| Blog series by Damian Penney consisting of 9 parts so far |
Part 1: Getting started
So after looking at all the options I decided to just go ahead and build a bench. I really liked the look of Chris Schwarz's Holtzapffel bench So that’s what I’m going to build, ordered the “24 Veritas Twin Screw vise from Lee Valley for the front and like Chris’ the large quick release steel vise for the tail Yesterday I went to PALS and picked up the lumber for the base which I’m going to build first. Building it all from maple, and it’s...
Part 2: Cutlists
One thing I’m awful at is taking a cutlist to the lumberyard and figuring out which boards to buy, I either end up with too little or too much. Yesterday I’d picked up the boards for the base, figuring I’d build that first then swing by and get the stock for the top. I’d heard some good things about Cutlist Plus so figured I’d use it to see how best to cut the pieces for the base from the stock I’d bought. Turns out if I use the pieces I bought for the b...
Part 3: Lumber Acquired
Made another trip to PALS for the rest of the lumber, and seeing as my lumber rack isn’t wide enough most of it is on the floor or just propped up at the moment. Here’s all the 8/4 stock waiting to be butchered. I ran all my stock through Cutlist Plus and here’s what it came up with, not too much waste which is nice (and I’ll use whatever is left over eventually anyway) You can click the Cutlist Pic for a bigger view. Some parts are doubled up because I n...
Part 4: Time for a trip to the sharpener
So this afternoon I tried to shimmy my blades around a bit so that the notches in my jointer blades would offset one another. Here is a pic of the knives in question. Well the results were less than satisfactory (this was taken in raking sunlight) So I’m going to head to Standard Saw Works in Oakland to get them sharpened on Monday. I’ve heard people asking for their jointer blades to be back beveled, can any LJers shed a little light on this?
Part 5: Yup, that's sharp...
So I got my jointer blades back from the sharpener, Standard Saw Works, and they did a great job. It’s a cool store too and one of the storefront window displays is full of old wooden planes (I didn’t get a pic) Once I got the blades back to the workshop I set about reinstalling them. My usual method is to use my dial indicator and twiddle with them for hours on end getting them just right but this time I tried a new approach which worked really well. After I’d dropped...
Part 6: Making Progress
I’ve been making slow but steady on my bench. After getting my jointer knives sharpened I set about milling the stock for the legs. I’d noticed my dust collector wasn’t running as well as it once did and wondered were all the dust I’d been collecting since I bought it had ended up… Turns out it all goes into that big sack! So after getting that working I face and edge jointed all the parts for the base. Once that was done it was time to glue the two pieces...
Part 7: Slow Going
So it’s been pretty slow going as of late. The top is proving to be trickier than I’d anticipated and I got sidetracked with a slew of house related tasks. The main issue I’ve had with the top is being able to effectively mill such large pieces. Initially I got hung up trying to flatten the faces of the top; I’d been using my jointer to do this but the bed simply isn’t long enough to joint 7′ long boards. However I came to the realization (with help from some fellow jocks) that I did...
Part 8: Building the top
This post is just to share some top building pics I’m using a 9’ straight edge to joint the boards for the top. I usually use this for cutting sheet goods to size as I have a jig that locks a circular saw to it but it’s come in real handy for handling these long pieces. Here you can see how big and unwieldly the straight edge is, as well as my super high end Taiwanese saw… The blade is a new 12” Freud combo blade, doesn’t leave an edge like my ...
Part 9: Base almost done
So I’ve been making slow and steady progress on the bench, and bit by bit it’s coming together. Today I finished off all the mortises for the base, so just need to chamfer the edges and draw bore the tenons and drill some holes and the base is done. I invested in the Delta mortiser which did a great job and saved me a bunch of time doing the mortises. But I found the fence adjustment wheel to be pretty much useless, a micro adjust would have been great though, perhaps I ...
By subscribing to the RSS feed you will be notified when new entries are posted on this blog.
Blog Series
- Operation Holtzapffel - 9 parts
- Sidetable - 3 parts
- Streamline Desk - 1 part
Your Online Shop - Your Support Is Greatly Appreciated - Your Woodworking Showcase - 3 Ways To Help, Financially - Your Woodworking Community
