Wow, it has been awhile since much work has been done on this project. Two decks, a few of other small projects and many other things to pull me away from 'the big one.'
My first plan for this bench was to use hunks of 4X6 acquired from the reject bin at the Orange Borg. The sight of some 6X6 lumber at Wilco being used in displays instilled a little lumber envy. It got me to consider laminating some ash to the 4X6.
The final adjustment of one piece to remove a localized hump:
a Planing Before Gluing.jpg
The final fit had a few thousandths of spring in the middle.
Holes were bored to use dowels for aligning the two pieces. A depth gauge was used when boring the 4X6:
b Boring with Depth Stop.jpg
One has to be careful to stop when the gauge touches the surface. Continuing will pull the auger in and cause the gauge to move up the bit. If doing a lot of boring to the same depth it is wise to have a quick way to check the gauge after each use. This is also a good idea if one is using a piece of tape as a gauge.
With the holes bored the dowel pins are inserted. Here a clamp is holding pieces of scrap to guide the ash lamination into place:
c Dowel Pin Set Up.jpg
The piece to be laminated is carefully aligned and lowered on to the dowel pins. When it is in place it is pressed down on to the pins, making an impression for setting aligning a drill bit.
In this case the gauge used during the boring of holes on the 4X6s was set at one inch. One of my habits is to count the number of turns of an auger bit once the cutting edges start removing shavings. In this case it was ~30 turns. When boring the ash, only 10 turns were used so the lead screw wouldn't penetrate. The dowels were cut to 1-1/4" and tested in a dry fit.
As much as folks hate junk mail, it is one of the best sources of free glue spreaders:
d Free Glue Spreaders.jpg
These can also be used as shoe horns. They come in handy in the kitchen when scraping gunk off of a plate or cookware. Keep a couple in the car for scraping frost off the windshield. They can be used once and tossed or they can be cleaned and used again. Titebond® is easy to scrape off when it dries.
e Spreading Glue.jpg
No brush or roller to worry about.
Got close to using all my clamps:
f All C.amped Up.jpg
There was still about a half dozen to go.
So much more to plan and do before this project is done.
jtk