Blind Pegging The Slab

Before you can blind peg that sucker you gotta get the slab on the base. Another couple of feet longer I'm not sure I could do it without help.

Next up is deciding where to put the base mortises and then driving a finishing nail 10mm or so into the center to start the blind pegging.

Clip the nails to about 3mm, leave enough so they can be easily removed but short enough to just leave a marking hole in the slab.

Place the slab back into position on the base and press down to mark the mortise location. Remove the slab and drill the mortises. The back mortise will be elongated on the slab to allow wood movement. The next post will cover drilling the mortises and final install of the vise.

I guess I should add that the base mortises will hold 5/8" dowels that stick up ~25mm and the slab mortises slip over the dowels to hold the slab in place.

The next job will be taking the base apart to chop a mortise in the stretcher to hold the vise backer board. The slab will have to be moved back into the shop, my back hurts thinking about it, so I can chop the mortise for the top of the backer board. Once those are done the bench goes back together with the vise installed and the bench is finished other than clean up and making a tool tray.

ken