Low boarded bench for mudroom

[Scott Winners]

Looks like your having a little fun even with the cold temps.

jtk

Yes I am. I was stroking the inside faces of my sawtill this morning (one word in old thread title here), and I asked my self "how did the ancient ones do this with limited technology?" Well, I am the old guy and I got a satisfactory surface on face grain of beech with 4k diamond as my finest stone. I checked my journal of mistakes (as well as the old thread) but it has to be cabinet scrapers. Scrapers are the tool I had then that are dull today, so I am chasing that one down.

FWIW I did have the mechanic's vise and my sharpening station on my metal working bench before. But I use the bench grinder more than the vise, and there wasn't (sad face) enough room on that bench top for all three. Someday I will have a big enough sharpening station for all three of those and my 1x42 belt sander, but today is not the day.

I wasn't happy with the end grain of the through dovetails on the sawtill project - so I painted the outside of the case. Now I like my end grain, so I am pretty sure I need to get my card scrapers back in order to be happy with face grain on beech.

I'll plan to check in again sometime Thursday afternoon.

[Jim McCue]

I like the boarded bench and it is on my list of things to build. I was thinking white oak as I expect it to be exposed to weather. I've never worked with white oak before.

Chris Schwarz has an older article about a similar bench called White Water Meeting Bench. I looked for it now from popular woodworking and the pictures don't work but maybe you can find it. I do have pictures I took from a library book. It looks similar but the rails are narrower and there is no bottom shelf.

I think I will go with a mix between the two, with wide rails but no bottom shelf. I like the idea of cutting a notch for the rails to set into but that's a decision to think about later.

whitewater bench.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

I like the boarded bench and it is on my list of things to build. I was thinking white oak as I expect it to be exposed to weather. I've never worked with white oak before.

Chris Schwarz has an older article about a similar bench called White Water Meeting Bench. I looked for it now from popular woodworking and the pictures don't work but maybe you can find it. I do have pictures I took from a library book. It looks similar but the rails are narrower and there is no bottom shelf.

I think I will go with a mix between the two, with wide rails but no bottom shelf. I like the idea of cutting a notch for the rails to set into but that's a decision to think about later.

whitewater bench.jpg

Jim, that is the quintessential 'five board bench.' The rails are what keeps the bench from wobbling end to end and also supports the seating platform.

One thing done on my construction was to add dados to the rails where they attached to the legs. This makes a bench less likely to get the wiggles.

jtk

[Cameron Wood]

Looks like fun, if chilly.

I made one a while back, & sold it for too little. I may make more as I have lots of pine boards. Just screws and plugs, but I thought the proportions were good.

The bottom stretcher is strong because it is fastened two directions.

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[Jim Koepke]

Great looking bench Cameron.

jtk

[Cameron Wood]

Great looking bench Cameron.

jtk

Thanks!...

[Scott Winners]

I like the idea of cutting a notch for the rails to set into

One thing done on my construction was to add dados to the rails where they attached to the legs. This makes a bench less likely to get the wiggles.

Highly highly appreciate the dado discussion.

One thing I did on my "shelf for canned goods" down in the projects section some time ago was attach strategically located corner blocks to the individual sheets of plywood. When it was time to glue up the carcass, I was able to dry fit and clamp up all the case pieces pretty quick, as the pieces - with glue blocks already in place- were more or less self guiding.

And this is honestly the most intimidating part of this project. As planned in "The Design Book" this project is 5 pieces of s6s lumber that have to be glued up perfectly square with no grooves, no dadoes and no guide blocks. On the one hand I don't want to buy a doweling jig or a biscuit jointer, but I also don't feel the need to become some sort of glue-up/ clamp-up sorcerer-druid-wizard.

If I cut a 3/8 deep rabbet along the top inside edge of my side planks, that would leave 4/8 inch (one half inch) of quartersawn beech edge grain as the 'visual frame' on my 13.75 inch seat plank. I am pretty sure I am going to do this. I have the technology. That will give me two guide edges on each of those two 51 inch glue joints. They will be much easier to clamp together correctly in the wet moment when my IQ is down 50 points. And it will better show/ exaggerate the width of the single wide seat plank.

I can likewise cut dadoes in the side planks to accept the leg planks, while maintaining more or less continuous grain from up one leg, across the seat and down the other leg. I am probably going to do this.

The remaining question in the dado series, is should I cut a dado to let each leg plank up into the bottom face of the seat plank. The advantage would be the leg planks will be somewhat constrained (at one end) from cupping. The disadvantage would be needing to use smaller nails through the seat plank into the leg planks to constrain the seat plank from cupping.

I am probably overthinking this, but it keeps me from going bat-poop when managing the medical sequelae of methamphetamine addiction at my day job.

I have remembered how to sharpen my card scrapers. I am now fingertip happy with my finished surface on beech scraps.

I have started my new set of bench tools (hooks and shoot board) for wide stock.

Next up will be to drop my new bench hook/ shoot board system for wide stock in the shop made tools section, then make a scale model side plank to cut test 3-4-5 triangles in and run that all the way through final finish before screwing up anything with the two roughed in (full size) side planks I have.

No pics tonight.

[Scott Winners]

A little progress today. I had no interest in making the new bench tools, but I have a smallish Beech plank that was made into a scale model side plank. I haven't actually measured the plank, but it is two thirds of seven inches wide. I did have to derive that with my sector so I could make a "seven inch handspan" out of some furring strip. So the thing in the pics tonight is (carry the one) approximately an 82.35294118% scale model of the full sized thing. Big enough to use full size tools, but sized just right so I didn't have to rip the plank to some arbitrary width.

Once I had my 7 inch module all pretty, all the dimensions are either multiples of 7 inches, or twelfths of seven inches found on the sector and transferred with dividers.

The first pic shows most of the layout. I laid out a fullsized rabbet in the top of the plank, so taking away 3/8 inch from the top view, and 7/8 deep to swallow the entire seat plank. I think on the real thing I will make this rabbet a tiny bit deeper than the thickness of the seat plank so I can plane down two half inch wide strips of edge grain, rather than have to plane the 13.75 wide seat plank to meet the two half inch strips. There is a pencil line in the knife wall to start the through dado for the visible face of a leg plank. The drawn on 3-4-5 triangle is about as big as I want to go. On the full sized item I will have minimum 2 1/8 relish on the lowest nail going through the side plank and I don't want to go any smaller relish with a bigger triangle cut out.

Notice also the pad under the holdfast. I'll get back to that in a jiffy.

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So there is a bunch of ways to make rabbets. I do have the LV/V skew rabbet plane with a PMV 11 iron in it. I find all moving fillister planes to be a little bit fussy, my skew rabbet is named after the highest maintenance girl I ever dated. 3/8 x 7/8 x 102 inches in Beech is just not happening. I did use my Lee Valley/ Veritas router plane to make the knife marks for the rabbet, I am very happy with that tool.

Once you have your knife lines you could chisel the whole thing out.

I am using guided saw cuts to make these, as 1) I seem to have facility sharpening saws and 2) the offcut when I am done sawing can go the BBQ pit.

So next pic is my setup for making the 3/8 deep cut 7/8 back from the top edge of the side plank. The rip saw I have that I can push in this cut is filed 8 point rip with 11 degrees of rake. It is pretty nonchalant in the cut. I have another 8 point rip with 10 degrees of rake and 12.5 of fleam (it is in the Leonard Lee sharpening book) that only has .006 total set on it. I am going to sharpen both of these before the big show and take them up to maybe .010 total set.

My saw guide, as pictured, is poplar, nominal one quarter by 2. Kinda flexible. I think for the next round I will clamp the guide on at the ends of the cut, drop the holdfasts, and then slide some shims in between the holdfast pads and the saw guide to keep the guide in position.

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Making the 7/8 deep cut is going to be a bugger. One parameter to keep an eye on here is the vertical distance between the tips of the teeth and the bottom of the tote. If I want to use a guide all the way down, I need 7/8 of vertical plate for the cut, plus whatever for the guide height. Clearly this would be child's play with a table saw; but I don't want to own or use a table saw. Likely I will start with a fairly tall guide as reference surface, and then use a shorter guide once the cut is well established. I am very likely to make this saw cut a bit scant and then clean up with a shoulder plane that doesn't have a moving fillister on it. As below.

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I didn't actually cut out the entire rabbet. Nor did I cut the actual through dadoes for the leg planks, those are old hat to me now; but I got everything laid out and figured out how to make the various cuts. So victory. Next up, with the piece shaped, surface prep. I will sheepishly admit I did all of my end grain shooting free hand. I may have to answer for that someday, but it looks pretty good to me. The edge grain was cleaned up with a #8 Bailey, the face grain met a #4 Bailey after dancing with #8. Then joinery, then card scraper. I did use an old foam sanding block to relieve the edges a tiny bit.

I really really really do not want the first coat of linseed oil to look blotchy. I am planning on two coats of BLO, but if the first coat looks blotchy I am already across the Rubicon. Once thoroughly scraped I did find two darker spots in the surface, sort of 8-9 o'clock relative to the eye in the grain. I spot cleaned those with isopropyl, then wiped down the face, edges, and ends with more isopropyl. Entirely wet with isopropyl this is the color I want, the tone, but the surface is very flat/ matte.

Tomorrow I will shave off the raised gran with a light card scraper pass, and consider a bath in hot soapy water if the dark spots near the eye are still evident.

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Someday, when I am tired of looking at it, I will plan to attach some coat hooks and put this scale model sideplank on Craigslist. In the meantime, I am not done fooling with it.

[Scott Winners]

I spent a big chunk of time trying to see how sharp I could make my card scrapers. I noticed part way through the day youtube kajillion-aires invariably reach for what looks like maple when displaying their card sharpening prowess.

So I pulled a stick of maple off my scrap cart. My current finding is among beech, maple, red oak and white oak; maple is the easiest to sharpen a card scraper for. I was not expecting this finding as on the turning lathe maple is a little bit precious about keen edges on turning tools. Tonight I pulled some hickory, some ash and some cherry to get a better handle on this rabbit hole while I am down in it. Once I have my act together I will test on walnut as well. I hardly ever use walnut, but I do have a scrap big enough to place the wood on an eventual continuum.

One thing I did do today was build a wooden guide so I can hold the file perpendicular to the face of the scraper and have a square edge. I do still insist I was doing pretty OK freehand; but putting this into service saves a bunch of time- and wear and tear on the stones. Just in one day of sharpening card after card it has saved me more time on the stones than it took to make the file guide. I meant to make my kerf a little bit deeper than half the width of the file for optimized grip, and when the exposed faces of the file are worn out I can flip the file in the kerf and wear it out again. When I first test fit the file in my kerf the file was secure and perpendicular, so I put it directly into service without double checking the depth.

One thing to keep an eye on. When I put some bow in a scraper in use, at my shop, the center of the edge wears away faster than the ends of the edges. So for some of mine, when I held them up against a straight edge and looked for gaps, I found some gaps.

Back to durance vile tomorrow for three in a row. Next planned update will be Wednesday evening.

[Scott Winners]

I am still deep in the card scraper rabbit hole. I will probably start a separate thread about card scrapers when I am through this.

On youtube, of the ones I have seen, I think Brian Boggs is the place to start. His video runs 20-22 minutes, but he is an outlier for very very square stock prep, he goes straight to bubinga off the burnisher, and he demonstrates a couple things to do with a card scraper I had never thought of.

What I am trying to do (it is kinda working) is press my fingers on the back of the scraper, instead of both thumbs; so mine is bowing parallel to the edge instead of perpendicular to the edge for stiffness. I do have to draw the scraper towards me in this configuration. It is maybe ambitious, and edge life is appallingly short on painted wood, but the results are pretty pleasing. I am trying to improve the smoothness on an already flat surface without degrading the pre-existing flatness.

I did also buy perhaps the ugliest cedar chest Lane ever made on CL for $24. The exterior front, top and sides seem to be painted the color of diseased goose poop, with gilt trim. Tonight I am working on the grey interior milk paint and red stain. 1974 called and left a voicemail while the item was in the back of my truck.

In the moment I need a cedar chest for heirloom textiles. My card scrapers are working better on unfinished beech then ever before. When I build a new chest for heirloom textiles, the cedar bits will be clip board sized pieces that can be taken out, run through a planer and put back into service without having to screw around with the interior of the emptied chest.

Not sure when I will update this thread again with actual progress on the low boarded bench. I got two rabbit holes open now. But my chores are done and I don't go back to work until Monday. If I don't have anything else to say, I will plan to update on rabbit hole progress Sunday evening before I go back for three more in a row.

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[Jim Koepke]

On youtube, of the ones I have seen, I think Brian Boggs is the place to start. His video runs 20-22 minutes, but he is an outlier for very very square stock prep

Is this the one? > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf0UEVPSJUI

jtk

[Scott Winners]

I feel like I have had a pretty good run in the five days off I have had that end in about 30 minutes.

I got the card scraper rabbit hole closed, I made new bench top tools for wide panels; both new threads here. And I pushed a scrap through two coats of linseed oil with no blotches on the face grain.

So I got a couple new rabbit holes open. My 'goal' is for this project to have a 2 inch finish, and that may not be reasonable.

Within the boat building community, at least some builders rate a finish by distance, how close to you have to get to see a flaw in the finish. My first boat had on it about a 6 foot finish. That is to say it looked pretty darn good from 6 or more feet away, but closer than 6 feet you could start seeing flaws.

This 51" bench, when it is done, is going in front of a 64" wide south facing window; we move around within the home, and Mr. Sun moves around outside the window.

So I am kinda thinking about maybe a 12 inch finish, and I am not even that good today.

My planned finish is make it beautiful with bench planes, then clean up with card scraper, then burnish the show surface with a pollisoir. Then two coats of BLO, then wax.

I have mentioned my burnisher, a pollisoir from Don's barn dot com in previous threads, there is going to be a picture of one here. Besides burnishing a surface to make even smoother and more reflective the wonder of God's creation, a pollisoir also magnifies every planing and scraping mistake left behind by fallen sinners like me.

So I am going to have to regroup and reconsider. I did not take a picture of this scrap off the scraper. I went over and over and over this piece after card scraper from multiple angles with multiple light directions with naked eye, bifocals, 5x magnification and 7x magnification. I could not find a flaw on the surface. So I got after it with a burnisher, and it looks like a donkey with a bad attitude.

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There is no oil, no wax, no poly on this surface above. No sand paper. Just planed smooth, scraped, burnished, and it looks (from 3-5 feet away) like the south end of a north bound camel with a digestive disease.

So here is a new rabbit hole. I also notice the end of my scraped boards are rounded over from the scraper, sort of like small scale planer snipe. Thankfully my final pieces are still a bit over long, but my 7/8 scale side plank is already cut to length.

So one thing to do is going to be planing and scraping, but not burnishing, the back side of this short scrap to see how that looks.

I went ahead and put two coats of BLO on the face and edge grain of my small scrap (no blotches YAY) , and four coats on the end grain; all in the course of a couple hours. I am going to have to let this be for a few days and try 'some' more BLO on the end grain before I reach for wax.

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You can maybe kinda sense the roundover from the card scraper in the above pic as well.

Here is another pic of what I DO NOT WANT to see from two feet away when I am headed for my flip-flops in summertime to head out the front door. This is simply unacceptable, but it was not visible under 7x magnification before burnishing.

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One thing I should measure is the distance between the bottom of my seated butt and my seated eyeballs. This pic, with a gratuitous burnisher from Don's barn dot com, is an otherwise acceptable but ready for wax view to me, for this project.

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I would take this opportunity to encourage all users here trying to improve to keep an eye on both the Neander section and "General Woodworking and Power Tools" and the projects section, and the finishing section, and anything with the keyword 'pre-finishing.'

On the one hand it may very well look like I am eating my very own rump roast, but I have not yet destroyed (or damaged) any of the pieces that will end up on the final project. I am not worried about blotchiness in my finish anymore. While I am willing to back down from a 2 inch finish, I am still looking for a twelve inch finish for this thing. Maybe 8 inch. Or 6 inch. On the one hand I got 20 other projects on my build list right now, but I am also done building stuff that I could have done better.

I am pulling 12 hour shifts on 25-26-27, let's see where I am 12-28 PM.

[Scott Winners]

Well, 12-28 was overoptimistic. I may have something to say 12-30 evening before I go back for 'next week' which is going to be brutal. After 12-28, I will plan to update on 01-13-24 or so.

I only have one observation. You know folks that know that they should be in the ER today, but wait until tomorrow because "today is a major holiday." Coming up on three decades of experience, the number of times I can think of that the foregoing was a good choice for the patient to have made is zero. And I got handed the manly pink clipboard of the charge nurse on 12-26. I feel like I got beat on like a rented mule.

The upcoming major holiday is heavily associated with beverage ethanol... Let's go see what Mike Allen is doing, shall we?

[Scott Winners]

I did get some shop time today. I started with the B side of the camel diarrhea board. I am pretty confident the visible flaws in the finished scrap a couple posts up are places where the plane passing overhead slowed down and then sped back up.

Today I started with my #3, made a mess, stepped up through #4 and #5 and was finally getting good passes with my #6.

Once I had it flat with no planing flaws in it I went straight to card scraper for smoothing. Then with great trepidation I burnished half of it and looked over the whole surface again. I couldn't find anything wrong, so I burnished the whole thing and got two coats of linseed oil on it. And two more coats of BLO on the pictured end grain. We'll see how the end grain looks with a few more days drying time, but it is possible.

I think (I do not know, just trying to make sense of what I see) I think when I was using a card scraper to remove planing flaws, I was creating a visually smooth surface. A measurably flat and smooth surface. A surface that was flat and smooth to touch. But I think I had a flat/ smooth surface of variable density or variable compressibility, and running the burnisher over it re-revealed the planing flaws.

Today I got a board with no blotch in the oil and no visible flaws that I left behind, from two inches, light from any angle, magnification from zero to 7x.

There is no wax on top of the BLO yet. I could be back at the drawing board in tears in a few days.

I did also glue up a new planing stop today. It brings the end of the board I am planing about 8 inches back from the end of my bench - but I won't have to reach as far over the hub of my leg vise to reach the end of the board. To me this is a marginal gain, but the marginal gains are aggregating. I clamped it down where I wanted it, square to the bench face, and drilled from below using the existing holdfast holes as drill guides.

I work with a bunch of new grads. Bear with me. Every once in a great while I get a new grad with prior military experience. Those prior military new grads usually pull me aside after about 2-4 months on the job and ask "How do you do it?" Those ones I can take to a quiet room, observe a moment of silence and intone "Slow is smooth, but smooth is fast." That line is like a lightning bolt for that group. But for the civilian kids, it takes them about 6 months to notice the old guy is getting stuff done before 1100 they can't do in their 20s at all. And they have never heard about slow being smooth but smooth being fast. So I talk to them about the aggregation of marginal gains, usually in December when they are finally ready to hear it.

This guy on youtube is an engineer who cooks as a hobby. He is French. He lives in Paris. He does have an accent. His English is dramatically better than my French. I have emailed this link to 5 new grad RNs in the last 3 weeks, and I am looking for 2 more pretty soon. The underlying concept can be applied to anything you want to do better than you are currently doing. If you are intrigued, give him 3.5 minutes. The final flourish requires that ALL of the ground work be done correctly in advance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35jq07YhKGE

PS: I will be WAY further along in my next build before I start another build along thread. See you 01-13-24.

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[Scott Winners]

Today, 01-13, was my first day with >45 minutes in the shop since 12-31-23 when I clocked in at 0700.

These 2 things are past tense, mag is 5x.