Lynn Kasdorf
05-01-2003, 11:57 AM
In my recent acquisition of a used saw mill (!), as part of the deal, I got more that my pickup should haul of air dried lumber.
Included in this was 3 sections of maple bowling alley. Two are about 4' x 15", and the other is about 5' x 20". The bigger one would make about the right size bench for my purposes.
Since I've been meaning to make a decent bench fro some time, I figured this might jumpstart me. These sections have a couple of problems though.
The biggest is that the laminations are seperating in a couple places at the ends. And the other issue is that the former owner apparently tried to run these through his thickness planer (he had a biggun). Maybe the knives were dull, but it caused a lot of chipout on the maple. I imagine he did this, saw the chipout, got disgusted and set them aside. I have projects like this...
So- on the laminations. Since the splitting is only at the ends, and not terribly severe, i figured I'd try the following. I'll inject glue with a hypodermic into the cracks, and attempt to glue back together. When this dries, I'll cut a 1/2" wide, 3/4" deep dado slot in each end of the sections and glue in a maple strip, to keep the ends stable.
As far as the top goes, I figure it is about time to tune up this old 22" jointing plane I have, and give it a try. I'll not attempt to take the surface down enough to eliminate all the chipout (this would require about 1/4"). I'll just live with the chipout and strive for a basically flat surface with some defects. I've never tried to plane a large area like this, so it will be a learning experience. I hear talk of winding sticks for measuring flatness- I don't know how to do this. Uh-oh, I'm getting into a discussion for the quiet side...
This is not going to be a museum quality bench, but a sturdy, functional tool. I'll make the frame and legs from some big oak timbers I have. I have a decent side vise for it, and will probably install a veritas dual end vise at some point. I'll probably go for round dog holes.
Of course, if i delaminated it, I could cut the square dog holes and reglue...
It is funny- the bottom side of these was apparently run through a planer with SEVERE dings in the blade. There are all these striations in the surface. I suspect this came from the factory. The hidden side is not important, so I guess they tolerate a pretty bad surface.
Maybe this is a lot more work than just whipping one up out of 3 layers of MDF, but it will be much cooler to have a maple top.
Included in this was 3 sections of maple bowling alley. Two are about 4' x 15", and the other is about 5' x 20". The bigger one would make about the right size bench for my purposes.
Since I've been meaning to make a decent bench fro some time, I figured this might jumpstart me. These sections have a couple of problems though.
The biggest is that the laminations are seperating in a couple places at the ends. And the other issue is that the former owner apparently tried to run these through his thickness planer (he had a biggun). Maybe the knives were dull, but it caused a lot of chipout on the maple. I imagine he did this, saw the chipout, got disgusted and set them aside. I have projects like this...
So- on the laminations. Since the splitting is only at the ends, and not terribly severe, i figured I'd try the following. I'll inject glue with a hypodermic into the cracks, and attempt to glue back together. When this dries, I'll cut a 1/2" wide, 3/4" deep dado slot in each end of the sections and glue in a maple strip, to keep the ends stable.
As far as the top goes, I figure it is about time to tune up this old 22" jointing plane I have, and give it a try. I'll not attempt to take the surface down enough to eliminate all the chipout (this would require about 1/4"). I'll just live with the chipout and strive for a basically flat surface with some defects. I've never tried to plane a large area like this, so it will be a learning experience. I hear talk of winding sticks for measuring flatness- I don't know how to do this. Uh-oh, I'm getting into a discussion for the quiet side...
This is not going to be a museum quality bench, but a sturdy, functional tool. I'll make the frame and legs from some big oak timbers I have. I have a decent side vise for it, and will probably install a veritas dual end vise at some point. I'll probably go for round dog holes.
Of course, if i delaminated it, I could cut the square dog holes and reglue...
It is funny- the bottom side of these was apparently run through a planer with SEVERE dings in the blade. There are all these striations in the surface. I suspect this came from the factory. The hidden side is not important, so I guess they tolerate a pretty bad surface.
Maybe this is a lot more work than just whipping one up out of 3 layers of MDF, but it will be much cooler to have a maple top.