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19K views 63 replies 16 participants last post by  shipwright 
#1 ·
Getting the lumber

It's been awhile since I've posted here on LumberJocks, but because there seems to be interest in the Chevalet here, I thought this would be best place to chronicle my Chevalet build.

I decided to pick up a Chevalet kit from Patrick Edwards. It came with full-size drawings, which was great. Although having full-size drawings in a small shop, was a little cumbersome. So, I decided to convert Patrick's plans into a SketchUp model. I still have a few tweaks to finish on the model, but that should be wrapping up soon.







This weekend I went looking for some lumber. Beech is one of the "traditional" woods used to build a Chevalet. Beech can be a little pricey in my area, so I thought I would have to go with: Ash, Maple or maybe Oak. It turned out I got a really good deal on some European Beech. It was cheaper than the rest and looked a lot better!



This next weekend I should be able to start the milling and maybe some of the build.
 
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#3 ·
Hi Mike. You should check out the chevalet club It's a place here on LJ's that we set up for chevy discussions and related posts. Drop by and meet the others. Welcome!
I'm sure we'll all be watching your blogs.
 
#4 ·
Thank you Paul for taking the time and effort to share what you have learned about the Chevalet or Chavelet. I am a plumber and pursuing wood working. This tool (machine) is truly fascinating. Not able at this time to spend $550 for the plans and hardware from Patrick Edwards. I am surprised there is not a dvd from any wood working magazine on this. Perhaps Patrick Edwards can partner with Taunton or some one to produce one. I would buy it in a heart beat. Thanks again. Please continue.
 
#6 ·
Hey Mike that looks like excellent material to build a Chevalet from. Your model looks fabulous, and given the fact that you took the time to build it in sketchup means you are already pretty familiar with how the parts go together. Don't hesitate to shout with any questions, and I'll be watching for your progress updates. Good luck!
 
#7 ·
Thanks Mathew. Everyone has been very generous in offering any help they can. If anything comes up, I'll be asking for help here.

You are right about spending time with SketchUp, you do get an idea on how a project will go together.

Denny - I'm putting a few finishing touches on my SketchUp model, and it should be freely available soon. I've shared the SketchUp file with Patrick and he may post a link to it on his blog. Also, many people have made their own hardware for this project. I would say the most difficult parts to make yourself, are for the blade holding. Others have come up with some creative ways to attach the blade. Patrick also just sells just this part, which cuts down on the cost.
 
#8 ·
Starting the build

After getting the lumber, I had a fair amount of milling to do. Then I also had to laminate quite a few pieces together, to get the thicknesses I needed. Once all that was done, I was able to start the actual build.

I'm starting with the main upright support post and the foot/base.

The base has a step in it, to create the feet. I used a Forstner Bit to create the ends of the the step. I also started to hogged out the Mortise for the Upright support, while at the Drill Press. I then used my Band Saw to cut straight area of the step.







This approach worked really well. I cleaned the cut up with: a spokeshave, rasp and some sanding.



Here's a test fit of the upright support after cutting the Tenon on it.



The next big step was to cut the notch in the upright support and the supporting brackets.



I used a dado blade and my table saw to cut most of the notch, but I didn't have the blade hight to take it to full depth. I finished the small amount left with a router.

I also cut the "swoosh" on the top of the upright support, using the Band Saw. I then cleaned it up with rasps and some final sanding.



Next time I'll be working on the seat and support arm.
 
#9 ·
Way to go Mike, making good progress here! Amazing how quickly it starts looking like a chevy. I like your approach of using the drill press and the band saw to cut the step in the bottom foot. It looks like you choose one big mortise and tenon joint for the connection of the foot to the main vertical post. In mine I went with a double mortise and tenon. Also looks like you left no room for adjustment in the arm height, which is totally ok just make sure that you are sizing the post height correctly. You may also want to consider rounding over the top edge of the foot a bit more…just for aesthetics.
 
#14 ·
Working on the seat

I had productive weekend in the shop, and made some good progress on the Chevalet. I mostly work on the seat this weekend, and now it's starting to look like something recognizable.

The base was a little bit of a challenge, with the angled back leg and the through tenons.





The because the leg is angled, the through mortises are also angled. I drilled out the bulk of the waste then chiseled the mortise using an angled guide block to help. I had a little blowout when drilling out the waste, but It's not too bad, and it's down low where most people won't see it. I wedged the tenons, and I don't think those will ever come loose! I also used Epoxy on this joint, because I felt I needed a longer open time.

The front of the stretcher is attached with a long bolt, going through main support. The plans weren't clear on the type of joinery at this location, so I decided to add a couple dowels to help. Although, I had it bolted together without the dowels and it was pretty sturdy.





I then attached the seat. I had planned to do through tenons on the seat and back leg, but because of a measurement error, the back leg was too short and ended up being a housed mortise and tenon.



I believed the front of the seat is just supposed be screwed to the front leg, but I used dowels again and threaded bolt. I've been tapping threads into wood lately and it's been working pretty well. So I tapped the threads for the bolt, to just hold the front of the seat down. So far it's holding really well.





I rough cut the seat shape and test fitted the Pressure Roller Post. I still have a lot edges to round over but the seat is pretty much done.





Now that the seat has been attached, the whole structure is quite solid and heavy! It should provide a solid base for the arm and saw frame.
 
#24 ·
Arm Support

I'm making some good progress on the Chevalet. The Arm and Frame Support are almost complete. The only thing left to do, is to add the diagonal support for the Frame Support. I just ran out of time last night when I was finishing up.

When I started to work on the Triple Tenon for the frame support post, I thought if it was really needed. It was a challenge to pull off, but after completing it I understand why it was used. The post so rock solid you could run a tank into it and it would stay square! Ok maybe not a tank, but that post isn't going anywhere.

I started with joinery on the beam. I used the table saw cut the shallow dados on the sides. I think these dados are the key to this joint. This part of joint I think is what keeps the post square to the beam. If the middle mortise and tenon are a little loose, these dados keep the joint sung and square. I then hogged out the center mortise at the drill press and finished it by chiseling out the remaining waste.





The Tenons on the post was a two step process. I laid out the tenons off of the mortises I cut on the support beam. My table saw couldn't cut the full depth, so I did what I could on the table saw. Then hogged out the rest at the drill press again.





The first test fit was pretty snug. I almost thought I went too far and had do some pretty good banging to get it apart.

The cross frame support went on next. I cut the joinery for the Horizontal and Vertical adjustments on the table saw. This support is attached to the post with a through wedged tenon. This joint was a little "gappy" so I used Epoxy on this joint, to fill in some of the gaps. Again, this joinery is rock solid and should keep things from moving.





Next came the the Horizontal and Vertical supports. I printed out templates from my SketchUp drawing and used some carbon paper to transfer the shape. For the joinery for the Vertical support it was back to the drill press, to hog out the waste.





I did all of the joinery and other work before cutting the final shape of the top. Here's the final test fit.



I shaped the supports on the band saw, then using rasps and sandpaper I cleaned up the shape.







All that is left is the Pressure Roller and the Saw Frame.
 
#25 ·
That's a very spiffy looking chevy Mike, and very well built. I'm sure you will be adding the diagonal support as you said but in my experience it's not necessary. The M&T joinery (and yours is deeper than mine) is more than enough to keep it solid. All of Patrick's seem to have gone off square over the years but I don't think that is happening at the joint, more of an overall twisting I think. My oldest is only a few years and it is still bang on accurate, no adjustments.

I have to say, the hardware sure looks pretty. Mine works fine but it's just not that pretty. Your whole chevy is truly a beautiful piece of shop furniture. I await the fine work you will surely be turning out with it.
 
#36 ·
Pressure Roller

The Pressure Roller and Clapping Jaws came together quickly. Making the pressure roller was the most work, but I came up an "easier" way to make it. I've seen others make this out one large piece of wood, but that seemed like a waste of wood and a lot of work. I started by cutting out the center of pressure roller, using a template from my SketchUp drawing. Then for the "ears" I found a hole saw that was about the right size. I cut the ears from a thick piece of stock, then cut them free at the band saw.







I then just glued the "ears" onto the center arm. Then it was just doing the final shaping with: rasps, skopeshaves, and a little sanding. These "ears" really only seem to be "spacers", the real work is being handled by the steel rollers. So I really don't think they have to made "integral" to the arm.



The "flexible" upright arm that the pressure roller rolls against, was made from Beech. I "thinned" the center section down at the table saw. The plans call of it to be glued and screwed to the seat and front seat leg. I only used screws, so it could easily be replaced or adjusted. It seem to be holding strong, with only screws.



The foot operated peddle was next. There is dovetail that connects the post to the foot rest. I cut that by hand.













The last thing was to make the clamping jaws and they are tapered slightly. They are somewhat small, so I didn't want to the do the tapering with any power tools. I used my Jack Plane, and it made quick work of the tapering.



The jaws are only "taped" into place for now, so I can do some final adjustments on the height. On Patrick's blogs he talks about the correct fit for the jaws. You can read more about this process here. I do my final tuning later.





I also added the diagonal support to the saw frame support. I didn't do any fancy joinery for this. I just glued and screwed it in place.



The last thing is to work on the saw frame, which I started yesterday also. I'm hoping I can finish the saw frame up today and do the first test cuts!
 
#43 ·
Saw Frame

One of the last major pieces for the Chevalet is the Saw Frame. It needs to be: strong, light, and a little bit "flexible". I'm making mine out of Ash. For the arms, I tried to find pieces with the straightest grain. The arms are attached to the crossmember using a "multi-finger" bridle joint. My hand sawing skills still need some practice, so for this joint I chose to use the table saw. I have to say, using the table saw and all of the set up I had to do, I might have been able to hand saw this joint quicker. I won't wimp out next time!





Attaching the frame to the Chevalet you use what I'm calling "knuckles". They slide into mortises in the Corssmember. The mortises are angled on one side, so the knuckles "lock" into place and won't pull out. I used my drill press again, to hog out the bulk of the waste.



Here are the knuckles and the wedges that hold them in. I found getting the wedges out can be a bit of a pain, so I drilled some small holes in them, so I can stick something in the hole to pull them out when needed.





Installing the blade clamps, requires a square mortise for each of them to be recessed into.



Another test fit and laying out the taper for the arms.



Roughing out the Crossmember on the table saw and bandsaw. Then cleaning up the shape with rasps and some sanding.





I chose to do the tapering after the glue up, but I think next time I will rough it out before the glue up. I got it done with a few different hand planes, but it was a lot work.

I started with a Shoulder Plane to open up the area near the front of the arms. Even though it's a larger plane, I used my Jack Plane to remove the bulk of the material. When I got close, I switched to a Block Plane. These were all cross-grain cuts, so I could take some "large" shavings. Even so, I think I burned a lot of calories on this! I stopped often to make sure I was staying square, and this gave me some needed breaks :).





I didn't quite finish all of the final shaping by the end of the day, but there isn't much left. I should be doing the final tuning and test cuts, on the next post.
 
#44 ·
Still looking good Mike. I split the difference between hand and machine and cut those finger joints freehand on the band saw. You have great patience. This is going to be lovely. I'm afraid I rush a little and skip some of the sweet little details that you have incorporated.
 
#48 ·
Tuning up the Chevy

This final blog post is a little overdue. I finished the Chevalet build a little over a week ago, but I ran into some issues getting it to cut properly. Yesterday I found the root of my problem and today I finished up the final tuning.

When I was first starting to tune the Chevalet, I was having have an issue with it cutting straight. I thought maybe the blade clamps might be twisted a bit, so I thought I would give them a little twist to straighten them up. Well I was a little too firm in my twisting and cracked one of the mounts.



Luckily I was able to fix the crack with some Epoxy. It seems to be holding well. You might notice the repaired crack in some of the other pictures.

As I started to cut some keyhole tests and I quickly maxed out the Vertical Adjustment, before achieving a satisfactory cut. I racked my brain trying to find the problem. I decided to post my issue over on Patrick's Forum. I got a lot good information on what to look for. Patrick was right on, when he talked about how the saw frame needed to be square and horizontal. No matter how I checked for this, I seemed to be coming up "square". Then it hit me, I wasn't checking for "square" in relationship to the a "packet" being held in the jaws.

So, I clamped a square in the jaws, and eureka problem found! This is picture is with my Vertical Adjustment maxed out. I would need more adjustment room to get where I needed.



The root of the problem I think are a couple things. The plans for the Chevalet have the jaws tapered in thickness. This causes the "fixed" jaw face not to be parallel to the Main Post it's attached to.

When I start to tune up the jaws, I really only focused on the "movable" jaw. This meant a packet being held in the jaws would reference off the "fixed" jaw, which wasn't parallel to the Main Post. If in my initial tuning, I made the jaws parallel to the Main Post, I might have avoided this issue.

So to test my theory, I made a quick replacement jaw for the fixed jaw. It's just a piece of plywood, but the clamping face is now parallel to the Main Post.



After this quick fix, it only took a few test cuts and adjustments to get a perfect cut!

Here's another shot, that shows you can check for "squareness" to the face too.



After solving this problem, I made a new "nicer" fixed jaw. I started out with a "square" piece of wood. I left the top portion flat and square, then tapered the lower portion.

Now that I knew the fixed jaw was square and parallel to the Main Post, I could easily tune up the movable jaw in relation to it. I started by marking the face of the jaw, so I could see which area was being worked.



Then I attached some sandpaper to board and used that to work on the movable jaw. I lightly clamped the board in the jaws and moved it side to side and up & down. This actually worked really well.





I did one last test cut and adjustment. I have to say I cut a lot keyholes trying to solve my problem and went through a few pieces of wood. I started to grab some 1/2" plywood for my tests, and it turned out to have and added benefit.

After I thought I was where I needed to be. I took the test cut and split off the back layer. I then laid if over the front and checked how close I was. I was dead on, I couldn't even feel a difference between the the two pieces.







Now it's time to cut something for real! In preparation for this, I made up a couple trays to hold the pieces as I cut them. I think I might a few other supplies before I really get going, so I better get on that too!

 
#49 ·
Congratulations Mike. All of these little hiccups will soon be a distant memory.
Make up a few packets and just start cutting.
Let the fun begin.
I've been kept away from my chevy with other projects recently but this afternoon I made up some packets and tomorrow I too will be cutting. I may not sleep.
 
#63 ·
Mobility

The last tweak on the Chevalet was to make it more mobile. I have a small garage shop, and it's getting a little tight on space. Most of my larger tools are on some sort of mobile base, so I can shift things around. Over on the Chevalet Clubhouse, I posted a comment on making a Chevalet more mobile. Both dbray45 and shipwright were helpful in me finding a good solution to make the Chevalet mobile. It was quick and easy, and reversible if needed.





I've started to cut some veneer, to practice with. I should be putting the first packet together soon and cutting my first image. Stay tuned.
 
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