Workbench Build - Splayed leg French Bench #14: Wooden Screw - Another attempt

Way more ambitious than my workbench projects

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

I know Monte, its a sickness really…

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

i would have given up long ago, i’m impressed

-- Joel -- http://diversitywoodworks.wordpress.com

Hey Mauricio – good news is, you’re not the first to have this problem. Bad news is, its hard to correct for the compounding errors that occur as the depth of your female threads increase, when using a router system.

Bill Rittner, a guy who makes some fantastic totes, wrote about it on his blog here. He had a challenge using the Beall Threader when the nuts got deeper than 2”. (Man I hope Al doesn’t read this post).

He goes on to use a modern screw box with satisfactory results, but is not happy with the limitation of woods that can be used. Depending on what you’re using for the screw, you may be ok. Highland Hardware has these boxes in stock, up to 1.5” diameter.

They recommended if I was going to use a harder wood, that I let it soak in mineral oil for several days. They also have thier 25% off one day sale (if you have the coupon from thier mailing list) tomorrow. Jackpot.

Either way, best of luck getting your bench finished – its looking great sir!

-- Chris @ Atlanta - JGM - Occam's razor tells us that when you hear hoofs, think horses not zebras.

Good luck bro, way out of my league stuff here. Cool, but looks so difficult, credit is do for even trying to wrestle with this. Victory will be sweet.

Mauricio, you are doing a great job

Your making something that would

only be made by a time served tradesman

after a few years of practice. You will get

it right. Thanks for sharing the learning process

warts and all.

Jamie

-- Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mauricio, I get your frustration but I also sense your determination to resolve this problem. I also sense you aren’t going to give up. Good for you!!

-- Lee~"If the women don't find you handsome, at least they ought to find you handy"~ Red Green

I guess I simply went the lazy road and got the metal screws :/ the way I figured it I will probably only make 2 screws for my bench, and didn’t want to change the focus of the build from building a workbench to building wooden screws – and I supposed you can understand why ;)

that said, those wooden screws always look so much nicer, and have a deeper reach in many cases as you can build them to your specifications. good thing you are sticking to it, but I would seriously work on discovering why the difference between making the screw, and tapping the leg if you are using the same tap for both the leg and the jig. sounds like 1 of the spirals on the screw might have an imperfection that causes it to bind….

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Chris, I really appreciate that link, great to hear the perspective of a machinist on this subject. Interesting that he says that Maple always chipped with the thread box, that’s what I’m using, however he gets good results at the end. The idea of soaking the screw in mineral oil intrigues me but I’m afraid of the screw swelling and being too tight in the jig.

I have thought about the one Highland sells. The 1.5” is a little small, at least visually. Although there is a guy in Scott Landis’ workbench book that uses it for a leg vise and it works fine.

If he was able to get it to work in a 1” nut at 5tpi maybe I should bore out part of the nut on the back of the leg to make my nut 2”? It might work then.

PurpLev, thanks, its got to be a labor of love for me to go through all this. It’s really just been a fascination of mine for a while to make these screws, not a time or money question. And hey if I get the process down I might sell a couple…

I do think it’s a thread pitch issue because it gets tighter little by little.

Jap, Shane, Jamie, & L2L thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

wrong thread

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

Hey Mauricio, I mimic some great advice from Jamie. He is spot on. Making your own threads is a process like any other craft that takes a good few years and some real time to get this down completely. I have yet to try it but I really admire you taking this on. Like anything some people can rock this out in one try, but most everyone has to earn those painful frustrating tries at it so it works efficiently.

Don’t let it get you down, you had the courage to try it and you have gained experience in your efforts. Keep at it and you will eventually get a creative solution.

The bench is a winner and take time to admire all of your hard work!

All the best my friend, keep sawing!

Joe

-- "Make something you love tomorrow...and do it slowly" JLB

You will succeed and we will be amazed.

-- I hate being bipolar. It's awesome! :^ ) ^:

Thanks Joe!

Scott, thanks for the faith, and nice fro by the way. ;-)

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

Who votes for boring out the back of the leg/nut? According to the article Nerd posted I may be pushing the limits of what this thing can do. if I do so and make the nut effectively 2” instead of 3.5” my screw may work. Worst case scenario I would have to bore out the whole thing and attaché a nut to the back of the leg.

What say you folks?

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

I think I’ll try making another screw with the old jig. If that doesnt work then I’ll boar out the back of the legnut little by little.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch