FtrPilot Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Posted May 18, 2015 I have finished routing all of the dog holes. Here's a dry fit of the front board & front slab. It shows the tail vise cavity...complete. Today, I cut the male condor tails on a band saw, using Jameel's technique and jig. Tomorrow, I start the slow, tedious work on the condor tails and end cap. Quote
bushwacked Posted May 18, 2015 Report Posted May 18, 2015 Very cool. Can't wait to see this done Quote
Brendon_t Posted May 18, 2015 Report Posted May 18, 2015 You mentioned that you weren't going with the normal dog mounting holes. What did you do differently? Quote
Tom Cancelleri Posted May 18, 2015 Report Posted May 18, 2015 Nice, tail cuts look clean. Cleanup shouldn't be bad though. Might wanna hog out that material in the middle with the bandsaw and chop it out with a chisel, unless you plan on cutting it out with a fret saw. Quote
FtrPilot Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Posted May 18, 2015 You mentioned that you weren't going with the normal dog mounting holes. What did you do differently? Here's a picture of the benchcrafted bench dog. With their concept, the dogs can be pushed down and stored in the dog hole. When needed, you push the dog up from below the bench. Here's a graphic which shows the routing of their dog hole. The dog hole dimensions are 1 3/8 x 1. I am using a rectangular dog hole 1 5/8 x 3/4, with straight through routing. Here's a picture that show the bench dog hole routed. Here's a picture of the bench dog, sitting in the dog hole. And here's a picture showing how the bench dog would hold a piece of wood. Quote
Eric. Posted May 19, 2015 Report Posted May 19, 2015 It may be too late for this, but you might wanna rethink using those dogs. There will be many times when you'll want to pop a dog up just a tiny bit above the surface so that a plane, sanding block, router, whatever will clear the dogs when working on a thin board. I have a feeling those dogs you have there will be quite frustrating and inconvenient. Not only that but you have to remove those dogs and put them somewhere whenever they're not in use instead of just poking them down in their holes. Food for thought. I'm curious why you chose to go with that style in the first place? Quote
FtrPilot Posted May 19, 2015 Author Report Posted May 19, 2015 It may be too late for this, but you might wanna rethink using those dogs. There will be many times when you'll want to pop a dog up just a tiny bit above the surface so that a plane, sanding block, router, whatever will clear the dogs when working on a thin board. I have a feeling those dogs you have there will be quite frustrating and inconvenient. Not only that but you have to remove those dogs and put them somewhere whenever they're not in use instead of just poking them down in their holes. Food for thought. I'm curious why you chose to go with that style in the first place? It is too late to change... I did struggle with this decision. But based my decision on already having a supply of bench dogs, short ones and tall ones. The biggest downside is they can't be stored in the bench. Thanks for you inputs. Quote
Gary Posted May 19, 2015 Report Posted May 19, 2015 Well, if you do change your mind in the future, you could always slide in and glue some blocks from the bottom of the holes. That would put the internal shape of the dog hole closer to the original design. Just a thought. 2 Quote
FtrPilot Posted May 19, 2015 Author Report Posted May 19, 2015 Well, if you do change your mind in the future, you could always slide in and glue some blocks from the bottom of the holes. That would put the internal shape of the dog hole closer to the original design. Just a thought. An excellent idea, which I will keep in mind. In fact, I am going to do a proof of concept in my test dog hole. Thanks! 1 Quote
FtrPilot Posted May 21, 2015 Author Report Posted May 21, 2015 Slow but steady progress. Male condor tails are done. Ready to mark the female condor tails on the end cap. Still a lot of milling to do on the end cap. 1 Quote
Brendon_t Posted May 21, 2015 Report Posted May 21, 2015 Holy crap I forgot your legs are one solid piece of oak. That's freaking awesome. The tails look great. Quote
FtrPilot Posted May 31, 2015 Author Report Posted May 31, 2015 Progress on the Condor Tails has been slow. The pictures in my previous post are a little misleading. The tails look really nice, but the board, at the tails, is not square. I have spent a lot of time (routing & chiseling) getting the board square, so there won't be any gaps between the front board and the end cap. With the board square and the tails marked on the end cap, I have started routing & chiseling the end cap female condor tails. There is more chiseling to do, but I am happy with the progress so far. Here's the pics: Quote
Greenaqua Posted June 1, 2015 Report Posted June 1, 2015 Your tails look great and making some great progress. Very nice lumber choice for your bench also. It is going to look phenomenal when finished. Quote
FtrPilot Posted June 2, 2015 Author Report Posted June 2, 2015 To Brendon, Kev, Southwood, and Greg...thanks for your comments and encouragement. This afternoon, I routed the end cap mortise. Lots of measuring, re-measuring and cross checking. A screw up on the mortise would mean redoing the condor tails. Here's some pics of the dry fit. I am very happy. Tomorrow, I will install the endcap barrel nuts & bolts. After that...tail vise preliminary install. Quote
..Kev Posted June 2, 2015 Report Posted June 2, 2015 I've enjoyed the journey! It's really looking great! Quote
wtnhighlander Posted June 2, 2015 Report Posted June 2, 2015 Sweet! Nice fit on the end cap. I like that several of you guys are coming diwn to the wire together. Its better than watching the Kentucky Derby! Quote
Brendon_t Posted June 2, 2015 Report Posted June 2, 2015 Is the face board of the front slab covering the dog hole strip only held in place by the condor tails? It's gotta be glued right? Quote
FtrPilot Posted June 2, 2015 Author Report Posted June 2, 2015 Is the face board of the front slab covering the dog hole strip only held in place by the condor tails? It's gotta be glued right? The Benchcrafted kit includes bolts and barrel nuts. The picture below shows the installation (not mine). The construction notes do not specifically say whether to use glue or not. My plan is to use glue. Quote
FtrPilot Posted June 4, 2015 Author Report Posted June 4, 2015 The End Cap is done and the Tail Vise dry fit is successful. A lot of challenges to get it done right. But a great feeling once everything comes together. Here's the end cap... End Cap with barrel nuts & bolts. Tail Vise dry fit...I am able to do the dry fit without the rails. The rails will sit in a mortise and the depth of the rails will be the same as the bench bottom. I will route the rail mortises after both slabs have been flattened. The operation of the vise is smooth from end to end... Next is glue up of the front board and end cap. Quote
FtrPilot Posted June 6, 2015 Author Report Posted June 6, 2015 Front slab is done (sort of). The front board is glued on. I spent a couple of hours with a Stanley #7 flattening the top and bottom. Right now, the front slab is 4 3/16 thick, so I have 3/16 pad when I do the final flattening. Here's pics of the bottom and top...I am happy. Next up is the back slab, which should go a lot quicker. Tomorrow is golf in the morning and tree harvesting (most likely firewood) in the afternoon. Quote
FtrPilot Posted June 7, 2015 Author Report Posted June 7, 2015 I spent the morning cleaning up my garage workshop so I could start on the back slab. I put the boards through the thickness planer...With the boards clamped together, the slab width is 11 3/16. I will let the boards rest overnight and glue up the back slab tomorrow. Quote
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