Jim, I don't think the plane pictured will do it. You may need a broad axe to start with Nice looking piece of timber.
Jim
Jim, I don't think the plane pictured will do it. You may need a broad axe to start with Nice looking piece of timber.
Jim
The #5-1/2 was mostly being used to clean up the edge a bit. Draw knives were also used on it some today. My intent was to get it somewhat straight and vertical to the bench. Then it was marked out to approximate the finished dimensions:Jim, I don't think the plane pictured will do it.
Marking the End.jpg
A level was used to mark out how the end will eventually appear:
End Marks.jpg
Using a pair of dividers the vertical height of the piece was transferred to the far end. The level was used to mark out the top line. From there a chalk line was used to mark the side:
Snapping a Line.jpg
A scrub plane was used to make a flat area along the higher side of the length:
Scrubbing the High Side.jpg
Sighting from the end there were some high spots to take out. The scrub plane was used to go with the grain to knock down the high areas:
Hogging the High Spots.jpg
My plan is to get this straight and square enough to allow it to be run through the bandsaw to speed up the dimensioning. Our daughter and boyfriend are coming over for the weekend to help around the place. Hopefully two of us can handle feeding this through the bandsaw.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
My daughter's boyfriend, Matt, was very helpful getting the biga hunka wood cut today. A pair of saw horses as tall as the bandsaw table were built to assist in this endeavor:
Band Saw & Horses.jpg
There are shims attached to the horses to get to the exact height. My first thought was to feed the work over the length of the horses. That didn't work. So this set up was to allow the beam to rest on the horse and the bandsaw. The horses were positioned a little further away from the bandsaw than the center of the beam on both ends. This helps to keep the beam from becoming unbalanced and trying to lift itself up.
The first cut was made by attaching a 1X6 past the edge of the beam to run against the fence. The weight of the beam caused a bit of flex on the fence. Clamping a block against it fixed that. A 1X1 was also attached to the beam on the inside of the cut to help balance the work as the first edge cut was made. That allowed us to make a face cut using the part that was planed to ride against the fence:
In Re-Saw Cut.jpg
This side received a bit of planing before deciding removing as much as an inch in some places was better done with a bandsaw.
For anyone who is interested the bandsaw had a new 3/4" blade installed before starting.
Also remember when using a push stick on a band saw, if it is above the table and in-line with the blade, at the end of the cut the blade is going to grab it and knock it against the table. DAMHIKT!
Oh joy, now there is a whole lot more planing to do.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
A stout wall and a pair of sawhorses works for me.
I begin planing at one end and butt the other against the wall, working a little more than half way down. Then turn it around. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific are then joined with less troublesome lighter shavings on the bench top.
The edge opposite from this edge has been flattened and squared with the face. Before removing the saw marks and smoothing this edge it is checked for the amount of out of square. There is a meaning, at least to me, as to what the markings mean as to where and how much wood needs to be removed:
Checking Square.jpg
This can also be helpful finding any high/low areas on the face.
After cleaning up the edge and planing it square to the face the piece was checked for parallel edges using an Odd Jobs as a depth gauge:
Odd Jobs Depth Gauge.jpg
This plank’s edges were out of parallel by ~1/8”. This was fairly easy to remedy with a little bit of planing and checking.
The thinest part of the plank is about 3”. This was set on the Odd Jobs and lines were drawn on the edges in preparation for working the last face. Since on the high side this was about 3/8” a #5-1/4 was used to chamfer the edge as a gauge for how far the work is progressing:
Chamfering Along the Edge.jpg
After this it was time to scrub away:
Scrub-a-dub-dub.jpg
By dinner time the shavings were piled on the bench as high as the work. Even more were on the floor. There are still some spots as much as 1/8” high to take down.
May have to get out the winding sticks to keep it flat.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Jim,
You the man. My back hurts just looking at the photos. One of the reasons I may have built my last workbench is wrestling that size timber, it's too much for one OF to handle.
BTW, the slab is looking good.
ken
Last edited by ken hatch; 04-04-2019 at 11:44 PM.
The chamfer mentioned in my last post was a little less than 1/8” from the scribed pencil line. When the bottom edge of the chamfer was reached the final chamfer was taken down to the line. The chamfer area was marked with an old dull carpenters pencil. This lets me see when the desired depth is being reached:
Low Marks.jpg
There are many ways to make a point on one of these flat pencils. They can be cut to a razor edge to track in pin and wheel gauge marks. They can also be left very dull to make heavier marks.
Using a #6 reminded me of a recent thread about leaving marks with a plane. It also reminded me of something read long ago about ‘reading the shavings.’ Notice the difference of the shavings:
Watch the Shavings.jpg
The one on the right is a short shaving typical when planing over an area taken down by a scrub plane. It is full or nearly full width.
The shavings in the plane are narrow ribbons. That indicates a lot of nicks in the blade. If there is a constant area where the shaving is coming out split, it is likely due to a nick in the blade.
This hunk of wood does have a few knots which are hard on a blade. This plane was being used for a lot of heavier transverse work. Shaving across or at an angle to the grain tends to peel shavings as much as slicing. Also when the shavings are heavier the nicks do not have as much of an effect on them.
Before a chance encounter with someone wanting to sell a #40, my scrub plane was an old beat to heck and back #5-1/4. So after using it today, something made me dig out a spare blade, put a camber on it and try out a #5 as a scrub plane:
Another Scrub?.jpg
From the bottom they are, a #40, #5-1/4 and a #5 set up as scrub planes:
Three Scrubs.jpg
These are the blades:
Scrub Blades.jpg
Each of these seems to have its own particular usefulness in the progression from heavy hogging of wood to taking down the rough areas getting ready for the smoothing.
The cambers were done by eye without any thought given to the radius. The #40 is cambered as it was when purchased.
jtk
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 04-06-2019 at 2:42 AM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Yes Jim that is a good work out. I’ve been planing up some poplar also (4x4 and 4x6). What is surprising is how light it is after it has dried out. Bench tops are better heavy so your combined wood top will add more weight.
What style of bench are you planning?
The massive single stretcher leg design with wedges gets my vote, half way between the floor and bench top. The bench does not move or vibrate even, it just sits there.
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
It seems to be a good cardio workout. With everything else going on my shop time is limited to a few hours on days not consumed doing greenhouse or garden work.Yes Jim that is a good work out.
It will be kind of a cross between a split top Rubo and a Nicholson bench with a short apron around the top. The plan is for a twin screw tail vise across the full width. For one face vise my plan is to make it so it movable. One idea rolling around in my head is to make it so it can be moved from the back face position to the front face as a second vise to help support long pieces in the main face vise. The main face vise will be a modern copy of a pattern makers vise.What style of bench are you planning?
As far as weight goes, the two main pieces for the top are each heavier than my current bench without the bucket of cement that holds it in place.
Over the years some decent 4X6 material has been acquired for the legs.
There will at least be a shelf under the bench. Haven't decided if there will be some drawers or a second shelf. One of the problems that seems to plague every shop is space to store things like holdfasts, shims, sanding blocks, bench hooks, shooting boards and all other sort of things.
jtk
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 04-06-2019 at 12:16 PM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
This hunk of wood is finally getting close to the finish line. After the scrub planes removed a lot of the excess wood planes sized from a #5-1/2 to a #8 were used to work on flattening the surface. As the work got along, the far end was checked for square to the edges. Being found square and flat the winding stick target was set at that end and the sighting stick was set toward the close end. It revealed a bit of tilt:
Checking With Winding Sticks.jpg
The image isn't real clear. It indicates the left side is still a bit high. Also while moving it away from the target it revealed a high spot running down the center. This was fairly easy to take down with the #8 traversing the piece.
Then it was time for smoothing:
#3 Smoothing.jpg
The traverse planing leaves a slightly fuzzy surface. Set to take a light shaving, the #3 is one of my favorites for smoothing. At times a #4-1/2 was also used.
The scrub planes left tear out around some of the knots more than 1/8" deep. Going over this area with try planes and jointers skewed help to reduce the tear out. Very light shavings and skewing the smoothers helped to remove the tear out:
Knot Here.jpg
After some final checks on this piece it will be time to start working on the lumber for the base.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Today allowed some shop time. The 4X6 pieces for the legs were dug out of the wood pile.
Using the cam set up to hold the longest took a little redesign to get it to hold:
Enhanced Cam Action.jpg
There is a block and a shim between the cam on the left and the back fence on the bench. The piece of scrap in the face vise is pressed against the right cam. At the far end some blocking was rigged up to prevent lateral movement. Later it dawned on me to just put the sanding blocks in the end vise to hold the tail end of the work.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Took a little time from yard, garden and greenhouse work today to make some shavings.
When working with older lumber or pieces stored for a while, it may be a good idea to run a scraper or piece of broken saw blade over the surface. This will rid it of dust, sand, pitch or other nasties wanting to foul your plane blades.
The shorter pieces are easier to hold:
Stop It.jpg
With two rows of dog holes, this is a convenient stop to use. The work can still shift from side to side. If the plane isn't lifted on the back stroke you may develop a theory on why lifting planes on the back stroke got started.
In this image a second stop is in the tail vise. This helps to keep the work from shifting when using a hollow to round the corners.
This is the post where they were first used:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?261911
They have come in handy for a few projects.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Good deal Jim. I remember that post and have adapted it for use a few times. Work holding is part of woodworking that is an art in itself. Having lots of methods solves lots of problems that can become huge obstacles. Sage advice on scraping first too. Wind blown sand has ruined many a perfectly sharpened edge.
Jim
And it only took me a couple of spoiled blades to figure it out.Sage advice on scraping first too. Wind blown sand has ruined many a perfectly sharpened edge.
Some of these have been sitting in my shop for a few years. They came from the Home Depot markdown wood piles at different times. All together they cost me less than $10. That is pretty good for a little more than 12' of 4X6.
When time becomes available the base layout needs to be drawn out.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)