down to the final width I began to run into some trouble. One of the problems with rough-sawn red alder is that the edges are often a mess of misleading fuzz (at least for me I seem to run into this issue all the time). The problem with the fuzz is that it generally hides some saw mill marking/compressed fibers that you're unaware of until you shave that fuzz off and remove the aged edge. In my case I found each leg to be solid but most of them had some serious discoloration from the rollers used to process stock through the saw mill. Nothing wrong with it really...especially if you like that dalmatian look, but I personally don't like to incorporate this into my pieces and tend to mill them out. As I started several light passes through the planer my thickness quickly hit the 5-3/8" mark...then passed that mark...and then it passed the 5-1/4" mark....But mercifully it stopped at the 5-1/8" mark. Not the end of the world but still shy of the plan...oh well!

The Final 4

I'm glad that I glued up a 5th leg as it gave me a little more freedom when it came time to the final dimensioning. As I ran through the process I had one leg that continually kept coming up short or thin or whatever, than the other 4. Even at the point that I stopped with the other 4 I still had a few rough-sawn low spots on the 5th blank...again thanks to the yummy brown fuzz...mmmmm fuzzy...

Now that I had 4 legs ready and waiting I could turn my attention to carving them up in preparation of turning them into a base and not just a set of nice gams...

I first turned my attention to chopping them to length. This actually proved to be a bit more difficult that I had expected. I attempted to cut them with my mighty Harbor Freight sliding chop saw...but as you can imagine the cut that one gets from the marvel of precision engineering that is Harbor Freight and Chicago Electric I thought this would be faaaaar too easy of a challenge...ok...fine...the chop saw failed miserably...and by miserably I do mean amazingly miserably. That's when I turned to my trusty table saw. The problem I ran into here is that with my blade stiffener (again insert proper innuendo here) installed I couldn't cut through the entire piece in one shot...and where I'm more of the lazy demeanor I opted to not remove it and make 2 cuts. What's funny is that I am lazy enough to not unbolt my blade and remove the stiffener (chuckle) but not so much so that I won't take an extra 10 minutes fine tuning the alignment of my Jessem Mit-R gauge perfectly 90* to the blade...yeah...it's a total conundrum that I live with every day of my life...soooo lazy....yet soooooo anal...

After dialing in the miter gauge I was able to slice my legs to length without too much trouble. With that out of the way I set about examining each one over and over like a 500lbs gorilla searching for that one tasty tick on the back of my best gorilla buddy. My end goal in this examination was to discern which leg would work best as the companion to my leg vise as well as a 2nd best to act accept the holes for the hold fasts. The other 2 just got the once over for the best face to be placed out. Once I completed my gorilla tick search move I marked each one for it's appropriate location. Where each one was going to play a pivotal role in the assembly of the base and ultimately the use of the bench I made sure that I marked each one clearly...as in with a black grease pencil that I hold on to for these very occasions. Yes..I'm not only a lazy anal gorilla...but I am also a paranoid, lazy anal gorilla. I also took the time to lay out the tenons that will mate with each slab while I had my giant black pencil out of its hiding hole.

Look Mom...I can Read!

After reviewing the layout of each leg one final time; ensuring that I had the best possible configuration for the base it came time to cut the tenons. I opted for the easy/lazy man's option of using my miter gauge and dado blade. True a cross cut sled would be the absolute wisest tool to use here, but since mine still looks like a warped, disfigured mess from the flood I had no choice but to run with the miter gauge. Don't get me wrong. I've been meaning to get to building a replacement sled for a number of weeks/months now but just haven't gotten to it...Did I tell you how I'm a lazy woodworker when it comes to things like this? Anyway...after getting the dado set up and the fence set for the first cut ...well...in all honesty...I fell victim to my first Mr. Cock Up...I'm sooo ashamed. After all of my careful planning, measuring, marking, re-measuring etc. I let my concentration slip. Ok actually this is a problem that I often run into. I have a problem with my dado stack and I'm ashamed to admit it. I regularly set the dado to the wrong edge of my cut... This resulted in my first cut being on the bottom edge of my markup line...aka 3/4" too low...ooooopsie...

Mr. Cock Up...

Thankfully this was the back leg and easily repaired with a 3/4" filler...so after a quick adjustment to the fence and cutting that filler strip I was able to rip through the tenons like a Packers fan through a wedge of cheese.

Finished Tenons

With the tenons buttoned up it was just a matter of hogging out the mortises for the rails. I have to admit that being able to use the tail vise to clamp the legs and rails while I carved them up was a game changer. I'm absolutely stoked to get this puppy assembled and into use. I have a feeling that it's going to prove to be a game changer in how I work in the shop.

The mortises for the rails actually went extremely well, and much faster than I had anticipated. With these out of the way I turned my attention to the rail stock that was patiently sitting by and started in on the associated tenons. With the dado blade still in the table saw I opted to run in this direction, just as I had for the tenons on the legs. After a bit of testing I had a piston fit of the rail tenon into the leg...it's a beautiful feeling when that tenon just slips in so smooth and snug.

It FITS!

Rather than take the time to futz with rounding the edges of the tenons I opted to square out my mortises and think this is actually much quicker than rounding a tenon. So much easier to make something square than round in my opinion. Especially where I have a Sorby corner chisel at my disposal that makes these tasks sooooo easy.

Squared Mortises

Dry Fitting the Rail

With the dry fitting out of the way it was time...Time to bring this baby into the home stretch and get it assembled. True there was some minor pieces to still be considered...like marking out the drawbores and making a few dowels, but hey we're getting close.

Up next: Oofda, My Dogs R Barkin!

Total Build Time:

- 1.5 hours (lumber selection, transport & stacking)

-4 hours (Top Slab milling)

- 1.5 hours (slab prep and glue up*)

-0.5 hours (preliminary flattening of both slabs)

-0.5 hours (Final rough slab milling)

-0.5 hours (trimming end and bringing into flat & square)

-1 hour (cutting and finishing tenon)

-0.5 hours (milling and laminating end cap)

-2.5 hours (milling screw cavity support & routing screw cavity – includes markup/layout)

-0.5 hours (routing mortise in end cap)

-0.5 hours (fine tune end cap fit)

-2 hours (drilling and installing end cap – includes markup/layout)

-1 hour (milling rough stock for dog hole strip and laminate cap)

-2 hours (production of dog hole template & routing of dog holes)

-0.5 hours (glue up of dog hole strip and laminate cap)*

- 0.5 hour (glue up and alignment of dog hole strip to front slab)*

-0.5 hour (milling of front slab dovetail strip)

-1 hour (set up and layout of End Cap Dovetail)

-1.5 hours (milling and fine tuning of End Cap Dovetail)

-0.5 hour (front strip/dovetail glue up)

-3 hours (routing front slab  & installing tail vise)

-22 hours (cleaning, coating, baking and cooling of Vise hardware)**

-1 hour (initial milling of legs)

-1 hour (leg glue up)*

-2 hours (milling base rails to final dimensions)

-1 hour (milling of legs to final dimensions)

-2 hours (setup and cutting leg tenons...includes Mr. Cock Up)

-2 hours (layout & cutting of mortises in legs, drilling dog hole access & hold fast holes)

-1 hour (cutting rail tenons)

-2.5 hours (fine tuning mortise & tenons & dry fitting base)

 

-60.5 hours total

*I haven’t included my clamp time in these figures if you want to add those figures in, each glue up sat for 24 hours

** I’m including the baking of my vise hardware into my build. If you don’t want to include this reduce the total by 22 hours

 

Tags: Wood, Woodworking, Maple, Mahagony, Roubo, Split Top Roubo, Split Top, Work Bench, Bench, Bench Crafted, wagon vise, glide vise, leg vise, vise, Alder, Red Alder
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