rodger. Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 As many of you know, my plan for a bandsaw did not work out. I still need a plan to rip rough stock to width, so I decided to go "low tech" for the time being. I bought a nice quality rip saw (review forthcoming), and a copy of Tom Fidgen's 2nd book "Handcrafted Project for the Home and Workshop". I have met Tom a few times, and took some lessons from him in his basement workshop. The guy is an amazing woodworker, and an overall great guy. Funny story, but we are actually from the same town in Cape Breton, and I often heard his music growing up on the island. Anyway, Tom is a very inspirational guy, and I decided to build his bench. I dont have permission to post the pics from his book, so here is a link to a Youtube video on the bench I will be building. The plans are available in his book. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZRzsM4pK0A Design points - This bench has one splayed leg, and one 90 degree leg. This is nice, and is explained in the video. It also adds a bit of a challege to the build. Most of the parts are beefy, with the legs at about 2.5 by 1.5, and the stretchers at 1.5 square. Part 1 - Lumber selection Tom suggests using whatever material that is on hand, I had this HUMONGOUS piece of ash left over from the X-Table build, so I decided to make use of it. Its 12/4, 7.5" wide, and over 8 feet long - quite cumbersome to store and move about. Perfect candidate! Here it is on my chop saw stand - its thick! Today I started breaking down the lumber into managable pieces. I chalked out some working parts, and cross cut them to length. Then I face planed them on my jointer, and finished up with the jointer plane. Then back to the jointer for a square edge. So one face, and one edge. Then I ripped off the other end, for two clean edges so I could resaw. In order to resaw safely on the table saw, I dont cut all the way through. I cut a groove, flip, and cut another groove, keeiping the same face against the fence. This leaves an "I" shape. Which I follow up with a hand saw And after a few minutes of labour, I get my resawed boards. These get cleaned up on the jointer and/or planer, so a great bookmatch is achieved. So i will continue to break down my parts, and get everything ready for joinery, which is part two! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Looking good, Pug! Like the way this build journal is starting out. Sounds like an interesting bench design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Sweet!! In from the beginning. This is going to be fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Thanks guys. Should have the joinery started today at some point - stay tuned! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Update 2 - "straight leg assembly" Joinery layout The stretcher at the bottom of the leg is 1.5 by 1.5. I cut my legs to finished width and thickness, but left them long. I simply laid the stretcher on the legs and traced it with a mechanical penci (half lap joint)l. I marked the waste area. Then i set up my table saw, and cut all four legs (one at a time of course). I cleaned up the joinery with my new router plane (which is awesome BTW!). This left a nice, smooth half lap in the leg. Then I laid the stretcher in the half lap, and traced the wast area on the stretcher. Again, I set my TS up and cut all four joints. I left them a bit thick, so I would have a nice detail on the finished leg assembly. This took care of the "straight" side leg assembly. The fit was good! Up next, "Splayed Leg" joinery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmaichel Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Nice! This build is very timely, I plan on building a Sawyers bench sometime in the near future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Update 3 - Splayed Leg Assembly This leg assembly is 10 degrees off of 90, so that's 80 or 100 (depending on how you look at it). I cut the angle for the bottom of the 2 appropriate feet on the mitre saw. Then I clamped everything up to get an idea of what this bench looked like. After confirming that this was correct (with a sqaure), I cut the top of the splayed legs (again 10 degrees off). Then I laid out the half laps at the top of the legs. I marked them in pencil and cut them at the table saw (again, cleaning up -this time with a shoulder plane). Then I clamped and glued both assemblies up, drilled holes, drove some Kreg screws, and plugged the holes with walnut plugs. Tom uses dowels in his plans, but the screw grabs tight and can be made to look like a dowel with a nice plug kit. I got mine years ago from Lee Valley - its tapered, and is a great tool. The kit comes with the tapered drill bit, stop collar, counter sink, and plug cutter (tapered as well). Here are the assemblies left to dry. Next up - apons and cleats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Sorry to ask, but can you make the actual plugs with that set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Sorry to ask, but can you make the actual plugs with that set? yes, its a separate cutter (its in my drill press currently). I'll snap a pic for you. here's the link http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32320&cat=1,180,42288 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Excellent! TYVM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 What is the advantage of the splayed leg design? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Stability ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmaichel Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 I actually am not a huge fan of the splayed leg design. I have a pair of saw benches that have splayed legs and they always seem to get in the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Looking good! I wonder how hard it is to sharpen the router plane? Looks like it would be tough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 I actually am not a huge fan of the splayed leg design. I have a pair of saw benches that have splayed legs and they always seem to get in the way. I agree. That's why one leg is splayed and one is 90 degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Aprons I milled up the aprons and cut them to length. One end is 90 degrees, and the other 100 degrees. I used the same drilling/plug kit as earlier, and put in some holes for walnut plugs. Then I clamped it up, and screwed it together. Then I added the plugs. And then I assembeld it, leaving out the cleats for now. I'll add those after to ensure a perfect fit. End View Side View Then I added the cleats, and drilled/plugged those too. I waited for the cleats so I could get a perfect fit. Here is a pic of the joinery for the top. The top has two boards, with a split in the middle for a saw blade. The top is notched to accept these laps. Here is the layout for the top. Up next - Adding the top boards, and fitting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Fitting the Top boards Here is a shot of the angle I cut on my table saw. Clearly the angle is there, but the birdsmouth needs to be 90 degrees. So I drew in the appropriate line with a pencil/sqaure, and then shaved down to the line with a low angle block plane (only on the splayed legs - the straight legs were good to go off the saw). After I squared up the birdsmouth notch, I laid the top boards on the project and traced the lap joints. This would ensure a pefect fit. Later I will plane down the top boards to get them flush with surface of the laps. So I cut the notches, ripped the top boards to final width, and planed them down. This left me with a pretty good dry fit. Still need to cut the angles on the front of the top boards (about 65 degrees each) before sanding and attaching. Up next, finalizing the top and adding the removable coss cut fence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Wow! This looks great. Nice and clean! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 It is a split top bench ! Looks good Pug! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Wow! That is looking great!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2015 The bench is together and ready for the fence. Here is pic of the assmembled bench, with the rough stock for the crosscut fence on top. I just took a measurement off of the top that looked pleasing (and useful). The plans call for dowels for the fence to sit on the top, but I went with dominos. The dominos are glued into the fence, but not the top of the bench (so that it can be removed). I mortised 4 dominos in the bottom of the fence, and then matched the mortises on the benchtop. In retrospect, I should have done this BEFORE assembly, as the splayed leg got in the way of my dominos fence. So I made a quick jig out of MDF. It has a fence, and an alignment line to refrence off of the back of the domino's baseplate. I just transfered the pencil lines from the fence to the benchtop, and then lined up the new lines with the one on the jig. The domino wanted to jump a bit on me, and since this was a critical cutting operation, I clamped a stop block to the jig's fence to hold the domino steady. Then I plunged and moved along until all 4 mortises were cut. Then I did a test fit, and everything lined up great. But....removing the fence was pretty difficult as the fit is so snug with the dominos. So i decided to add a handle to the crosscut fence. I laid out a mortise, and then drilled it out with a forstner bit. Then I cleaned up the area with a chisel and some sanding. I smoothed out the fence with my #4, and cleaned up the end grain with my low angle block plane. Here is the completed fence Here's a pic of the bench and fence on the finish table ready for some Danish Oil. That will be next post. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapid Roger Posted March 11, 2015 Report Share Posted March 11, 2015 Let me see what I'm missing here. You used a HUMONGUS piece of ash wood, a powered miter saw, a powered jointer, a table saw, a powered planer, a drill press, a plug cutter kit, and a Domino to make a bench for using a hand saw? No wonder all my stuff looks like junk. I guess I just don't get the point. Rog Actually, I did almost the same thing to make my "cordless screwdriver". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2015 Let me see what I'm missing here. You used a HUMONGUS piece of ash wood, a powered miter saw, a powered jointer, a table saw, a powered planer, a drill press, a plug cutter kit, and a Domino to make a bench for using a hand saw? No wonder all my stuff looks like junk. I guess I just don't get the point. Rog Actually, I did almost the same thing to make my "cordless screwdriver". haha, yes! I will use the handsaw for breaking down future rough cut lumber (over 7 1/2" wide, or so) for milling prep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted March 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2015 Finish I applied three coats of Danish Oil (Wacto) over three days. Each coat sat for 24 hours, with a light sanding in between. I'll let it sit for a while, and then place it in the shop for use. The photos were taken on a white rug, as per my wife/photographer's instruction! Thanks for reading! -pug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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