bgreenb Posted October 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 So I recovered from the whole drilling fiasco, filled the holes with epoxy, and I'll turn some plugs while glue dries on the front laminate, hopefully tomorrow. Tonight I finished up the condor tails. I think it went pretty well. My new LN mortise chisels are a pleasure to use. Tails are dead square and the shoulder is even all the way around. Pretty happy with the result. I also routed out the 1/4" rabbet on the bottom of the rails to help with registration when marking out the pins. Finally, I marked out the end cap length and cut it to proper length. I'm getting tired of undoing and redoing these bolts. Can't wait til I don't have to do it again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim DaddyO Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 That is looking great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Coming together nicely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Like me some sweet tail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Brian, putting on and taking off the endcap was a huge pain in the the ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 Got in a decent amount of shop time this weekend. My kids blessed me with long naps. Saturday I got to work on the end cap pins. First I marked them out with an xacto knife and the marking gauge that I still had set up from marking the tail baseline. I didn't bother using Marc/Jameel's method of trying to split the pencil line in half. It made me nervous, just seemed like there was too much room for error. YMMV of course, but mine turned out plenty tight. This was as close as I dared go with the router freehand.And after some cleanup:You can see one place where my chisel slipped toward the top right part of the top tail socket. Annoying, but a little sawdust and glue should take care of that later. There are a few other imperfections that will probably be visible on the final piece (e.g., where I got too aggressive with the coping saw when cutting out some of the tail waste), but the joint was super tight, which I guess is all that matters. I used epoxy for the glue up based on Eric's advice about not swelling the fibers before trying to glue up the joint. It slipped together nicely.I also took the opportunity to turn a couple of plugs for those wayward holes. I feel better about it now, especially given that it's on the underside of the bench. If it were visible I would've taken the time to cut face grain plugs, but I didn't bother here. Finally, I got to work on the tail vise installation. This actually went more smoothly than I expected. Once again I'll express my annoyance with the barrel nuts - yeah they're cool in theory, but in practice I don't think they save any time or aggravation. You have to remove one of them to route the mortises for the tail vise rails because it gets in the way of the router. I also think they are generally just a little more finicky to fit than just using a washer and nut. Oh well.No pics of the tail vise installation process, but I just followed Marc's video instructions and it went smoothly. There is a TINY bit of rubbing at one part of the vise travel, maybe for about 1.5" of travel. You can probably hear it in the below video. Haven't decided yet whether I'm gonna bother fixing it, because I'm afraid if I start messing with shims I'll just be chasing my tail. I might experiment with loosening different screws on the rails to see if I can free it up, but it was too late when I finished last night and I just wanted to call it quits for the evening. In any case, here she is:I feel pretty good about it. Next up I'll cut the slabs to final length and then get to work milling some legs. Feel like I'm moving along pretty good now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 Tails look great! Awesome progress! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 Thats looking awesome Brian!Kids blessed you with long naps; this was the best part of your post! Sounds amazing. I love it when that happens, which isn't very often at my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 Thats looking awesome Brian!Kids blessed you with long naps; this was the best part of your post! Sounds amazing. I love it when that happens, which isn't very often at my house. Thanks!Ha - we are on borrowed time with my daughter. She is 3 1/2 and still takes a 3hour nap almost every day. She moves 100mph when she's awake, so that's probably why...but I'm waiting for the day when it's naptime and she says "screw this, I'm done napping." But I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Had a few minutes tonight, so I cut the slabs to final length. I'm very happy I won't have to do the "cut from both sides" method again on this project. Ain't no fun. Tomorrow I'll get started milling some legs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Looking awesome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Thanks!Ha - we are on borrowed time with my daughter. She is 3 1/2 and still takes a 3hour nap almost every day. She moves 100mph when she's awake, so that's probably why...but I'm waiting for the day when it's naptime and she says "screw this, I'm done napping." But I'll enjoy it while it lasts.I got lucky on that one. We had to force my daughter to stop taking naps right before starting kindergarten. Weekends, she still begs to have a nap at 6 yo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenskye Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Brian just getting caught up on your build, looks great so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 Took took care of the leg laminations today, as well as the center section of the chop. Figured I might as well mill the center section of the chop the same width as the legs to make the crisscross mortise easier (that way I can use the same router edge guide setting). After the mortises are routed I'll trim it out with walnut. Finally, another hardware delivery came today. I ordered these yesterday at noon and they arrived today at 11am. How's that for fast shipping?Gonna let the leg lams cook overnight and mill them to final size tomorrow. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 Keeps looking better 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Tonight I milled the legs and center section of the chop to final size. They ended up about 3/16" short in width, but that won't matter. These legs are HUGE. I knew they were beefy, but having them done I now see how this bench is so sturdy/heavy. I also decided on a final height for the bench, at 39". I'm fairly tall at 6'3", and 39" is about the height that the bench top is on saw horses, and I've tested out planing on it and it feels pretty comfortable. Plus I figured keeping it on the tall side, I can always cut them back down a bit. I marked them out for all the rail mortises (plus the through holes on the right front leg for holdfasts/dog access.And then did a sanity check to make sure I had all the mortises marked out in the right place. The extra length of the legs I left at the bottom so that I won't have to reach too far down to the shelf. Everything looks good, but I'll probably give it a more careful eye tomorrow before I go to actually cut the mortises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Nice legs, nice beard. We are all envious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2015 Big night last night. Routed all the leg mortises. Have I mentioned yet how much I hate handheld routing?? What a mess.Ahhh, so THIS is what proper workholding is like? Xanadu!I also milled up all the rails to final size. Tonight I will try to tackle the rail tenons. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have a working leg vise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted November 6, 2015 Report Share Posted November 6, 2015 Yeah man, hand held routing of deep mortises ain't no fun at all. The last time I did it, I couldn't find the spiral bit so lazy me used a double flute straight bit. It caught about 1.5" down and I about soiled my drawers. Looking sweet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2015 More handheld routing tonight. Ugh. I'm swimming in dust and chips. I routed the crisscross mortise in the leg and chop and then glued the walnut trim to the chop. Then I went to drill the holes for the crisscross pins and realized the long 3/8 bit I got on Amazon is total garbage. Looks like it's a trip to Woodcraft tomorrow. Then I tackled the rail tenons, which was uneventful. I still need to fine tune them a bit. Frankly I ran out of steam. And finally I took care of the leg tenons too. aaaand that's a wrap for tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted November 7, 2015 Report Share Posted November 7, 2015 Great progress! Looking awesome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted November 7, 2015 Report Share Posted November 7, 2015 Wow man it is impressive how quickly you are getting this done. Almost Tom like speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted November 7, 2015 Report Share Posted November 7, 2015 Brian - working on my tail vise and with thread flush and 2 7/8" from end mine came out to 13 1/8" instead of 13 3/4". Where did yours come out? I'm wondering if I should go 13 3/8" instead of 14" like the video says? I really don't want to screw this up! Maybe deeper isn't a problem unless you screw the vise too far and the end falls off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 Brian - working on my tail vise and with thread flush and 2 7/8" from end mine came out to 13 1/8" instead of 13 3/4". Where did yours come out? I'm wondering if I should go 13 3/8" instead of 14" like the video says? I really don't want to screw this up! Maybe deeper isn't a problem unless you screw the vise too far and the end falls off. hey Mike - mine came out short as well, but I still routed the full 14" just for giggles. It won't matter either way, as once the dog block is on there is no way it can fall off the screw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 Thanks Brian thats what I thought plus I read the Benchcrafted plans and they said you can go up to 17". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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