Building The Holtzapffel Workbench #8: Top and Base Come Together

I wasn’t expecting to have another update this weekend, but I made some good progress today.
I started the day by squaring up the ends of the top. I used a straight edge and my circular saw to do this.

My circular saw couldn’t cut all the way through with one pass. I had to flip the top over and do a second cut. I’ve always had problems getting the two cuts to line up perfectly, but this time I got it dead on. I must be getting better at this.

I didn’t have my base fully assemble yet, because I was trying to keep small and storable until the top was done. With draw bores, it was a quick process to add the large stretches to complete the base. The other nice thing about draw bores, you don’t have to wait for any glue to dry. Once the dowel pins are in, it’s ready to go.
I flipped the base up onto the top and marked the locations of the mortises. No Picture of that.
Once I had the mortises laid out I set up my router with a ¾” spiral cut bit and a fence.

You will see I used a couple clamps as stops, for the router. It took multiple passes to get to full depth, but it went pretty fast.

I then reset the fence and made a second pass to complete the mortise.

Then it was pretty quick work to finish the mortise with a chisel.

After finishing all the mortises it was time to test fit base. I thought I would have a push and pound the base around to get it to fit in all 4 of the mortise, but the base slipped right in. No tweaking needed!

I will use dowels and draw bores to attach the base and top. I would have finished that step today but I didn’t have the dowels ready. Next weekend I hope to have the time to attach the top and base. I think I should also have time to install the wagon vise and make the parts I’ll need for the face vise.
I’m so looking forward to having the bench done, so that I can start some of the other projects that have been waiting for the bench to be finished.

-- Mike - http://inquisitivewoodworker.blogspot.com/