Making The Vise

The crisscross is installed and works a treat.

The inter board is the vise backer and the outer board is the chop. I've marked where the vise screw hole needs to be drilled on the backer board. The vise needs to be disassembled to drill the screw hole and install the nut. The backer board also needs a top and bottom stub tenon cut along with cutting the left edge at an angle so the backer board fits against the base assembly.

After finishing the vise unit the slab needs to be installed on the base so the vise backer board mortises can be marked. After marking the mortises the whole thing needs to be taken apart to chop the vise backer board mortises. Once the mortises are chopped everything goes back together and the basic bench is finished.

I will make a tool tray for the bench and I expect a full length tool holder for the back edge of the slab.

The fat lady ain't singing but this ol' horse can smell the barn.

ken

Checking Bench Slab For Wind

The slab is out of the clamps and bottoms up on the French/English bench so I can clean up the contact areas of the slab and correct any wind.

Cleaned up the part of the slab that will set on the base and checked for wind.

It looks pretty good with no wind. I'll do a light clean up of the glue lines before attaching the slab to the base.

Next is finishing the vise. I finally settled on using the BenchCrafted Classic screw and 14" crisscross. The vise should go fairly quickly if the heat or MsBubba's line of sight do not get me.

Once the vise is mounted I'll make a quick and dirty tool tray and the fat lady can sing.  

Bench Final Glue Up

Other than the tool tray, joining the two halves of the slab is the final glue up on this bench build.

Once that sucker is out of the clamps I'll clean up the bottom where it sets on the base and correct for any wind. I checked the base for wind yesterday and it is dead nuts true.

There will be a series of taking the slab on and off to mount the slab plus the vise assembly. I wish I looked more like Conan that Mr. Peepers.

The vise is also coming along. The chop came out the clamps this morning and I have completed the vise backer mortise. The vise still need the chop mortise and the holes for the screw drilled. Once those are done there will be several cycles of slab on and off to mount the vise. Bottom line this bench is close to the short rows.

ken

More Moravian Bench

Using the first set of two slats as a "backbone" I added two slats to each side giving a four slat set. The four slat set is half of the slab. Next is doing the same to the other two slat set and once that set is out of the clamps I'll join the two four slat sets to complete the slab.

When the slab comes out of glue up I'll clean up the bottom where it sets on the base unit and take care of any wind. I'll wait to clean up the top until the slab is installed.

While gluing up the slab I've started making the vise. First up is the vise backer board, here it is marked up:

As always, click'em to big'em.

The vertical parallel markings are for the crisscross groove, the circle is where the screw nut goes. The angled vertical marking is where the backer board fits to the front leg and the top and bottom horizontal markings are for the tenons that hold the vise backer board in place. 

Things are moving fairly quickly now, it will not be long before this pile of wood looks like a bench.

ken

Slab Glue Up

Ralph asked for photos of the slab glue up. The slab will have eight slats glued up two slats at a time for the first four slats.

My current thinking because this being Beech and Beech loves stupid wood tricks is to use the first two sets of two slats as a "backbone" and glue two slats to the outside of each of the first two sets. Then the final glue up will be the two sets of four slats. BTW, for the first two sets the four Beech slats are straight, the last four slats not so much, not bad for Beech but they definitely have peyronie's disease. I'll mix and match so the curves offset.

The first two slat set out of the clamps:

Cleaning up the glue line:

So far this has been no drama, life is easy just working one or two glue surfaces at a time. The only problem it stretches out the glue up over several days.

ken

Slab Machined

Slab pieces machined and ready for glue up.

I need to make several sets of cauls for the glue up and go to the woodstore for a big bottle of glue before I start. The shop is getting hot so I may be finished for the day.

I think the vise dithering is over, my plan is to install the BC vise with crisscross on this bench. If I like it, then get another BC vise and crisscross for the shop bench. If not and someone wants to buy this bench I'll offer it with either a Lake Erie wood screw and parallel guide or the BC with crisscross.

ken

Bench Base Together

The key mortises are finished, keys made, and everything fitted. It went together easily so now on the the slab and vise fitting.

The bench is in the back garden so I have room to work on it, currently the shop is full 😊. BTW, in the background is the first woodworking bench I made many years ago. I expect if it were needed I could hang a vise or two on it and it would still function.

ken

Fitting Keys

The first key is fitted, only three more to go. Someday I will figure an easy way to chop/make the key mortise but for now they are a PITA because they are short, narrow, with both ends angled, and deep. It doesn't get much worse. The only good news: The only critical surface is the front end where the key mates and I guess the fact there are only four of 'em.

BTW, the loose fit is on purpose, it is needed to allow the base to fit together and come apart. In fact as I look at this one I'm thinking it may be a little tight.

That is likely it for today, shop is hot and it is the first day off in a few so street running and other duties call.

ken

Base Together, Keys Marked

The base went together so I could mark the long stretcher key mortises. Once those are chopped the base is finished.

Next up is installing the slab followed by the vise install. I'm still undecided on BenchCrafted with crisscross vs. Lake Erie wood screw and parallel guide. Still a little time to make up my mind.

That is it for the day, the shop is getting hot and the day job calls. Three to four hours of orals today and six to seven hours Sim check tomorrow. Not too long ago we would do the whole thing in one day, what a ball buster for everyone involved.

ken

New Chisels from Stanley Covington

My UPS girl delivered a pack of chisels from Stanley Covington the other day.
This time push chisels to fill in a couple of blank spots and he threw in a very nice old stock marking knife.

If you are thinking about buying some Japanese chisels you can't do better than Stan. If you can't tell I'm a fanboy, he has great knowledge and his customer service can't be beat. I think on these last chisels the time between the "go ahead" email and the UPS girl visit was three days. All the way from Japan, it doesn't get better. 

I normally fit all four long stretcher tenons to their mortise prior to glue up, this time I some way missed one tenon/mortise. Yesterday when I went to assemble the base so I could mark the mortise for the keys it would not go together. Damn I hate when that happens. Anyway after some butt scratching I got a caliper out and the #2 mortise was a solid 3mm small. I'm glad it is just a single brain fart and not a problem with all the M/T's.

Base unit on the bench to open up the mortise:

This part of the build is taking forever, mostly because of the heat and the day job. Whatever I'll keep beavering away until it looks like a bench.

ken

Steve Voigt's Wood Stock Planes

For the last couple of days in between work, sleeping, and breaks for water and cooling off I've been cleaning up the new bench base units. It can be heavy going in the heat of July in Tucson.

One of the joys has been using Steve Voigt's Jack Plane for most of the heavy lifting.

Here it is after doing the bevel on the top rail.

Most of my stock is prepped with machines so I have little need for anything longer than a Jack so my basic set of planes are a Jack and a smoother. I have and use both pre-War Stanley planes with thin irons and woodstock planes by Steve and PhillyPlanes. My fav Jack is the one made by Steve.

BTW, there are modern metal planes in my tool cabinet by Woodriver, LN and LV that gather a lot of dust.

Funny Where Your Mind Takes You

I just ordered a box of 16 Harry's razor blades. It's not because they are great blades but because they are simple and cheaper than modern Gillette blades. That got me to thinking, always a bad sign, and on to the Google.

My first line of thought was how the stainless steel Wilkinson Sword Steel blades changed  the U.S. market in the early 60's. Kinda like A2 changed the market for chisels and other cutters from being able to have an incredibly sharp iron that may not stay sharp a long time to one where sharpness is ok but stays that way much longer than the O1 cutter.

Getting on Google to refresh my memory and looking for the cost of mid 60's Gillette razor blades was enlightening, I knew about the cult following of straight razor folks with forums and such (kinda like woodworkers 😆) but there are also folks that buy and use NOS razor blades and post about the merits of the different makes and brands. It is a strange world out there but I guess no different than my strange world.

BTW, the cost of the Harry's razor blades was just under $2 USD a blade and they will give an ok shave for maybe a week. A pack of 10 Gillette Blue Blades in 1965 cost $1 USD. In real 2019 dollars that is $8 USD or about $.80 USD a blade/shave. The cost/benefit is still about where it was in the 60's. If you could buy new Gillette Blue blades at the same price in real dollars a week's shaves would be about $4 USD vs. $2 USD for the Harry's blades. A really nice smooth shave for about twice the cost of an ok shave. The market spoke.

ken

Why You Need More Than One Workbench

I'm doing clean up work on the base units plus cutting the keys for the long stretcher tenons. When I get tired of doing one I switch to the other, short attention span dontcha know.

The keys could be made on any bench but cleaning up the base units is much easier if the bench has an apron like an English bench. To do the clean up on a bench without an apron you would need a deadman, a bench jack, or setting clamps cross bench. All of which are a PITA compared to using a deep English style apron. The problem with the English apron is it makes using bench dogs a PITA.

My answer is to have two benches, one with an apron and one without. The job determines which bench is used.

ken

Sharpening Bench

Most of my shop time today will be spent sharpening whatever needs it and maybe a few that don't.

I do have some new Japanese chisels that need setting up but I'm not sure I'll have the energy or ambition for that much work. Anyway I haven't posted a photo of my sharpening set up in awhile and there is no time like the present to do so.

Here it is, a portable Moravian bench with the vise removed. The oil stones are on the left with strops in the center. The most used oil stone is a Medium India that I use for grinding bevels and to remove damage before going to the set up stones. The other oil stones are used mostly for narrow or shaped irons.

The right side has the water stones, in the tool tray are the man made water stones and my JNat finish stone. On the bench are the most used JNats to the left of the "pond". The pond has a stone holder and a diamond flattening stone. Some of the JNats will not fit in the stone holder, depending on the stone's thickness I use non slip mats either in the pond or to the right to hold'em.

The bench is a step or so off the left end of the main workbench and is pretty efficient. It doesn't take long to go from dull to sharp and because of that I will seldom put a dull iron to the side to sharpen later and I tend to sharpen before the cutter really needs it.

Next to the main workbench the sharpening station is the most important tool in the shop.

ken

Last of The Base Glue Up

Work combined with WX has kept me out of the shop for most of last week. I've today and tomorrow off but shop temps may still slow the work product down. This time of the year in the desert you just have to give in.

It's just a little before 0800 MST and I'm sweating like a pig. We are in the middle of Monsoon, unlike the other 9 to 10 months of the year our RH is high and sweat doesn't cool as well. As and example with RH below 10% and a OAT of 100F skin surface temp (wet bulb temp) will be in the high 60's. With today's RH of greater than 30% wet bulb temp will be in the 80's or even the 90's and instead of the sweat drying it will be dripping in your eyes and on your work.  I have a feeling about the only shop work today will be some time on the sharpening bench.

A misconception most have is that the hotter it gets the fewer clothes you should wear and moving air will cool you. That is great for DOM like myself, I may be old but I can still enjoy beauty when I see it. The physics of it is normal skin temp is about 93.5F and once OAT goes above that then heat movement is inward instead of outward. You need to cover up with loose clothes that wick the sweat and allow it to evaporate. There is a reason the Bedouins dress the way they do. Back in my motorcycle days I could ride tank to tank through mid-summer Death Valley and get the giggles because I could feel the heat boiling around me and yet I was almost too cold. The HD bad boys with their cut off T's and do rags would look at me like I was crazy at fuel stops but I was comfortable and they were close to dying from the heat.

But all is not lost today, there is still whisky and the pool with MsBubba, Sweet Maggie Dog and a ball.

At its worst, the desert is a great place to live.

I did glue up the second base unit this AM before it got too hot. It went together a little out of square but I was able to pull it close enough for bench work.

ken

Monsoon

With two days off over the weekend I only managed to get one base unit glued up. There was too much running the streets, honeydoes to be done, and entertaining MsBubba in the pool to get to the second unit.

The first base unit out of the clamps:

Second base unit awaiting glue up:

Saturday evening was our first Monsoon rain of the season. Most of the day MsBubba was complaining about Monsoon being a bust and we were not getting any rain. Wrong pool breath, the thunder soon ran us out of the pool followed very shortly by rain.

View out the back garden:

In 30 or so minutes it rained enough to fill the pool, turn the back gully into a raging river as it did the street in front, and flood my shop, which never happens.

We got a second Monsoon rain Sunday night, not as much but still pretty good.

ken

Cleaning Up Base Parts

I'm cleaning up the base legs and stretchers in prep for glue up. There are a couple of boo-boos, mostly cosmetic with no effect on the structure, that I decided to live with but other than that I'm happy with the progress but the real tell is how the base units come out of glue up.

The legs are finished, four more short stretchers to go.

ken

Fitting Long Stretchers

I've finished fitting the long stretchers to the legs. Glue up of the base units is next.

That's all for today it is starting to get hot in the shop. Pool time with MsBubba, Sweet Maggie Dog and a ball. Then short nap followed by monkey suit on and then off to sit in a black box for a couple of hours.

A photo of Sweet Maggie Dog and the ball:

Life is tough here in the desert,

ken

Bench Long Stretcher

Friday night I screwed up one of the long stretcher tenons. After several rounds of "what if" and "yes but" I made the correct decision and went to the woodstore Saturday and picked up a nice hunk of 12/4 Poplar and started over.

Here are some photos of cutting the new tenons.

V'ing the knife line:

 
Sawing the shoulder:

Finished tenon:

Next up is fitting the tenons to the base units. Once that is done I'll clean up the base parts and glue 'em up.

ken

Back To Work

I'm missing Sam at my feet and barking for a treat but as life must go on and the best way for that is to get back in the shop.

I'm not much of one for drilling and paring mortises. Every year or so I forget what a disaster the last time I tried it was. Well it's been more than a year and it is still a disaster. I'll save the leg but you will not be seeing any photos of the inside of the long stretcher mortise on at least that leg. That's the bad news, the good is what the inside of the long stretcher mortise looks like makes no never mind, it just needs to be a loose fitting mortise with intact shoulders.

It's back to chopping the mortise, a photo of getting ready to chop.

A Narex firmer chisel with a Hornbean handle makes a pretty good wide mortise chisel, not as good as a pigsticker but it's hard to find a 25mm pigsticker 😊.

Once the rest of the mortises are chopped it will be time to glue up the base units

Photos of Sam

Photos of Sam in no order just so I have them in one place and can find 'em.

Good memories and times.

ken

Sam The Wonder Dog RIP

After much worry and putting it off it came time to put Sam The Wonder Dog down. My heart is broken and it is hard to type through the tears. But it was time, I just wish someone could do the same for me when I can no longer function.

Here is Sam on his first day home from the pound. This was on 12/29/2010 and the pound folks said he was 5 years old at the time.

This was last year on the Oregon coast:

Sam wasn't much of a ball chaser, his game was "tug" and instead of carrying balls in his mouth it would be one of his "babies". The last of his favorite babies was Ducky.

There was no gentler dog than Sam. we never worried about him with anyone including babies. 

Of course any stuffed animal was his.

Like any Lab, life revolved around treats.

Rest in peace good friend, you will be missed.

ken

Japanese Chisels

I may have mentioned Stanley Covington before. If not, a little background: Stan has worked in Japan for a number of years and is a very knowledge woodworker with connections to traditional Japanese blacksmiths. With his knowledge and connections he is a good source for Japanese knives and chisels.

I just received a beautiful set of Sukezane oiirenomi at a very fair price.

Here they are in the chisel rack:

The UPS Goddess smiled on me today, not only did the UPS girl deliver the set of chisels but also The BenchCrafted Classic screw and crisscross. I have no excuse now, everything needed to finish the bench is in house.  

ken

Chopping Dovetail Mortise

Smaller lapped dovetail mortises I'll take off the saw, these I figured would work better to get close to the sides with the saw and pare to fit. The first two proved that was a good decision, I hope these do as well. The only problem is it takes longer and there are more chances to screw up.

The day job has me booked seven days in a row starting this afternoon at 1600. Work on the bench will slow a little toward the end of the seven for no other reason after four days I will be dog ass tired and needing a break with three more to go. With no hiccups I'll leave the house at 1430 to start the brief at 1600, in the Sim at 1700. Out of the Sim 2100 and finish de-briefing by 2130. Records finished by 2200 and home between 2230 and 2300. A couple of hours geeking, scratching doggie butt and a whisky before bed, up no later than 0500, usually 0400. Repeat for seven.  Someday I'll learn how to mail it in but it hasn't happened yet.

ken

One Base Unit Finished

Except for chopping the long stretcher mortises one base unit is finished and one to go. The first base pulled up square with only a couple of small gaps, fine furniture, no go without figuring out how to hide 'em, but for a workbench it looks good to me.

I picked up 48 BF of 8/4 European Beach for the slab yesterday. Once the other base is finished it will be time to rip the Beach and glue up the slab. The BenchCrafted screw and crisscross has been shipped, this sucker may be in the short rows soon. 

ken

Upper and Middle Stretchers Fitted

The upper and middle stretchers have been fitted. Next up is the bottom stretcher with a lapped dovetail joint and then drill and pare the long stretcher mortise. Other than size and the angle the long stretcher mortise is a piece of cake because it needs to be loose.

There is a very slight curve in the #IV middle stretcher shoulder causing a small gap at the top. I'm not sure if it is worth fooling with it is so slight, other than the one shoulder everything has pulled up nice and tight.

I've the weekend off. If I can stay out of MsBubba's line of sight I might get the base units finished. Still a bit of work with a slab glue up, vise chop/backer board install and tool tray to build.

I ordered the BenchCrafted Classic Vise Screw with the new 14" Crisscross this morning, I could be waiting on the vise hardware to finish this sucker.

ken