Imaginos Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 I guess the sensible thing is to wait a while until I have some more experience and can build this bench right. The lure of the Benchcrafted site the Shcwarz's book was too much because I gave in last night and I'm bulding a Roubo anyway. I'll probably get the vise screws from Lie Nielsen or Veritas instead of the BC hardware; sexy as it is I just can't swing the good stuff anytime soon. I do have a problem that with no table saw, no jointer, no thickness planer, I think I've created a massive amount of work for myself. I got a Veritas bevel up jointer from my wife for christmas. That partially solved the milling problem and introduced a host of new sore spots in my shoulders and forearms. Half of the back slab was done in about 4 hours of work and much frustration. Most of the boards wound up flat(ish), but significantly warped; after playing some Jenga they seem to clamp up fine in a dry fit with a good grain direction of flattening later (see the attached image). I'll probably glue them together two or three at a time just to make sure I'm bringing enough clamping pressure to bear. I'll call that step one and feel satisfied that I know more today than yesterday. Given how much time I have to spend on it, it may be done by late summer, maybe later. I forsee a few design changes that might come up, but I'll burn those bridges when I get there. I'm one the fence about doing a wagon vise too (I'm not sure I can pull that off). Round dog holes for sure. So now the question. Split top or not? How nightmareish is it going to be to level both slabs, by hand, across a gap like that? I think I'm already signing up for a lot of work in terms getting the slabs to a constant thickness with hand planes. It seems to me that even if I clamp them together for flattening, the non-glues seam is going to be hard to plane, particularly if I needed to work across the grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Static_23 Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 All the hardwood suppliers that I've been to have had a 15 or 20 inch planer. so if you wanted you could run that jointer plane on 2 sides and then go to your supplier and have them plane them down. this what i would do if i didn't already have a 15" planer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopcat Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 don't loose heart. i think the idea of getting them as good as you can by hand, gluing them up and then taking to a lumber yard to run through their planer will be the easiest route. I doubt they will charge you especially if you talk to them about the guild project. There is also a topic on here where you could find someone near to you that can help put with the planing. i would but you could but a few planers for the cost of a trip here. CC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Find a lumber dealer with a planer or you will be the envy of the guild for your hand planing skills by the time this build is done. KAISER OUT!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginos Posted February 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 Yeah, my local lumber yard, helpful and talkative as they are, weren't too keen on planing something that size that came from off the yard, but they said they'd ask the boss. Woodcraft too, although my Yoda clerk did say to just bring it in to "show it off", then go get lunch, "and who knows? Some boards straighten themselves out in 25 minutes. Happens all the time..." Generous as that is, I don't have a pickup, so moving across town is a separate nightmare. I have what I have, and it is what it is. I'll either get it done and learn a lot, or I won't get it done, and still learn a lot. The first four boards in the picture are already back in the scrap pile (probably destine for the legs or stretchers) because I planed a really, really nice and straight wedge from 4 1/4" to 3 7/8" down the length. I'm also getting my ass kicked by planing through some of the pin knots; always a high spot. Anyway, got enough boards for the back slab done in a power-weekend. I won't say they're well planed. More like K-mart. But the joints close up acceptably and things are close enough to square that I think I can work with it. Another unintended consequence is that the back slab is 11 7/8" wide, and is probably going to stay that way. I doubt the front slab will be an exact match either, but in any event, I need to account for that when I build the base and the divider. Oh, something else that occured to me...since I expect this to take a while, I might get planer before I complete the build and this then becomes a self-licking ice cream cone. A JJP-12 is tempting, especially since it's 15% off at Woodcraft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Static_23 Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 I would watch Craigslist. i got my 15" jet for $225 and it runs great after a tune up and new blades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginos Posted February 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 So, after a great deal of pain and suffering, I have the back slab glued up and, more or less, straight on one side. I wound up at a final width of 11 1/2" after further straightening. Not all of them clamped up well and I saw some minor separations, however, both faces are parallel to within 3/32nds or so, although it seems there's a slight inward bow about 1/3 of the way down on one face. After dowling the boards for alignment and quite a few dry fits (plus about a week of storage clamped up in a dry fit) I was fairly confident that I had both faces fitting well enough, however, I guess they moved a bit overnight while the clamps were on. In any event, I got to a final thickness of around 4 1/8", so I think I'm going to stop there A) to rest my tendonitis and hold off in order to match final thicknesses with the front slab. I had originally intended to build the base next, then the front slab last since it appeared to be the most intricate. That would give me time to build more skills and to figure out a solution for the vises since the benchcrafted hardware is a bit too pricey for me. However, I'm pretty confident that I can't contol the final width of the front slab to a degree that would let me make informed decisions about the dimensions of the base and legs, so I think I must complete both the front slab and divider before I can size the stretchers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginos Posted April 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 So, the birthday fairy came an went, leaving the right combination of gift cards and a sale at woodcraft to make a DeWalt 735 appear in my garage. That made this move a lot quicker. The slabs were done by hand with a my jointer plane, but the legs and rails were power planed before and after lamination. Lots of progress; it's starting to look like a work bench. Big lesson learned: I'm terrible at mortising, worse at making a tennon, and a total tradgety at drawboring. After several hours of examining the joints and tinkering with ways to fix it, I broke down and used a gap-filling epoxy in the mortises, clamped everything until it was square, then beat the drawbore peg in anyway. I still have a pretty big problem in that I've not managed to source the vise hardare yet, but after careful examinination I've not done anything that I can't work around yet. Also, I completely chickened out on the condor tales and went with endcap option 3. This has all been enormously satisfying. Note the slabs aren't t attached yet, just sitting there because I wanted to see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Lyde Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 That is looking really good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginos Posted May 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2012 So lots of progress recently now that my work schedule has lighted up. Gramercy holdfasts came in. Vise screws and other hardware supposedly shipped today. Figures that it'll come it next week while I'm at sea. Making the deadman with only a track saw was quite the experience. I'll let y'alls imagination run wild with how many test cuts it took to get the depth right for the bottom of the deadman, however, the trak it rides on came it perfect on the first try. I'm not entierly sure how that happened, but I'm worried too. Got the top mostly flattened on the Shannon method this afternoon. Well, mostly flat. I filled in the gap with some of the scrap--solid for the moment because there wasn't enough to make the full sized gap stop assembly in the plans (not wide enough), but it work out really well for flattening by hand. Chop and parallel guide are made to, inglamourly clamped in place because it's fun to look it. Good stuff. Been lots of fun and I've learned a lot. Also, my wife got me one of these charming things for my birthrday. Took 3 months longer than expected, but it was well worth it. Between this and the Veritas Jointer for Xmas, I think it's true love. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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