Mike Allen1010
12-01-2014, 6:44 PM
This is a series of posts on building a Chippendale lowboy model after the one in Franklin Gottschall’s book “Building Furniture Masterpieces”.
I am a novice Carver. It still tedious and not nearly as fun for me as the rest of the build but I am getting better. I’ve done enough carving out to realize that carving on the benchtop is waaaaay too hard on my back, so as is typical for me a new project requires a new shop appliance, in this case a bench on bench.
My requirement was it had to be something I could put together quickly using only scraps I had in the shop. I had some 6 x 6 Douglas Fir left over from the legs on my bench and I used these for the bench on bench. It had been sitting in the garage for acouple years so was fairly dry but still splintery as all get out.The top is Baltic birch plywood. I wasn’t sure exactly how high I wanted it so I designed it so I could trim the legs to lower the work surface. Ultimately I did trim the legs to lower it to just below the height of my elbow which seemed to work out okay - a compromise between my pooreyesight and aching back.
By nature I am fast-paced and inpatient (my wife’s ring tone for me is the Oak Ridge boys “I’min a hurry and I don’t know why”). One of the things I love about building “shop furniture” is the freedom to work quickly without fussing about tolerances around fit and finish that would normally apply to furniture projects.
The legs are joined with split, three shouldered M&T’s. I have a shop built, 18 inch, 9PPI back saw filed rip that is great for quickly cutting big tendons like this
.301309301310301312
I use my favorite layout tool to lay out cut lines on just the two surfaces that are visible whens awing. In the interest of expediency I aim for splitting the layout line to make for less final shaving of the Tennons for a decent fit. In this picture you can see the knife layout Mark and was able to get a decent fit right offthe saw.
301311301313301314301315
Here’s a picture of the bench in use. It is very solid and I was able to stab in the outline of the carving with the work clamped as you see here, without having the carved surface directly over the bench. Maybe for Christmas all asked for a small quick release vice that I can add with some dog holes. For now it’s easy enough to clamp stuff directly to the work surface.
301316
I am a novice Carver. It still tedious and not nearly as fun for me as the rest of the build but I am getting better. I’ve done enough carving out to realize that carving on the benchtop is waaaaay too hard on my back, so as is typical for me a new project requires a new shop appliance, in this case a bench on bench.
My requirement was it had to be something I could put together quickly using only scraps I had in the shop. I had some 6 x 6 Douglas Fir left over from the legs on my bench and I used these for the bench on bench. It had been sitting in the garage for acouple years so was fairly dry but still splintery as all get out.The top is Baltic birch plywood. I wasn’t sure exactly how high I wanted it so I designed it so I could trim the legs to lower the work surface. Ultimately I did trim the legs to lower it to just below the height of my elbow which seemed to work out okay - a compromise between my pooreyesight and aching back.
By nature I am fast-paced and inpatient (my wife’s ring tone for me is the Oak Ridge boys “I’min a hurry and I don’t know why”). One of the things I love about building “shop furniture” is the freedom to work quickly without fussing about tolerances around fit and finish that would normally apply to furniture projects.
The legs are joined with split, three shouldered M&T’s. I have a shop built, 18 inch, 9PPI back saw filed rip that is great for quickly cutting big tendons like this
.301309301310301312
I use my favorite layout tool to lay out cut lines on just the two surfaces that are visible whens awing. In the interest of expediency I aim for splitting the layout line to make for less final shaving of the Tennons for a decent fit. In this picture you can see the knife layout Mark and was able to get a decent fit right offthe saw.
301311301313301314301315
Here’s a picture of the bench in use. It is very solid and I was able to stab in the outline of the carving with the work clamped as you see here, without having the carved surface directly over the bench. Maybe for Christmas all asked for a small quick release vice that I can add with some dog holes. For now it’s easy enough to clamp stuff directly to the work surface.
301316