The slots were cut at the table saw and squared with the 1/8” chisel.

Brandon, I haven’t yet made a bench to go on the bench on top of the bench but I did make a small bench hook for it :^)

Next, I tapered the posts using a technique similar to the one Jameel used for the dovetails on the Roubo bench. In this case it is just a spacer with double stick tape.

After the band saw cut they were smoothed with a #4 1/2.

As expected the left M&T joint was loose form the undercut but not bad. I could saw and wedge the tenon or just glue a tiny spacer underneath as shown.

So, this is the extent of my progress as of tonight.

What I did struggle with was creating cheeks with only about a 1/32” shoulder.

This is the technique that worked best. I put the piece into the moxon vice and ensured that it was square to the top surface and then used a rabbet block plane.

__

Next I turned my attention to the through tenons. After careful layout I drilled half way with a 3/8” bit and squared it off with a 3/8” chisel. I tried to not under cut but I knew I would. Also, I knew that I would have some trouble when I tapered the posts but I didn’t know how much.

I wanted to quit working out of the chisel roll the came with my LN chisels. It was kind of a silly purchase anyway. Its not like a traveling cabinet maker.

I drew inspiration from some of the A&C clocks that I have seen here on LJ’s and have drawn sketches.

The materials will mirror my workbench: cherry verticals and maple horizontals.

The back will be flush so that I can adapt to a french cleat in the future.

The base will allow protection of the sharp edge

Feet that will swivel to provide stability when sitting on the bench

Tapered posts.

One thing a struggled with was should the rack “dominate the posts or should the posts “dominate” the rack. I decided to let the posts dominate and go with through tenons with a relief on the rack.

Here are some sketches…................

Relief cuts

The split. You cant see in the picture but the split went way deep at the other end.

After gettin’ after it with the rasps. First I had to deepen the curve to compensate to the defect. You can sense the different contour on the left. Still, it looks OK.

A close up of the defect…...

Now, I could
1. take the curve even deeper to get flush with defect but this will remove more a the top of the chop. I don’t wnat to do that.
2. abandon the curve and bevel it straight down.
3. flatten the surface and scab in a piece. even after re-contouring the grain will not match
4. put some Timbermate on it
5. complete the plan and live with it

One goal I had was to make the front chop square with the table top. The glue up had to be perfect because it didn’t want the chop or table top to slip. If it does, then I would have to plane the entire surface of one of these until getting back to square and flat and, knowing my skill level, would probably just end up chasing my tail.

To help with this, i decided to plane a rabbet on the under surface of the table top for the fixed chop to register. I set the fence on the skew rabbet plane to the width of the fixed chop.

Of course the damn fence moved. NOTE: The Veritas skewed rabbet is a fine plane but you have to crank down on the knurled nuts and be mindful. Otherwise it performs very well.

Gluing up late. I posted this picture on the workbench smack down thread until some evil hacker fuxed up the HTML code. I turned the legs around to help square the glue-up.

From here it was just glue and clamps. The final assembly.

Of course there is always something that goes wrong. When I marked out for my dog hole I did not allow for the fixed chop below.

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Next up, shaping the mobile chop and then some wipe-on-poly.

For the fixed jaw an 1 1/2 hole is drilled and shaped to accept the nut. Then 3/4” hole goes all the way through.

The 3/4” hole in the mobile jaw is elongated to prevent binding.

Install both screws and done!

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I really like the design aspect of woodworking.

First, the vise needs to be secured to the bench top. One way is to make the fixed jaw longer and clamp it. Like so….

The hole seemed awkward to me so I left my fixed jaw 2” longer on each side and will cut away a block to expose a platform that can either be clamp or held with a hold fast.

Another way to secure the vise is by pinching a lip behind the fixed jaw. This is the primary way that I’ll secure my vise. But if you don’t have a tail vise and dog holes, holdfasts can still be used.

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Next, the legs. Since my table height is taller than the plan the legs appear blocky and unappealing. So I decided to taper them. The proportions follow the golden ratio. The leg meets the beam at 38% of the length. The foot is 62% of that length. The beam is 38% the height of the leg.

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Next, I plan to employ dog hole along each side to increase clamping versatility. The center-line is 1 1/2” from the edge to echo the thickness of the top. They are spaced 3” apart because the capacity of the vise is just above the distance.

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The front, mobile jaw is 2” thick and appears too thick in comparison to this rest of the table and vise. To visually balance their thicknesses I plan on beveling the edges so the resultant edge is 1 1/2”.

Finally, the “relief” bevel on the mobile jaw will actually be rounded over to echo the contour of the bench leg vise. Further, I am contemplated a compound round over to match the curve of the Benchcrafted handle. At first the plan was to remove enough material to make 62% the way to the jaw surface. I think this is too much thus I will go half way.

These are the things that I think about. Thanks for looking. Suggestions?

Brandon’s Moxon Vise

The plan is to make a Moxon Vise Bench-top Bench because when I doing fine work I find myself slumping over for extended periods of time. That kind of zaps the fun of it after a while. Furthermore, I admit to being spoiled when comes to have a perfect working environment. It is always 70 degrees and 50% humidity and two bright articulating lights. When I need the table height adjusted, I just say “table up” and some one else makes the adjustments. Yep, I admit it I am spoiled.

Design:

Overall the design comes the BenchCrafted pdf. Mine design is 1 1/2” taller @ 7 1/2” because, for detail work, it is recommended that the working height is hand level with your elbows bent 90 degrees. The final working height is a bit over 42” from the floor.

Table structure comes from examples here LJ’s and BenchCrafted.

I do like the idea of beveling the front chop like Brandon did to allow more clearance while sawing. Schwarz provides a good example but I plan to shape mine differently to match the chop on my leg vise.

Materials:

Instead of buying new lumber I decided to re-purpose the “unwanted” dining room table that faithfully served as my previous workbench. This was the last picture of it in its old position.

However, this table is made of clear, hard maple and my workbench consists unclear, soft maple. That said, I decided to fashion the front chop from some left over sticks from the Roubo bench build. This way the most visible aspect of the vise will tie into the Roubo bench design.

I wanted to use this board but with all its defects it is approaching firewood status.

I found another and cut it to length, edge jointed it and glued it.

*Side Note: I abandoned my oil stones and brought out my 1000/8000 water stone. Man, what a difference. It is probably my fault but I just couldn’t achieve a sharp edge on my A2 irons with the oil stones. Bummer.

I jointed a reference edge on the table top and cut the pieces at the table saw and miter saw.

For the bench top, i could just squeeze out the square dimensions from the curve. Unfortunately the cuts were centered right on the previous dowel holes. So shifted the layout to cut out one hole and decided to plug the other.

Off to make a 3/8” dowel.

For the bench top I scraped the old, yellowed finish and then smoothed her down. Unfortunately my was #112 was delivered to work and I want get until tomorrow.

Now the pieces are all milled and cut to size and should go to something like this.

Thanks for taking a look.

It is all in the way we accessorize.

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I have used a holdfast in my deadman and it works OK but I wanted a more controlled clamping mechanism. Thus, inspired by Smitty, I bought a Stanley #203 from Patrick Leach. THis requires some modifications to the deadman. First, the #203 requires a 1” hole where mine were 3/4”. Also, the depth of the hook is 7/8” where as my deadman is 1 1/2” thick.

This makes me nervous. Re-drilling a row of holes.

Routing the back. Note that my first pass was to deep and I had to “repair” it by gluing in a 1/8” shim.

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My bench weighs exactly a bejeezus load. I have a small shop and WILL need to move it from time to time. Thus, I gots me some rimz. My neighbor does metal fabrication and he made these brackets from a sketch. The casters are from Lowe’s.

They ended up being a bit too big so I sawed them down with a hacksaw, beveled off the sharp corners and drilled a new hole.

I did a test fit and run on my sacrificial, pine, leg mock-up.

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I really like Derek Cohen’s idea of using a guide bracket to dampen the play in parallel guide. It also limits racking. However, it is not a perfect fit and allows about 1/16” of play.

Before when you spin the hand wheel bringing the chop rapidly in or out the chop gave that clunck, clunck, clunck as the inertia of your hand shakes the chop back and forth. That is eliminated. It is a small thing but results in a much smoother operation.

Making the bracket….....

Employed the technique used through out the rest of the bench. Drilled and tapped a hole for a 1/4” -20 hex head screw.

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The plan calls for leather on the chop and the corresponding face of the bench top. However, in my semi-military mind, this compromises this clamping plane of the leg and benchtop the we have worked so hard to achieve. Thus, I put suede only on the chop using spray adhesive.

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Back to the dogs. I decided to make the longer dogs as per the plan. They just work better than the short dog.

• To the galoots out there. If I can avoid pulling out, hooking up, and setting up my jointer, planer, and chop saw I will.

I had a scrap wide enough to get dogs out of each piece.

Milled to thickness with a jack and smoother…................

The prototype dog was traced out and I let the dogs out using the band saw. A little finish, brass screws and leather. Bling yo!

Note to self: an impact wrench will rip the head off a brace screw – illustrated for remembrance.

The final fit of the dog in the bench top…......

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While I am at it, I decided to trick out the holdfasts. I used two pieces of cardboard to form a “templet” to conform to the contour of the tip.

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A sticker on the wagon vise…...

and one on the chop.

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And with that – this bench is complete.

I did deconstruct the bench so that the under carriage is at a workable height. Time to break out the Workmates again.

This was the time to do a little fine tuning

I was strongly influenced by the suggestions here on LJ’s thus I did some test pieces of a oil vs. water borne poly…..

Fnally, slopping on some finish. I did what I know. 3:2:1 wet sanded with 400 grit. This, followed by several coats of 2:1 mineral spirits: poly. I did smooth thangs out with an in between coats 800 grit.

Once the under carriage was finished, I reconstructed the bench. Now I tightened on the top using Spax screws to get it to its semi-permanent position.

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Now it time o flatten the top. I have perseverating (yes, it is a word) over this for weeks. Router sled or Jointer plane. Machine or Hand.

I really couldn’t decide. Then one evening, after a few NB Rangers, I thought that i would just thought I set up a raking light and discover the high spots. Survey the land so to speak. Well, I did so and use the technique of marking the spots where the top touched the straight edge. This is what I came up with.

I also tuned up my winding sticks as they had “moved” since their construction. Thanks to BHOG for calling me out on this. I didn’t taking any pics of the winding sticks because I couldn’t figure out how to wink with the camera.

Now for flattening. I had seen this documented several places but the pearls are:

Take your time make thin shavings
Trust the flatness of the sole of your plane
Use a raking light and check your work.
Mark your high or low spots
Go diagonal ///// then go the opposite direction \\\\\\\\ the go down the length ——
Do this methodically, check your work until you have eliminated to lowest spot

Finally i pared all the internal hollows with a chisel, re-established my chamfers, and re-counter sunk the dog holes. The square dog hole corners were “broken” with a rasp.

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This is where I am now. The top has 2 coats of wipe on poly. I didn’t use Tung oil because I want to diminish any darkening.

This is not a huge deal but I thought I’d do some experimentation (not the kind Al does, mind you). I went ahead and made the regular one and a 5 1/4” modified one out of some scrap.

Here is how far they protrude from the bottom…....

With the longer spring board the long dog has a smoother action. However, the main thing I noticed is that the shorter one rocks back out perpendicular fairly quickly has you raise the dog. Where as the longer dog has a greater functional range in respect to the face staying perpendicular to bench surface.

So lets take a measurement.

THe short dog rocks back at less than 2” of rise.

The long dog can extend up about 3 1/2” inches before it starts rocking back.

The primary reason is a factor of when the “spring bevel” engages the front wall. I put the dogs in to the router jig for illustration. Note the jig orientation is backwards.

Regardless, the dog hole that is accessed through the right front leg will have to be long.

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So, if you are one that thinks the 2 degree inclination of a dog face is important, then that geometry is retained through a greater range of elevation using a long dog.

Duh.

I felt a little stuck here. The remaining maple lumber that I had was milled 4/4 stuff obviously from a different tree/species and very white. I wanted the gap stop to match the rest of the top. Primarily as to not draw attention to itself and leave a more monolithic look to the bench top. Rick, the lumber guy did not have any boards left of the wood used to make the top wide enough to do the job. So, it is time to glue up some scraps. I rough jointed 2 surfaces with my #8. I really like this plane. The finished with a finely set #7.

Time to empty the bleachers.

Unfortunately, after milling these two boards I was still just shy of the width I needed so i jointed and glued on another board. It was this last small board that I was having trouble jointed because it was bowed. I tried to grab hold and clamp it with screws. The screw broke and that didn’t work with a damn.

Finally, I resawed this board and went to mill these to their final 5/8” thickness. I noticed that my fairly new DeWalt 735 is leaving ridges. WTF? I forgot to take out the broken screw from the day before. Sucks.

Got to press on. From a design aspect, I decided to cap the gapstop with a cherry cap using a M&T joint. One reason is to match the other end cap. The other is because by the time I glued up this board, resawed it, the laiminated the spacer there would be 7 different pieces of end grain exposed.

A cut off was laminated and fashioned into a tenon. The spacers were also cut-offs.

The cherry cap was fashioned from a previous leg cut-off, cut to size and mortised. The laminated tenon was just at 1/2” so a 1/2” brad point bit hogged out the waste nicely. The rest was pared with a chisel. Like my fancy drill press table. I reallly need to make one that is attached and has a dependable fence.

I shaped rounded the corners of the tenon using a rasp. Before fitting the cap, I had to re-square the shoulders from the glue up. The tenon is a bit long and was shortened. The cap was intentionally cut a tad large. I do not trust the accuracy of my machine work. Jonters, planers and routers get me most of the way there but I achieve my accuracy by sneaking up on a good fit using hand tools.

My M&T fit was a tad loose or at least I used that as an excuse to drawbore this joint. I had a couple cherry pegs left over from the under-carriage construction. I chose 5/16” for these pegs. Thus, I removed some bulk with a block plane and then slammed them back through the dowel plate. I enjoy making pegs. Its the simple things.

Finally, I cut the notches on the bottom so the gap stop will straddle the upper stretchers and lie flush with the top. Elbow in, reflection straight, parallel lines.

Various pictures of the final result.

Thanks for following along.

I put some maple through the jointer and planer until it was about 3/4” and 6” wide. After cross cutting to length it was time to break the skew rabbet plane. I know Smitty would have thrown the dado stack in the table saw and been done with.

Seriously, I wanted to put this plane through its paces so we can get to know one another. I needed 14 rabbets and I learned a lot. It takes a certain feel, a certain muscle memory to keep everything square.

After that, the 2 end boards needed cut outs to fit around the legs. Andy, the advice about keeping your elbow tucked in by your side has helped my ability to sawing tremendously! Thanks.

The final result.

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Now I need to put my dog holes in the top. This is a bit of a challenge to drill through 4” of maple top and keep the holes square. One could “throw” the slab back on the drill press but that ain’t going to happen. You could by one of those fancy jigs to keep things straight. In the end I just took a cut off from the bench top, marked the sides square to the top and drill a 3/4” hole at the drill press.

After lining up the jig with marks I drilled as deep as I could under power the removed the jig and drilled about 1/2” shy of the other side.

Finally, I used a brace to drill down until just the screw tip was protruding.

I have a smaller square that just fits in the hole to check for square.

Of note: I did try to drill just with hand brace but even the jig it still wallered out a bit much. So this didn’t work for me.

I guess a need more practice.

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Tonight I broke the bench down to fine tune, break edges and get ready for the finish. Time to break out the trusty WorkMate again.

But I had a few issues and unfinished business. First the surface of the dead man was not flush with the front plane of the bench. Probably not a big deal but Smitty said I’d suck if I left it that way. Also, the dead man sat a little low and the top of the rebate did not extend into the groove very far.

To solve the all of these problem I did a little gluing. First I put a 1/8” shim on the front of the inverted V. This moved it out toward the face by the hypotenuse of a 1/8” right triangle. You figure it out.

The piece is upside down in the pic.

The top rabbet was short and a little narrow so I just glued a little piece of jatoba on. I let it overhang in the back in order to push the top part of the deadman out toward the front bench plane.

From a design standpoint I wanted a slightly slimmer look, not much though. In order to do this a mark a ~1/8” around the vertical piece with the tite mark.

This is the way I like to take off some stock. I’ll bevel down to the mark and the color the bevel. I will do fairly heavy stock removal with the #5. Just as I am getting ready to plane trough the bevel I will finish with the jointer, the finish with the smoother

I cut out for the curves (coves?) on the band saw and sanded them on the spindle sander.

It needs a little more and sanding and fine tuning. The M/T will get a 3/8” draw bore to match the others but this is where it sits.

Once again thanks for following along.

Instead I decided to use 3 pieces like Kari Hultman

I modified the TWW plan and got some scrap pieces together. I milled the end pieces as one. After flattening one side with a #7 it was re-saw on the bandsaw.

I didn’t take pics while routing the mortises. After that was done, the piece was cross cut in half. One side got a rabbet for the top. The other recieved a 45 degree V cut for the bottom.

NOTE: the piece that has the rabbet still has some checks. Any advise on how to seal/stabilize these?

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Next, in order to measure directly for the vertical element, I went ahead and made the V track. I dreaded making this and I don’t know why. I figured the safest way would cut a larger piece with a V. That way it is easy to clamp for planing and easier to hold while ripping that piece off at the TS.

After I cut the first corner off to make the V I realized I could have just corner off a square board to begin with! Duh! Oh well.

This piece ended up having a lot of curl and character. The sharp points are chamfered.

I love it when you can see a reflection off a planed surface.

After cutting it to basic length the shooting board helps sneak up on a perfect fit. {For any one who reads this and is thinking of making a shooting board. The bench hook/miter box that I made at the same time with the same dimensions works great as a helper.}

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Next, cutting the tenons on the vertical piece. I like to cut the shoulders on the TS. Using the fence with a stop i can quickly achieve consistent depth and square cuts. The cheeks are cut with my only working “tenon” saw – the LN DT saw. This went really well as the tenons required minimal work for a nice fit.

WHOOPS.

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This is where things stand tonight.

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Thoughts from here:

The face of the deadman is not coplanar with the legs and top. The contributing dimensions followed the plan. Don’t know if this is critical.

I still need to cut the curves out as seen by the pencil marks. This design element echos the curve in the chop.

The slight reveal between the capitals and the vertical is on purpose. The original dimensions of the vertical element are a little bulky. I am considering thinning it by a half inch on each side. However, I don’t want the deadman to be over refined compared to the rest of the bench.

Drill 2 rows of 3/4” holes at 1/2” offset

Draw bore each end

The tongue of the upper rabbet is too short. I will glue a piece on since we’re working with long grain. Jatoba for better wear characteristics? Nah, probably over kill.

Need to epoxy the checks.

Thanks for following along. I am sure you guys are getting as fatigued with this blog as I am. Gotta finish it though.

These were accomplished by router and squared off by chisel. The one closest to the wagon vise required a little more work.

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Next, I routed the slot for the deadman. The plan called for the slot to be 1 1/2” deep the whole lenght but I only did that for the 8” next to the left leg. The rest of the slot is only 1” deep. Check this out. I have learned a lot during this build and now a fully understand that I take too deep of bites withe router. It creates a lot of heat…...

A whisp of smoke

and a burning ember

Put a coat of wax on while the slot is presented

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Finally the dog hole of the front left leg needs access through the tenon.

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Just a cool pic that illustrates the mass of the elements

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The upside down test fit is pretty good but I was not happy how the left leg fit. It sat about a 1/32” back from the front face of the top. To get them flush I’d have to plane the entire face of the top. Instead I enlarged the mortise forward and glued a spacer in the back to keep it solid. This allows me to barely shave the leg flush to the top which is much easier.

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Finally, moved the bench out into some better light for some “glamor shots.”

The list of things to do is getting smaller….................thanks for checking out the progress.

First, I need some 3/8” cherry pegs. I went with cherry to keep the visual contrast subtle. Another thing is I let my kids make some pegs and write their name on them. During glue-up I let them drive their respective pegs in the give them a sense of ownership.

All these were made from scrap and were sized down to ~ 7/16” on the band saw. Then the corners were chamfered with a block plane. I made this litttle V grooved jig to help.

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The bottom stretchers have a 3/8” dado to in which a ledger is glued into to support the bottom shelf. I felt a little galooty. I took a cut off that would allow me to get 2 pieces off of each side. First I four squared it.

Once squared up, I broke out the skewed rabbet plane and created a 1/8” rabbet. The first pic I actually posted as a random shot but realized, after scrutinizing the pic, that I was way caddie-whompus. I fixed it but then the rabbet was too deep. Finally I got it. Did the same operation on the other side and ripped it with the table saw.

This little operation was much harder than it should have been.

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I forgot to drill the stretchers for the draw-bore. So, I re-assembled and checked my marks. After drilling I “counter-sunk” the entry side just to ensure that the peg doesn’t get hung up.

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I finally committed to a bench height of 34 1/2” inches. Thus I cut -off another 1/2” inch from the legs. I think this is the 4th time I’ve cut these bastards.

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These pics are from a couple weeks ago. So, about that time Smitty was putting his skirt on as I was shaving my legs. Also, I took the time to break the edges and file the hole edges.

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Not a lot a pics from the glue-up. I really like the draw-bore technique. I only used a 1/16” offset and it went flawlessly.

Thanks for looking.

chainlegvise@gmail.com.

Ancora Yacht Service

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Before permanent installation into the chop, I went ahead and made the notch on the parallel guide. It turns out that the screw was a little long but that is because I cut may “decorative” bevel without planning ahead. Regardless, It filed down easily.

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Before dis-assembly, I marked the bottom of the big screw nut plus threw an 1/8” in for safety. 1/2” below that is the centerline for all the boring. I transferred this line to the front of the leg and chop.

Next, I took apart the BenchCrafted version. First to do this “retro-fit” but also shave the pencil marks and “road grime” from the chop and leg.

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First, the bronze grommet gets a 1” counter bore. After that I drilled a 5/8” hole through the chop….......

and leg.

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In the above picture you can see the layout for the mortise version of the chain drive leg vise. There is also a surface mount bracket version that would obviously be easier if this was a true retro-fit. A 1/4” straight router bit keep the mortise bottom square to the surface. To me this is important because this will define the axis of rotation for the sprocket. If I were more skilled then a mortise chisel could execute this chore adequately.

At first it is tad tight but with a little paring it fits nicely.

2 retaining screws keep the axle in the mortise. These are not critical as the resultant vector is down and into the leg.

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Jim provides a 3/8” spacer to help alignment of the lower bracket. The holes are marked with brad point bit.

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That is about it. The leg vise is re-assembled.

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The front roller bracket is still used with this system. Actually, looking at that picture, I need to adjust the wheel up a smidge. The back roller bracket is removed as you can see the tapped holes under the chain.

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Conclusions:

- I wish I had taken a picture of the kit components before install

- there is no decline in the over all smoothness of the vice

- I do not need a pin anymore

- the parallelism is easily adjusted by the nut on the parallel guide

-Some (bertha) will object to the two-tone :^)

-I had to try the crushed can trick. Just had to. I even shot a cheesy video but it is too awful to post.

-You may ask why I went through the trouble of making the BenchCrafted version first. Well, in all fairness, I didn’t know if the chain drive leg vise would work. If it didn’t, then I could go right back to the BC version before assembly. But that is not going to happen.

Now, I am up to date and current on these blog posts. Damn, this a bit of work.

Thanks!!

The left front leg requires a lot more development in order to turn it into a leg vise. The first step is to make a clearance mortise for the parallel guide. It needs to be nice and square so I routed to max depth and squared the corners. However, even routing from both sides I don’t have enough depth. The trusty brace and bit to the rescue.

It ain’t perfect but will do just fine.

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The vise nut. The plan calls for a flush mount …........

TWW inlays the flange. However, that got me thinking. I am losing some excursion with my extra thick legs at 5 3/8” versus the planned 3 1/2”. So I decided, after the fact, to turn the nut around and completely inlay the nut.

However, Ive already drilled for the screw and this makes a counter bore difficult. So, the leg set back on the drill press and the first bit centered. Then the counter bore for the barrel drilled. Finally the flange is inlay-ed using a router.

Finally, the hole is tapped and the nut is installed. This configuration allows for a inch or so more chop travel

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The acetal bushing is installed on the front face of the leg in a similar fashion: Marked, routed, corners squared, screw holes tapped.

Its a hair too deep but that’s OK.

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Finally, the roller brackets.

Fortunately, the cut-off from the chop was damn near the perfect size. A 1/16” was planed off and everything laid out.

Slots routed, holes drilled and tapped. This was a done on a larger piece and then they were divided.

Next, I went along with the plan and added some decorative details using primarily the bandsaw. I forgot to take pics. Finished with a little sanding and applied some mineral spirits just to check out how they’d look.

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The pieces are assembled and tuned. You guys have seen the BenchCrafted leg vise in action. It is wonderful hardware with a smooth action.

You may note the parallel guide is only temporarily pegged because now I will disassemble most everything and “retro-fit” the chain drive.

I really appreciate you guys following along and the encouraging words!

They were glued up months ago but before shaping and joinery lets square up the sides. I’ve now dedicated my Veritas BU jointer for this.

First the mortise for the parallel guide was routed at the bottom. My tenon cheek was off and required some tweaking.

Now for the shaping. Let me say that I have pondered this for quite a awhile. I really like the shape given in the plan. However, I thought something different would be cool, maybe something more angular, more George Nakashima. Yet, I like how the BC design echos the lever cap on a Stanley plane. I took it a step further and tried to stay true to the curved face of the lever cap.

Next, I considered mimicking the compound curved bevel on the lever cap but I chickened out and kept it perpendicular and simple.

As I was marveling at how well the band saw blade from highland woodworking works, I realized that I messed up the measurements. Disgusted and perplexed I left it for a few days.

Here is a piece that is damn near the final dimension. But this stuff is HARD.

I took it down with the scrub. With this wood I took baby bites.

Then I tried to take down the high spots with the Jack. I don’t have pic but my winding sticks demonstrated twist. I finally got it flat. I struggled here.

I further flattened with the jointer but re-introduced some twist. Once I got thought that out I gave up on removing a 1/4” for final thickness. So, off to the bandsaw. FYI, the woodslicer blades for Highland Woodworking are quite impressive.

Then flattened with the jointer

After cutting to final dimension, I cut the tenon at the table saw making sure to leave it fat. That will trimmed with a block at the time of fitting it in the tenon.

The resaw cut-off made a nice template for the holes. Then it was time to make a toast to my LJ buddies.

Cheers!