John Dykes
10-08-2008, 10:10 AM
I don't have an official bench building thread, but I have been taking pictures that I may post as I go along.... (Including some visual reinforcement regarding kickback :eek: )
The cost of building a bench as well as my paralysis of tackling new things has cornered me into hand work on a contractors saw top (with casters even!). Good Lord that is miserable! No more...
I took the plunge and bought some 8/4 Ash for $3 bf here in Denver. Good stuff. I've quite successfully glued up 2 sets of carefully milled up boards for the top - 7 boards each for around 12" inches wide, nearly 8' long, little under 3 1/2" thick. It's been a pleasure, even at this point, to lay those across some horses for some hand work. I had no idea what I'd been missing!
Last night I had one goal... marry those two pieces into one massive top. As they sat, the joint looked pretty good. Figured I'd run it over my crappy little jointer first, and hand plane it square to the face. I gathered my 15 yr old son and powered up the jointer.... Stopping frequently to check with my 36" straight edge.
After passing the pieces over the jointer - which was no easy task - I carefully took my time and squared the edge to the face with my #7 with the cambered blade (ala David Charlesworth). I was meticulous. To maximize the top thickness, I wanted it to be as near perfect as this hack could make it. With both edges perfectly square to the top, I went for the test fit.
It was a real kick to my enthusiasm to see the gap I had created. It was was the perfect spring joint - just a little too sprung! A perceptible, symmetric arc along each edge. I was too disgruntled to measure - perhaps a 1/16 or 1/8" gap in the middle along the 8 feet. More than my clamps could squeeze shut (not that I would glue it that way!).
I'm confident that I'd mucked it up on the tailed jointer - and am slapping myself for not trusting my hand tool skills enough to not only just square, but also joint the edge.
So what now? Planing the ends with skipping the middle seems like it's asking for trouble... But obviously, full length cuts won't solve anything either. And I'm not sure I want to risk the powered jointer again....
Criticism, feedback, advice welcome - slaps to the forehead expected!
- jbd in Denver
The cost of building a bench as well as my paralysis of tackling new things has cornered me into hand work on a contractors saw top (with casters even!). Good Lord that is miserable! No more...
I took the plunge and bought some 8/4 Ash for $3 bf here in Denver. Good stuff. I've quite successfully glued up 2 sets of carefully milled up boards for the top - 7 boards each for around 12" inches wide, nearly 8' long, little under 3 1/2" thick. It's been a pleasure, even at this point, to lay those across some horses for some hand work. I had no idea what I'd been missing!
Last night I had one goal... marry those two pieces into one massive top. As they sat, the joint looked pretty good. Figured I'd run it over my crappy little jointer first, and hand plane it square to the face. I gathered my 15 yr old son and powered up the jointer.... Stopping frequently to check with my 36" straight edge.
After passing the pieces over the jointer - which was no easy task - I carefully took my time and squared the edge to the face with my #7 with the cambered blade (ala David Charlesworth). I was meticulous. To maximize the top thickness, I wanted it to be as near perfect as this hack could make it. With both edges perfectly square to the top, I went for the test fit.
It was a real kick to my enthusiasm to see the gap I had created. It was was the perfect spring joint - just a little too sprung! A perceptible, symmetric arc along each edge. I was too disgruntled to measure - perhaps a 1/16 or 1/8" gap in the middle along the 8 feet. More than my clamps could squeeze shut (not that I would glue it that way!).
I'm confident that I'd mucked it up on the tailed jointer - and am slapping myself for not trusting my hand tool skills enough to not only just square, but also joint the edge.
So what now? Planing the ends with skipping the middle seems like it's asking for trouble... But obviously, full length cuts won't solve anything either. And I'm not sure I want to risk the powered jointer again....
Criticism, feedback, advice welcome - slaps to the forehead expected!
- jbd in Denver