105 days ago
by PurpLev |
10 comments »
This project is a fine example of the 80/20 concept. it takes 20% of the project time to complete 80% of it, and then, 80% of the project time to finish the last 20% of the project.
As it gets to the details, things take longer to think through, plan out, cut…mill…glue… and finesse. this time it’s the leg vise Chop, and although not completely finished (still need to trim, round off, and apply BLO), it’s construction is done.
I was originally planning to us...
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114 days ago
by PurpLev |
10 comments »
Didn’t have much shoptime lately, which made me try to squeeze every moment I got to try and make the most of it, which lead to rushing, which lead to screw up – but I’ll write more about that in a following installment and leave this one a bit more on the positive side.
Last time I ran into the issue of having a not-square top part to work with. I fixed that by routing the edge at a 0.1 degree angle to straighten the front of the slab and make it parallel to the front 2 ...
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118 days ago
by PurpLev |
22 comments »
I was working on fitting the skirt to the front of the bench, and it looks fantastic. in order to get to the final dimensions of 30” width of the top, I’m missing 1/8” extra material between the benchtop and the skirt to fill in the gap, while keeping the skirt flush with the legs fronts. so far so good.
while fitting the skirt to the legs, I noticed that the gap on the left side of the bench is larger than the right side… a quick reach to the tape measure confirmed...
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122 days ago
by PurpLev |
14 comments »
I had some good progress on the top today. it actually started a couple of days ago when I went ahead, cleaned up the buffer strip, and main top, and glued them up together, I also milled the end cap part (which is on top of the clamps in the photo):
I also ground down one of the corner of the Lee-Valley Tailvise Nut so that I’ll be able to install the vise higher up and the nut will have less interference with the table top:
I’m not a machinist, nor work with metal ...
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126 days ago
by PurpLev |
15 comments »
finally getting to work on the actual bowling alley part of the “bowling alley workbench”, although I really found Damian’s comment on a previous installment entertaining, and might refer to it from now as the “Alley Workbench”...lol.
The top as can be seen in the sketchup model is made of 6 different components: Main Slab (nails and all), Dog holes strip, buffer strip, 2 skirts (front and back) and a breadboard End Cap.
In reality this will change slig...
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131 days ago
by PurpLev |
13 comments »
After last week’s ongoing progress, it felt a bit slow this week (which it is), but I did have some things I wanted to share, and also was able to finish the base with 3 coats of BLO which is what I’m going to keep on it for conditioning the wood, and protecting it from moisture.
Mistake #1: Drawboring to the wrong side (cringe) 2 legs on each side of the base are connected together using 2 short rails. The top one is using a sliding dovetail, while the lower one uses M&T. ...
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135 days ago
by PurpLev |
6 comments »
It’s interesting how it feels like you’re standing still when you’re working on already dry-fit parts for additional features. After all – at the end of the day when you look at all the parts – they seem to look just the way they did in the morning. bummer.
but even though things don’t seem that way somethings. Progress IS progress, and is one step closer to the finish line.
Today I implemented the hardware for the leg vise in the right leg (I’m...
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140 days ago
by PurpLev |
37 comments »
Yes. Finally some light at the end of the tunnel, reverse thinking, and this project seems a bit more doable, and even not much trouble at all.
Originally I tried to get the (2.5” hardened) nails out by using a cat’s paw and a hammer to pull each nail out of the 2.5 laminated hard-rock maple strips. I figured once I get all the nails out of the top strip, it’ll just free it from the lamination, and be nails free… one strip at a time, until I have them all cleared ou...
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144 days ago
by PurpLev |
16 comments »
July, and it was pouring rain here in Boston, MA. for the past week. go figure. (although today it cleared out which is really nice). but enough about the weather (as if this will stop us).
After completing the basic construction for the leg ends last installment. It was now the time to connect those with rails. The rails are 45” long with 2 1/2” tenon sticking on each side (to a total length of 50” – do the math). They are made of 2 2×4 that were jointed/plane...
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181 days ago
by PurpLev |
19 comments »
So after we've got the bowling alleys. now it’s time to put them to to use (not really ‘now now’ but … you know what I mean).
So, I really would like to make this one a keeper, and not have to redo this bench unless I really fancy it in the future with lots of extra time on my hands and nothing better to do with it (hence – not likely it’ll happen), and in order to do that, I figured I’ll make this one as close as I can to the ‘ultimate’...
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