Richard Dooling
04-27-2009, 11:58 AM
I just finished flattening my bench with hand planes. The first time I did it with a belt sander and was not happy with the outcome. This was hard work but it taught me a lot about using and adjusting my planes.
I started out with a #6 (Hock blade and breaker) and a 26” Sargent transitional. The #8 Anant showed up in the middle of the process and ended up being the go to plane. I’ve read a lot of negatives about the Anants but I got this off eBay for $45 and the previous owner had already lapped the sole. It’s actually a pretty good plane. BTW the #6 has a high knob in the picture because the original low knob is in the hospital.
Finished up with scrapers and a nice old #4. Apply some shellac and I’m done.
I can’t afford to do the whole top in maple so I just used it where the dog holes go. I wanted tool trays but experience has taught me that they catch shavings and I wanted the open area to allow for some clamping options. The trays slide on rails and are removable. I am also making flat plates that fit on the rails to give me a continuous top - primarily for bar clamps to sit on.
I am thinking about replacing the tail vise. Now that I’ve used it for a while I think I would prefer a wagon vise. The tail vise seems a bit delicate – I would never use that area of the bench for heavy pounding. While it works well enough for clamping and for giving the bench dogs a ride it’s just not as sturdy as I thought it would be. The wagon vise leaves the top largely intact.
I’m also thinking about a leg vise but the side vise is working pretty well. I added the extra wide maple jaws and they work fine – if I have something in it that causes racking I just slip a piece slightly less thick on the other side to control it.
I would definitely do this a little differently if I had it to do over, but overall I’m pretty happy with this design.
116818
116819
I started out with a #6 (Hock blade and breaker) and a 26” Sargent transitional. The #8 Anant showed up in the middle of the process and ended up being the go to plane. I’ve read a lot of negatives about the Anants but I got this off eBay for $45 and the previous owner had already lapped the sole. It’s actually a pretty good plane. BTW the #6 has a high knob in the picture because the original low knob is in the hospital.
Finished up with scrapers and a nice old #4. Apply some shellac and I’m done.
I can’t afford to do the whole top in maple so I just used it where the dog holes go. I wanted tool trays but experience has taught me that they catch shavings and I wanted the open area to allow for some clamping options. The trays slide on rails and are removable. I am also making flat plates that fit on the rails to give me a continuous top - primarily for bar clamps to sit on.
I am thinking about replacing the tail vise. Now that I’ve used it for a while I think I would prefer a wagon vise. The tail vise seems a bit delicate – I would never use that area of the bench for heavy pounding. While it works well enough for clamping and for giving the bench dogs a ride it’s just not as sturdy as I thought it would be. The wagon vise leaves the top largely intact.
I’m also thinking about a leg vise but the side vise is working pretty well. I added the extra wide maple jaws and they work fine – if I have something in it that causes racking I just slip a piece slightly less thick on the other side to control it.
I would definitely do this a little differently if I had it to do over, but overall I’m pretty happy with this design.
116818
116819