Paul Cahill
07-12-2011, 7:16 PM
This is not a showcase piece, just a solid bench with two nice vises – LV twin screw and Benchcraft wagon. My objective was to get beyond my well worn saw horses in a reasonable amount of time and expense. Originally I was planning on something much simpler but then I read Chris Schwarz’s book and became a convert, for the most part. Also, I used SYP to avoid getting slowed down out of fear of screwing up some nice hardwood.
201630
The bench is 30” by 77”, 4” thick, and 34” high. It took several trips to both the blue and orange stores to get it all.
201625
I know a lot of people don’t like biscuits, but I found them very helpful in stopping the boards from squirming around during glue-up. I glued up the boards in sections of three, and then ran them through the jointer and planer. I was concerned about whether the sections would be too heavy for the small planer but it was not a problem.
201623201627
For the mortises on the legs I don’t have a dado stack, so I just made multiple passes on the TS and cleaned it up with a chisel and block plane. I made the base completely independent of the top, in case I ever want to redo the top at some point. In the addition the base is bolted together, so I could change its dimensions fairly painlessly.
201626
I used square dogs for the front, cut on the TS like the mortises. I cleaned them up partially with a chisel, and then finished them off with a router and template.
201628
Once glued together, I had to cut off the two ends. The hardest part was flipping over the top, which wasn’t too bad with three of us.
201629
When laying out the boards for the top I spent some time trying to figure out which direction the grain was in, to minimize tear-out later on, but I finally gave up. The whole concept of grain orientation baffles me at this point. Fortunately, I had very little tear-out when I flattened the top, the then mainly on some of the diagonal passes when I was too aggressive. Hand planing the top wasn’t nearly as difficult as I feared, although I didn’t have to remove much material. I used a toothed blade to hit the high spots and then switched to the jointer plane.
201624
201630
The bench is 30” by 77”, 4” thick, and 34” high. It took several trips to both the blue and orange stores to get it all.
201625
I know a lot of people don’t like biscuits, but I found them very helpful in stopping the boards from squirming around during glue-up. I glued up the boards in sections of three, and then ran them through the jointer and planer. I was concerned about whether the sections would be too heavy for the small planer but it was not a problem.
201623201627
For the mortises on the legs I don’t have a dado stack, so I just made multiple passes on the TS and cleaned it up with a chisel and block plane. I made the base completely independent of the top, in case I ever want to redo the top at some point. In the addition the base is bolted together, so I could change its dimensions fairly painlessly.
201626
I used square dogs for the front, cut on the TS like the mortises. I cleaned them up partially with a chisel, and then finished them off with a router and template.
201628
Once glued together, I had to cut off the two ends. The hardest part was flipping over the top, which wasn’t too bad with three of us.
201629
When laying out the boards for the top I spent some time trying to figure out which direction the grain was in, to minimize tear-out later on, but I finally gave up. The whole concept of grain orientation baffles me at this point. Fortunately, I had very little tear-out when I flattened the top, the then mainly on some of the diagonal passes when I was too aggressive. Hand planing the top wasn’t nearly as difficult as I feared, although I didn’t have to remove much material. I used a toothed blade to hit the high spots and then switched to the jointer plane.
201624