Roman Workbench - edge planing help needed

[Tony Wilkins]

Need more help adapting to use my Roman/low workbench. Y’all helped me a lot with the technique for long faces. Now I need to figure out what to do with long edges. It has a face vise and a hole for a holdfast on the other leg. Putting on those make the board fairly low if I try to stand. Tried sitting on the bench from the other side but that feels awkward. Sitting in my chair, the board is a little tall and it’s hard to go along the length.

suggestions for edge planing on a low bench? Or for disabled folks in general?

here’s my best but poor attempt to get it done…
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[Jason Buresh]

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I have had success using a hand screw clamp to stabilize the board on the edge. You can then use a bench dog or clamp a board perpendicular to the work to keep it from sliding forward as you work. Or you could clamp the screw clamps to the bench with a squeeze clamp or f clamp

I haven't tried a low bench, but maybe this will be helpful. Just an idea.

Edit: Just thinking out loud again, if height is also an issue, you could use this method to clamp the screw clamps to different fixtures too, if a sawhorse or table is a more comfortable height.

[James Pallas]

Tony are you able to sit on the end of your bench and support the end of your work at the free end on a stool or something. Then slide it towards you as you work it.
Jim

[Tony Wilkins]

Tony are you able to sit on the end of your bench and support the end of your work at the free end on a stool or something. Then slide it towards you as you work it.
Jim

I need to see if I can find a chair or stool to support the long end. Making a bent the height of the bench is on the list but that list is several miles long now with half completed projects lol.

[steven c newman]

Depends....can you use a pair of F-style clamps...that can reach the width of the bench top....slide them UNDER the bench,,,and clamp the board along side the bench.

[William Fretwell]

Tony you are clearly much taller than the average Roman (5’ 5”). Perhaps you should have built a Greek bench
As for supporting the ends, do you have a chain saw? Cut some logs the right height to rest the work on at each end. Use clamps under the bench to hold the wood on the side of the bench after resting on the logs.

[Luke Dupont]

This is one of the major problems I had with low workbenches, too.

One option is to plane the edge with the board sitting flat on the bench. There are two ways I know of to do this:

1. The diffucult way, which is to overhang the edge and plane sideways off of the bench.

2. The Japanese way, which is to place a thin piece underneath the board you're edge planing to raise it up about half an inch or so and then lay your plane on its side and plane the board this way. The board underneath the one you're planing raises the edge up so that your plane's blade makes full contact, and the plane, laying on its side, registers nicely against the bench at 90 degrees, as if you were using a shooting board. If you want, you can actually make a really long shooting board with a stop to be used this way.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I do not own a low bench, so no experience with this proposed solution, but could you make some simple dead man risers, maybe three or four 2x6’s or 2x8’s, say 32-36” tall.? Clamp them to side of the low bench then clamp your work piece to the risers? I think racking might be a problem. Blocking between the risers might be needed. Especially if you have any knots or changing grain on the edge piece. Not ideal, but my mind keeps going to how can you raise the work so you can stand to do the edge jointing. I see a bunch of problems with this approach. I will be interested to learn what some of the best practices are for edge jointing on a low bench.

[steven c newman]

Wasn't there an Episode on The Woodwright's Shop where C. Schwarz demoed 2 styles of benches? One even had a built-in Moxxon vise, from long before Moxxon was even born...

Might be worth the effort to go re-watch that show, again?

[Tony Wilkins]

Wasn't there an Episode on The Woodwright's Shop where C. Schwarz demoed 2 styles of benches? One even had a built-in Moxxon vise, from long before Moxxon was even born...

Might be worth the effort to go re-watch that show, again?

There was. My problem is twofold. First, the boards I’m working are longer than the bench. Second, I can only stand for short intervals and spend a lot of time in a wheel chair. I think I could work edges very efficiently on boards up to two or three feet.

[chris carter]

Wasn't there an Episode on The Woodwright's Shop where C. Schwarz demoed 2 styles of benches? One even had a built-in Moxxon vise, from long before Moxxon was even born...

Might be worth the effort to go re-watch that show, again?

If that's the episode with Schwarz "demonstrates" how to use a low Roman bench, all he managed to do was demonstrate that he clearly doesn't know how to use one. There's a difference between writing about them and actually using them.... it was painful to watch.

[chris carter]

Drill some traditional roman bench peg holes.

Here’s a shot of the top of my bench. There are three permanent dogs along the end for planing faces (irrelevant to your current predicament). Then there’s a bunch of (seemingly) random holes (that are not random at all). They are used, along with the pegs for all sorts of things. You really only need three of those holes. Ignore the two larger holes – those are what the legs are knocked into.
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For edge planing you put two pegs in that center row and one peg in one of the other holes that makes a gap wider than your board. Then you put a wedge in, fat end at the rear (important). Tap the wedge in and it locks the board in very tightly. When you plane forward, it just makes the wedge tighter so your board won’t come out. To release the board, you just pull up on the board. This is not the same as using a planing stop; the board is really locked in. By putting the board in the middle of the bench you open up a lot of convenient options for planing depending on what’s comfortable, the length and height of the board, etc.
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Here’s some quick shots I took to try and demonstrate and maybe one of these options will work for you. These all work with any length board and I have planed boards longer than my bench. Just hang the board off the end and when you get there, pull the board up and move it back, tap the wedge back in. In theory you should be able to edge plane boards than are just short of double the length of the bench (longer than that and you’ll need a milk crate or something to support the overhanging end).

All these planing methods have very good ergonomics and you can generate plenty of force, etc.

Option 1: standing. This obviously isn’t going to work for you. I don’t like it either (hard on my back).
standing.jpg

Option 2: One knee. My favorite. Use your left leg to scoot yourself forward as you plane. If you can’t support yourself with that left leg you could get one of those hard cap white plastic knee pads from the home center and put it on your right knee so that it can easily just slide.
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Option 3: Straddle the board. If you can’t support your weight, you can put a towel under your butt for a little cushioning. I like this for tall boards that are short and won’t require a ton of scooting.
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Option 4: seated. Good for bards where I can reach the whole length. Super comfortable and it’s also the position I’m in for the vast majority of the work I do on the low bench.
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[Tony Wilkins]

Thanks for those. Lots of stuff to mull over.

[Tom Bender]

Pyjamas? Those might collect splinters. Proper protection of course will ease the task. Recently I have been working with Purpleheart which provides lots of fine splinters. To manage it I chamfer before planing and sand early in the milling process. This makes it easier to move around the task. Sometimes gloves are needed.

In addition to normal pushing, try pulling the plane. It gives you more access with less moving of the stock.

[Luke Dupont]

This is what I was talking about in regards to edge planing the Japanese way.

Place this flat on the bench and register the side of the plane on top of the bench, as if you were shooting end grain (just, you're shooting long grain instead).

It helps to clamp everything down.

You can just use a board underneath the one you're planing to raise the work up to where the plane's blade will make full contact. You don't need a bench-hook like device as shown here if you use clamps.