# Another New Fangled Workbench



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*

This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.

I have benefited greatly from reading posts on this and other sites so this is my first attempt to return some knowledge to the community. First I would like to thank Jeff for his detailed and informative posts as they aided me greatly in addition to the copy of the Fine Wood Working (herein FWW) article with its openness to interpretation or ambiguity depending on your perspective. Thanks as well to David on his site the folding ruler show for an example of the extreme New Fangled Workbench (herein NFWB).

A short background on my fascination with this bench. I have been working with a group of students and a professional guitar builder in the Seattle area for a little over a year on building an acoustic guitar. My intention was to gain a deeper perspective on the instrument I love to play and along the way I became fascinated with woodworking, particularly with hand tools and tradition. So in acquiring several hand planes, chisels, and scrapers, I found myself in need of a bench to use them on. I started out with a free bench from a garage sale and before I knew a little about hand tools had put pegboard and hung tools on it only to discover that when I clamped anything to it or used the vise to hold something to work with hand tools, the greater portion of the tools on the pegboard would come crashing down. After reading several different books on workbenches, I came across one that referenced this bench in FWW and saw the video on the website. I knew at once this was the bench I wanted to build as it emphasized function and thrift.

I have watched the video better than a dozen times and made many notes on my multiple paper and pencil drawings of the bench and components. I am closing in on a bench that is 8' long and 3' high, 28" across plus perhaps another 6" for a tool tray eventually. As Jeff mentioned in the last installment of his blog, I am considering that some day I may want to move this so am toying with the idea of tusked tenon joints, or perhaps bed bolts if I chicken out or the traditional type of joinery seems to be ill-suited for the materials.










I have a few pictures to post, but it looks like I have to figure out the protocol here of having them appear within the blog. Hope to remedy that in the next post. I put some up on flicker, but can't quite figure out how to get the direct link to make them appear here. Any hints on making this work from Flickr appreciated. It is literally in the 111th hour so will stop here for now, but pick up again hopefully soon.


----------



## jcees (Dec 31, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Bench building is a rite of passage for a woodworker. It's a tool on which *ALL *of your work will most likely depend. Make it any way you want and specific in the way it holds your work. I am also building a bench [my own design] and like you, it has morphed many times on the page before *AND *during the process. Good luck, and keep us posted w/pics.

always,
J.C.

BTW, if you add an exclamation point to both ends of the link, it will show the pic. Another LJ taught me that a couple of weeks back. Sweet!


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


J.C.

Thanks for the encouragement and the exclamation points. Will add a little more info later today!


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...











The initial Douglas Fir framing stock I purchased at a local lumber yard here stickered and acclimating in the garage for about a month. You can see the edge of the bandsaw in the extreme foreground I used to rip the stock.

On the left on the floor is a laminated beam I got from a local salvage business that I plan to use for the table next to the well. One side is pretty flat already that shouldn't be too much work to true up with a plane… famous last words. I also like the heft of it and the fact that the glue up is already complete. Both ends of the beam have about a 3/8' to 1/2" cut in the middle that may help keep it from cracking like the hole and slots in the design of the NFWB stretcher and legs. I am planing on adding a second stretcher between the secondary legs and beefing up the dimensions of the secondary legs to support the heft of the beam.

I think you can make out the end grain in the photo and when I ripped the bigger boards, I was shooting for the more vertical grain in the edges of the boards. Prior to ripping them, I did notice some twist and cupping, though ripping a more vertical oriented grain section helped settle that some.

I don't have a table saw and not much room for one if I did, So I used my 14" bandsaw. It was a bit tricky to rip such long stock, but I got a portable support on the front end and then used a chopsaw on a stand for the roll off. This required careful attention in the transition point as the weight of the board pivoted on the fulcrum, and mindfulness of the blade and my hand position, but I got them through. I did decide as a result of this to purchase some additional 2×4 stock that had more vertical grain and was successful in snobbishly picking through the premium quality studs.









After ripping the initial stock, I cut it to pretty close to 8' length on the chopsaw to make it easier to manage around my small garage and put some duct tape over the ends. On the left side of the top of the sawhorses are two off cuts I probably won't use in the bench and the other wood on top is the additional stock I bought for the remainder of the bench. In the background on the right you can see the bench I have been using which is perfectly fine for many things, but not so good for planing and other tupes of hand tool techniques.









This final picture shows the newer stock I purchased. I spent a lot of time drawing out the bench and the dimensions of the components with paper and pencil and figuring out the length of the legs, stretchers, "skis" ~what I call the horizontal runners under the legs, they might have a more formal name in workbench parlance. The board I selected for the secondary legs has some cracks in one end, but I think I can cut that section off and the rest should be serviceable to create two legs. This particular board may be a little wide for the secondary legs, so I may rip it back, but will see when I get that far. I thought the postits were a pretty good strategy since I have to be away from the project for periods of time, hopefully it will be helpful for picking up where I left off when I can get some more time with it.

Well that pretty much does it for my first installment. Some of the things I was a little perplexed about were how high the bar clamps would stick out of the top and if the front clamps would be high enough to mate closely enough to the front of the bench to get a good head on clamping direction of force. Then I realized, oh yea, the mdf is 3/4" for the panels so that helps place the upper pipes when I lay out the holes for the supports. I elected to use the larger 3/4" size pipe clamps as I liked their handles better. 
I also cleaned up the pipes with some wet/dry sandpaper to take the rust off and after drying them up put a little rub of camelia oil on them… some handtool afficionados recommend this for keeping handplanes in good shape and when I checked them a month later I was pleased with the results. 
The position of the pipeclamps for the planing beam relative to the wedge and rail coming off of the well wasn't very clear to me from either the FWW article or video, but Jeff's blog was very helpful with all his sketchup drawings. Thanks again Jeff.


----------



## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Interesting blog! I will be following this one.


----------



## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the shout out, Michael. It's good to see another fella undertaking the project. I look forward to your variations. I know this much. You will be glad you let the lumber acclimate to your shop environment and dry out a bit. It will make a considerable difference when you mill.


----------



## Taigert (Nov 20, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


looks like a good start


----------



## Hersh (Mar 24, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment one, Thanks to the trailblazers and some basic layout and preliminary thoughts*
> 
> This is actually the original first post in the series. I am obviously learning how the blog tools work. So for part I start here and then go back to read part II… Part III and thereafter will hopefully appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing your information and adventure into workbench building.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*

This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.










One evening after work last week I was finally able to carve out a little time for the NFWB project. I am waiting for a drill press on back order so in the meantime I thought I would start squaring up some of the stock I had previously cut for pieces of the bench. In this photo on the left side of the saw horses is what will become the planing beam.









I spent a couple of hours working it with my Stanley Jack Plane to take the roughness out of the stock. One of the things I find rewarding about handplaning is that I really get a close look at the wood. This piece was in rougher shape than I first thought from the equipment used to saw it out of the log, staples from the wrapping and a place or two where knots were running through the stock.

At the end of the evening I had made good progress getting the piece in much better shape, sharpening the edges and removing much of the roughness. There is still some improvement to be accomplished in the quality of it, but it is coming along nicely. You might notice some of the grain in the edge of the beam popping a bit from being planed smooth in the photo. It also has some twist in it introduced through my uneven planing, though I plan to follow up with some of my nicer planes to get it all squared up.

I would put myself more into the camp of the hand tool romanticists as opposed to the power tool centered practicioners out there. However, I am enjoying woodoworking for the process itself, if not moreso than the finished objects. My livelihood doesn't depend on woodworking and at the pace I work, that is a good thing. It really rewards my creativity and wonder though and in the process of planing my mind often wonders about the tree it came from, where it was located, how the big knot with the hollow spot was oriented in relation to the rest of the wood, and taking time to observe how it is changing. I can completely appreciate how much easier and quicker this would have been using a jointer and planer, and looking at my pile of stock yet to be planed… well I don't have enough room for them anyway.

In the course of the evening, I began practicing conscious incompetence as I knew my plane blade's edge was degrading in sharpness and it was requiring more effort to get shavings. The right thing to do of course is to stop and resharpen, but I chose to add more effort to it instead, not wanting to disrupt the experience. A little lesson from taking that path occured when the brass set screw in the knob worked a little loose and apparently into my palm. At the end of the evening I had a nice momento of my time.










Reflecting on the experience I considered the options of how to improve the situation for my next planing session. I perused the Hock blade site as that seems to me to be the gold standard in plane blades… cryogenically treated steel. Sharpen it up and how long could you go before having to sharpen again? A little research revealed that the blade and chipbreaker would be in the $50 neighborhood plus or minus. Well worth it in my opinion to have a premium quality tool. However, I also thought about my primary use of the Stanley plane I have is likely to be for cleaning up rougher stock and I have a couple higher end ECE planes for jointing and smoothing. My Stanley planes frog also had a little irregularity near the sides of the leading edge which I repaired with some JB Weld. Not perfect, but much improved in terms of eliminating the chatter along with tuning the other elements of the plane. At the end of the day I decided to purchase two standard Stanley replacement blades for my plane at a cost of about $20 and sharpen and hone them both up for the next session so I will have three blades to switch between in the course of working the stock.


----------



## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Man, that's a lot of work doing all of the planing.

Too much for me. I'd use a machine without even giving it a second thought.

I know you will enjoy your work when you get done though.


----------



## Yettiman (Mar 2, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


I totally understand your thought process. I had a plane that was less than sharp during an exam, used effort, trying to finish a apiece, as the clock was against me, I avoided injury, but the piece was damaged and many marks lost.

Glad to see the injury was minor.


----------



## croessler (Jun 22, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


I feel your pain; I went through the same process with some 8/4 White oak this past summer.

As to Francisco's comment on the scrub plane, I had the opportunity to borrow one recently and it sure does a wonderful job on rough lumber

I used the #40-> #5-> #8 and it worked out pretty well.


----------



## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Hi Michael,

This is a painful lesson but it is one which easily translates into the usage of other tools. When you are physically or mentally tired call it a day and start fresh tomorrow. Working with a "fresh" mind and body is very much akin to sharpening a dull blade.

I tend to agree with Gary's comment about the amount of planing. I can understand the enjoyment you get from doing it by hand but it is just not for me.

Thanks for the post. I will enjoy seeing your progress.


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Looks like you had yourself some fun, despite the injury…

If you sharpen and hone your jack plane blade with camber and open up the mouth wide, you can use it as a more coarse tool, rather than getting a scrub right away. May be you already do this? Might not be quite as agressive as a scrub, but certainly a good alternative. Also, with three blades (!) you could experiment with the amount of camber that would work for you, at the same time as your plan to always have a sharp blade.

On blades: the Hock blades certainly do have a great reputation, as do the Lie Nielsen A2 steel blades that really hold an edge.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


I haven't yet had the time to get back to the project since I posted, but thank you for these great suggestions. I actually do have an ECE Scrub plane, though the blade was poorly ground (bought it used on EBAY). My next session in the shop will be sharpening up the new blades and my old one. I have taken the scrub plane blade to the grinder for correction to a more gentle radius, so maybe this next sharpening session will be a chance to finish that job off and give it a try.

The hand is pretty healed up, one little split is going to take some more time to dissapear, but it is getting there. Thanks for the encouragement and well wishes.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Francisco and Chris,
Thanks again for the scrub plane recommendation. I dug out the scrub plane and got the blade ground and sharpened. I used it on a smaller project this weekend that requried a substantial amount of material to be removed in order to square up the stock and it worked like a dream.


----------



## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Michael, it sounds like you have things worked out with regard to a scrub plane. I do want to point you to a great article I recently read on Chris Schwarz's blog however. He likes to use his #6 as a scrub. He grinds an 8" radius on one of his blades and uses that one when he as a lot of stock to remove. The benefit I see is that you will be taking much more stock than you would with a normal scrub plane (due to width of a #6 being 2 3/8).

Just thought I'd share. Here is the link: http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/Sharpen+A+Fore+Plane.aspx

I envy your commitment to using your hand tools. Great work.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Installment two: Getting to know the planing beam*
> 
> This is actually Part II of the series, Part I is in part II of the series and Part II is here, hopefully Part III and thereafter will appear in the correct sequence.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the link Jeff,
Just finished enjoying that article, wish I would have come across it sooner as I realized in hindsight that not being sure of how to grind and hone the scrub blade was what was holding me back in using it. Whomever owned it before had put about a 5/8 radius on it and it took a fair amount of grinding to bring it back to flat. Eventually I just took my best shot at it, then came across the ECE Plane catalog and handbook on their sight and it turned out I was pretty much on the mark.

Will be posting another installment shortly


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*Lessons from the planing beam*

I think the blog series will be in order from here forward. I haven't had a lot of time to allocate to the workbench project lately, but was able to get the additional plane blades and sharpen and hone them. Much more pleasant to have a couple extras at hand and take nice shavings. It is such a great feeling to have a plane well tuned and work a piece of wood.









visible above is a shot of the planing beam as I finished up one side. I have a combination square resting on it and got the sides, top and bottom all eventually registered square and also used a straight edge across the length of it. As I got closer to square, I kept the measuring tools close at hand to check my progress and it involved a lot of going back and forth, in some cases over correcting for compensation, but I can see how spending time with it you start to develop a feel for it and can even detect rises and twist by touch. Great fun.









I thought I would also feature my present planing setup. The irony I have read is that it takes a bench to make a bench and I have made due with having all my stock loading up a pair of sawhorses with just about 8 - 10" free on one side. I then clamped a block at about the height that the board comes to rest against my present (non-planeable) workbench to support the end of the piece. It is a riff off of the idea of the clamping wedge that will eventually be a part of the NFWB. On the day that my bench is complete, I will enjoy planing without having a load of stock just next to the planing run with sticker blocks to run my knuckles into, in the meantime it focuses the mind on where the plane is going and keeps me in check from getting to carried away.









Here then is the planing beam in place in the clamping set up. I have thus far found that I can pretty much plane the board in the direction heading towards this clamped piece. for the last 6" or so I have pulled the stock back from the clamping block and stretched one leg back on the stock to hold it on the sawhorses, undignified perhaps, but it got the job done.

I was able to finish off the planing beam and wiped it down with a thin coat of shellac for now. It will still have to be final cut for size and have openings cut to fit the clamps, but it is ready for those operations. My stock is not 100% knot free and it does have some rough spots yet from tear out below the working surface from the knots. I am leaving them be for now as I don't think they will hinder the operation of the planing beam and are more or less cosmetic issues. At some future point I may find a better piece to replace the present one, or cut a scarf join and supplement it with additional stock. For now though I am satisfied.


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Lessons from the planing beam*
> 
> I think the blog series will be in order from here forward. I haven't had a lot of time to allocate to the workbench project lately, but was able to get the additional plane blades and sharpen and hone them. Much more pleasant to have a couple extras at hand and take nice shavings. It is such a great feeling to have a plane well tuned and work a piece of wood.
> 
> ...


Sounds like you have a handle on things so far -

I like the machinist's case I see (and saw in the prev. posts)...I have one very similar.

Keep it up!


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Lessons from the planing beam*
> 
> I think the blog series will be in order from here forward. I haven't had a lot of time to allocate to the workbench project lately, but was able to get the additional plane blades and sharpen and hone them. Much more pleasant to have a couple extras at hand and take nice shavings. It is such a great feeling to have a plane well tuned and work a piece of wood.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the encouragement Dorje.

I haven't had much to show for posting lately, a lot going on with the last stages of the pregnancy and only more pictures of planks and shavings for now. I did score the machinists case from a garage sale in my neighborhood here in Seattle. I replaced the felt in it and cleaned it up some. The bottom tray that should fold up in front is missing so one day I hope to build a repalcement for it, but that is many projects down the road.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*"...doing all that planing."*

I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:










In addition to these three bags of shavings, there were a several more that either were added to the compost or made spectacular fireplace starter on some recent colder rainy nights.

The three planes pictured below were my workhorses, the scrub in the top most position, no. 5 in the middle, and smooth at the bottom. In the course of all this planing, I am finding the ergonomics of the ECE wood planes preferable to the Stanley.










My progress is becoming observable as I have whittled my stock pile down and have many pieces cut to size. There has been a lot of twist introduced along the way from drying that I have had to take out with the planes. The scrub has been very valuable in this process, though I have at times also introduced some coarse tearout using the scrub.










In addition to using the square, I also started employing a piece of mdf board to check the pieces for flatness and the two in combination helped me get them fairly trued up. Once they were in pretty good shape, I cut them closer to final length and then rigged up a shooting board and squared up the ends with an ECE jointer or try plane.










Then I laid out the legs, bench supports and skis along with what will become the planing beam bars to get a look at their appearance. I spent some time going back and forth between watching the video of the bench on FW and the pictures and drawings in a copy of the article and decided to cut the primary legs back a bit in width. This will give me a little symmetry under the tail vise pipes and yet I think still provide adequate strength.










I don't always use hand tools and for this operation plus cutting out the keyhole slots and ripping the excess stock off of the primary legs I employed the use of my vintage 1968 Delta Bandsaw great production year, some real originals born that year, that is why I was sold on this model. I notice the bench doesn't employ keyhole slots in the secondary legs and am going with that as well, they are 5 and 1/2 inches in width and I welcome any comments as to why it wouldn't be necessary or if I should revise and include them. It was interesting to note that when I cut one of the keyhole slots on the bandsaw, the cut closed behind the blade so there was some tension going on there.



















In Jeff's blog he mentioned using sketchup and I have it downloaded on another computer and when I can make some time to get familiar with it I think it will be a great asset, but for this project I have been referencing a copy of the article and making a lot of my own paper and pencil drawings to scale to figure out how to come to some dimensions for the placement of the tail vise barclamps and front vise barclamps. I am using the 3/4 inch size as I like the handles better and did some figuring on how the front ones would align with the edge of the front of the bench. I put a close up picture of my drawings and notes below, but not sure how well they will come across on the site










Below are the pieces that are beginning to emerge for the project:

Bench supports and skis










Primary and secondary legs










Here I am laying out the mortises in the supports and skis. They are a little difficult to see as I was using a mechanical pencil and trying to make as fine a line as possible. The articles I read stress using a mortise gauge or marking knife and I had purchased some clovis point shaped x-acto blades, got one out of the package to scribe my fine line, only to discover that my x-acto handle was too small for this size blade… so the mechanical pencil. I referenced articles in FW by Tage Frid and Ian Kirby on mortise and tenon joinery that had several helpful drawings and concepts to keep in mind and then hybridized their respective approaches for this application. As I write this it occurs to me I should have pointed out that I decided to use this as an alternative to the lag joinery in the original article. My thought is that I would like to be able to disassemble the bench should we move at some point, but it would be fine to keep the legs as assembled units for packing should that happen. So this was a chance to take a shot at this traditional style of joinery and hopefully have a rock solid bench. I am also considering doing tusked mortise and tenon joints for the stretchers, but have to take a closer look at the characteristics of this wood to see if it will work.










Also here the layout of the tenons on the secondary legs. Again, I welcome comment as to why or why not the keyhole slots should or shouldn't be included in the secondary legs. I am planning on adding an additional stretcher between them as well and then creating a shelf for the planes between the two stretchers.










Finally, here is a shot of one of the secondary legs with the tenons cut. I have cut the majority of the waste away on the bandsaw, but left the final approach for the chisels. Along the way, I found I could mimic some of the functions of the finished bench on my saw horses. The big hulk of stock that will become the table is resting on the lower portion of the sawhorses and made a solid platform to rest the legs on while cutting out the tenons. I then put the two boards that are the stock for the stretchers on top of the saw horses and used to large quick clamps about 5 feet apart on the two top boards to clamp the leg being cut into place. It worked fairly well to provide me with a stable base to work on, though I am amazed that the plastic sawhorses have not completely collapsed.










Well that is about as far as I am, it will take some more time to clean up the rest of the tenons and cut out the mortises. I have been patiently waiting for the steel city drill presses to show up, but they still haven't arrived at the local woodworking shop. Not sure if I will try and hack out the mortise by hand or not prior to the arrival of the drill press. Will see how it goes cleaning up the rest of the tenons. Thanks for stopping by and checking it out. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.


----------



## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


Well, thanks for the dedication, Michael. My heart couldn't take that much hand planing! If I had to do it by hand, it just wouldn't get done.

Looks like you are doing one heck of a good job! Keep it up.


----------



## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


Lookin' good Michael! Thanks for the detailed account of the progress and your reasons for design changes.

Are you going to bore holes at the interior ends of the keyhole slots? I'm guessing you just haven't gotten there yet. As for using them in the secondary legs, I guess it comes down to whether or not you thing there is enough movement going on in the boards to justify trying to counteract the potential for splits. I think it's generally a technique used for wider boards though (assumption really).


----------



## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


By the way, great hand work. Nice bags o' shavings


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


This is cool to see - do you have a brace and bits to hog out the waste for the mortises in the interim?

What size drill press are you getting?

What saw did you use to cut the tenon waste? Was it that little guy on the bench?

So many questions…

Those ECE planes do look comfortable - especially for the extended use your putting into them!

Your baby come yet?


----------



## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


Great job so far, Michael. You put a wonderful effort in your hand tooling of the bench. This is a skill that, for most of us, is sadly lacking.

Keep the post coming. I am enjoying this.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


Thanks for the comments.

Jeff, yes the hole part of the keyhole slot will be at the interior, on the fourth picture from the bottom you can barely make out where I have drawn the circle with a quarter for a place holder.

Dorje, I have a brace and bits my father in law passed along from a garage sale, but the bits are not straight, though that is a thought as I could get a new bit from the hardware store for this purpose.

Steel City only makes one drill press. It has a 17" swing which is great for guitar building to be able to drill a center hole in larger guitar tops. It also has a 6" plunge which is twice as much as most drill presses in its class. I did some reading on this board and others and it has received very good reviews. Part of the reason they are on backorder I guess.

For the tenon waste, I used the bandsaw for the majority and then the little razor saw for the tag ends and a chisel to clean them up.

Wagers have been laid that the baby arrives in 2-5 days by those professionals that have been taking care of us so any day now, just waiting for nature to take its course.


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


Thanks for the follow up!


----------



## jjohn (Mar 26, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *"...doing all that planing."*
> 
> I am dedicating this installment to GaryK's comment from a previous entry. Gary this picture is for you:
> 
> ...


You know…My bags of shavings can not compare to yours. I have chips and sawdust mixed in with even actual pieces of wood. I am very impressed and I know that Gary also must be. (Seeing he has already admitting he wouldn't do that much planing). I too will be unable to compete with your planning because I have found that in the past my arms would go numb and shoulders would almost come out of joint with so much work. So… Great pile of shavings and hope to see many more of same type coming from your shop in a short time. L. O. R. L.

No, really, you are doing a great job on your project. I really enjoyed viewing the details on the pictures and explaining. Looking forward to more.
Jim


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*The best thing I'll ever build...*










My son Forest Fox born May 19th 1:30 PM on my father's 75th birthday. Love him to pieces. Thus the intermittent postings on the project.


----------



## austinrookie (Feb 21, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looks like he is custom built…..congratulations and good luck!!


----------



## saddlesore (Oct 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations, Mike! Bet he'll be following you around the shop in no time!


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wonderful!


----------



## Dominic (Oct 22, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I like the finish, it looks like Cherry or Red Oak. What ever it is you and your wife made it perfert. I bet it took a lot of planing. And I think it will be around for 100 years. Congratulations, to you and your Wife.


----------



## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations!


----------



## wpreman (Mar 27, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations! A future LJ


----------



## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations on this project. He looks like he is "well designed" and the "finish" seems like a long time in the future but it will be here before you know it. 

Wonderful post. I trust that mother is doing well also. I can tell that dad is.

Thanks for the post.


----------



## rtdersch (May 12, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congrats! Being a father is the greatest gift, and responsibility, that God can endow us with. See my .sig =)


----------



## Paul_D (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations!


----------



## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations Michael. Let me guess… A cradle is next on the project list.


----------



## Taigert (Nov 20, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations Michael, there are many years of joy you have ahead, and they are priceless.
Our son is now 14 going 20, there are days I do miss the littler version, all in all we are very proud of him.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the congrats, really hard to find words to describe being a new Dad. I am getting used to that word though and it feels great.


----------



## rtb (Mar 26, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The best thing I'll ever build...*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


CONGRAT's. If you think that "dad" feels great now wait until he starts saying "daddy".


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*The workbench grows legs.*










We had some anxious moments the three weeks prior to Forest's birth as he was positioned precariously for delivery so in the background (of life, not the picture) we had to be ready to move or call the ambulance. Fortunately we are pretty close to the hospital, but I was able to channel some of my anxiety into hand cutting the mortise and tenons for the leg joinery. Not my original plan as I was going to use the drill press and forstner bits to remove the bulk of the mortise, but the drill press is still on back order. So I am cutting my teeth on cutting by hand and sharpening up those chisels.










I have a set of forstner bits and did try using the largest one I would dare with a hand drill to cut out some stock, but found that I didn't think it improved the process that much so reverted to doing the whole thing by hand. Dorje also suggested the bit and brace and I tried some of my smaller bits with pretty much the same result. Also made a trip to the neighborhood hardware store, but they no longer carry bits. I could have made the run to Hardwicks across town, but given the holding pattern circumstance with the baby, decided that was too far afield for my comfort (good thing too, because it went down fast, though we were able to drive sans ambulance). The mortise ended up looking like the 5 side of a die and I didn't think the five holes benefited my progress that much. Even after I had them cut to size by the lines on either side of the piece, I found there was a lot of work to do to get the tenon to fit and a lot of touching up the chisels on the waterstone for cutting the Doug Fir. Two of my mortises I ended up over adjusting in the process and are a little loosey-goosey, though I plan to cut shims to compensate and then peg them with dowels as well should the drill press ever arrive at the store.










Here then is one of the nearly finished leg assemblies. I still want to peg the mortise joints to make them very solid and am planning on using the dowel to draw the tenon in a 64th or so more. Also have to bore out the keyhole for expansion on the interior of the slots. I am pleased that thus far they are remaining square and solid. The tenons extended slightly beyond the mortise so I used a flush cut saw and a little chisel and smooth plane action to smooth them out.










The two side by side. I have to finish off the mortise portion of the joint for the smaller leg, but nearly there and this will be ready to trim flush. Note the two shims on the floor near the loosey-goosey joints. I think I will be able to knock out a couple plugs though on the band saw to address the issue along with pegging them. To be expected the first time around I suppose. I did want to try the joinery out on the legs as I am thinking I want to do this style also for the two stretchers. The plan is for tusked tenon joints so it could conceivably be knocked down for a move into modular pieces should that day come. I thought if I screwed up the legs bad enough, I could just cut off the tenons and square up the legs and go back to the lag bolt joinery suggested in the original FW article, but I think the joinery is going to work. Have a few home improvement projects to tackle prior to the stretchers so it may be some time before I can post progress again, plus I am really enjoying Forest Fox of course and learning how to adapt to family life. Going pretty good so far though. The drill press is supposed to show up by mid-June though it was supposed to be in early May so well see, sometime after it arrives and I can get it set up I will be able to work on the main frame and bore the holes for the clamps in the big piece of stock, but one day at a time. Thanks for looking, I will enjoy your comments and suggestions.


----------



## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The workbench grows legs.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looking good so far!


----------



## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The workbench grows legs.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I agree with Gary that this is looking real good. I am surprised that you were able to get as much done as you have with the upcoming birth of your son.

Well done.


----------



## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The workbench grows legs.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looking great Michael. It's good to have a diversion sometimes. Cutting those joints surely provided just that. Somewhere along the way I missed what kind of drill press you ordered.


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *The workbench grows legs.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Those joints are defintely going to work! You can get away with more than a 1/64th drawbore offset. In doug fir, you could probably even go up to 1/16th. I'd shoot for 1/32 to a 1/16th. I don't think the 1/64th offset will be enough to give you what you're after.

With regard to the brace/bits…do you have auger bits for the brace, and are they sharp???

This project is looking good…sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now…Enjoy it!


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *The workbench grows legs.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for the compliments, I was able to get the last part fitted for the legs last night.

Jeff, I ordered a Steel City Drill Press. Would have been nice to have it for a few other things I am working on around the house too, but eventually when it does arrive I will appreciate it all the more.

Dorje, I do have some Auger bits, although the two biggest sizes were cut off by a previous owner presumably to use in a drill I guess. Once I have the bench together it will be nice to try out the bit and brace with a good set up to clamp workpieces. You are right about a lot on my plate, though it is a great full plate just now. I don't know if Forest will take an interest in woodworking, but I have a hopeful imagination that before too long he will be making models or playing with an erector set or other type things along with Dad in the workshop.


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*Lessons and adaptations along the way*

Got a chance to push the workbench a little farther along last weekend so a quick update on my progress. When I last left off, I had dry fit the mortise and tennon joints for the legs together having primarily hand cut them with chisels. I was awaiting the arrival of my steel city drill press which finally showed up mid June or so and that lay in my garage for another couple of weeks in its box. Had a party with some guitar buidling friends and they got it up out of the box and together realtively quickly, helped that I plied them with good food and homebrew  and of course we were all enjoying the smiles of Forest.

So picking up I was glad to have the drill press to use my larger forstner bits with to cut away the bulk of the mortise joints in the legs for the stretchers, that worked well, but I found its limitations when trying to bore out the beam for the face clamps. More on that in a moment. First here are the legs clamped up to drill dowel holes through the mortise and tennon joints:










And a look a little later down the road at the one of the legs with the dowels inserted:










I was going to drill the hole in the tennon a little lower than the one through the mortise to draw the joint up tight, but then decided instead to fit them together well with pipeclamps and was able to get that whole assembly on my drill press table with a little help from one of those portable roller stands. Some of the joints were a little loose on the dry fit, but between doweling them and gluing up the mating surfaces, I was satisfied with the snugness of their fit and they felt solid and sturdy when out of the clamps.

Next I bored the holes for the front clamps or front vise in the two boards that make up the sides of the well. I carefully oriented them as they would go together and clamped them together drilling through both boards at the same time hoping that this would enhance the alingment of the bar clamp when inserted. The drill press worked great in this application and drilling went smooth:










Again here I used a portable roller stand to help support the piece off the end of the drill press table and that worked well (npi).

The beam that will add mass to the table presented many challenges and in hindsight, many lessons in trying to bore holes that the pipeclamps would slide through beyond the well space. A simple theory was to use the board from the closest side of the well as a template to inicate where all the holes would go and just drill right on through those established holes into the beam, pull the template board off and finish boring out the holes… a simple plan…

However, the distance between the lowest reach of the drill press table and the length of shaft (extension plus forstner bit) and the width of the beam (13") were simply not compatable. I ended up swinging the table out of the way and using chairs and boxes to try and prop the beam up square to the bit, then moving the beam six inches for all the holes was a real pain and trying to reestablish square to the bit, very, very time consuming, lots of movement, not much drilling.

The depth of the bore also proved to be difficult for the forstner to handle even with lots of dipping in and out to clear the chips. Then the length of the bit and extension were not enough to get all the way through so I learned an important lesson: even with being very careful to make everything square, a new drill press etc. it is very difficult, if possible at all to get holes bored from opposite sides of a beam to line up so a pipe will slide through them. They ended up being off, substantialy in some situations. I ended up trekking over to Hardwicks eventually and getting a ship boring bit to bore out the holes and even that was challenged by the task:










When I finally could see daylight through all the holes, I needed to do a lot of work with a coarse rat tail rasp to begin to get the holes near alingment. I felt more like a miner than a woodworker through those many hours. Even after getting the pipes through all the holes, I know there will be more work ahead in the final assembly to get them to work smoothly.

The well assembly went smoothly and I made great use of some framing clamps my mother-in-law gifted me with for my birthday. The dry-fit with the clamps is pictured here










I then again used the drill press to bore holes for 1/2" dowels for the two small boards so I would be screwing through the endgrain into them with the decking screws. However, I waited to screw together the entire assmbly because I wanted to mount the board on the side of the well to the beam before having the entire well screwed together so I would have good access with my drill and screwdriver. I did attach the two spacer blocks to the well board on that side before I attached it to the beam. Sorry I didn't stop to take time to photograph those steps, but it is a good thing to think through before completing this step. Here is a picture fitting the well to the beam










I spent a considerable amount of time cutting the tennons for the two stretchers with a Ryoba Handsaw, and then cutting out the mortise holes for the tennon tusks with chisels. I also considered how I would attach the top to the sled and decided I would try bolting it together with 3 1/2" bolts above the two legs so I bored holes to accomodate the bolts and washers on the top and nuts, washers and lock nuts on the bottom. It is my hope that the lock washers will provide enough tension so that if I ever want to unbolt it to move it, the nut will turn without the bolt, at least to break the initial turns. There should be enough bolt exposed on the bottom to hold it still while I turn the nut in that scenario. Here is a picture of the bored piece with one of the bolts laying next to it.










You can also see I was fitting the tennons for the stretchers at this point along the way in the above picture. There was also a little bit of a greater depth to the beam than the two boards comprising the sides of the well so I used my bandsaw to resaw some extra stock to thicken up the supports and was extremely pleased with how well they turned out. They will cover part of the bolts, you may get a better idea of the concept from these pictures.



















One of the most pleasing parts of this project so far was to take John Whites initial idea and then take some risks and throw my own creativity into the process. I was very happy with how the tusked mortise and tennon joints turned out for the stretchers and adding the second stretcher both made the sled extra solid, and will provide an easy way to mount a shelf down there to hold planes, hand tools, and my tool chest.

Here is another shot of fitting the joints with the top of the bench in view. It was a great pleasure after many months of thinking about it and aquring tools and materials to see the bench coming together.










Finally a series of shots of the tusked mortise and tennon joints as well as the joinery of the legs in view. They are not worthy of the pages of Fine Woodworking, but I am pleased with my first effort at their functionality and their appearance isn't that bad if you don't look too closely at the places where I chipped out some stock etc. I guess that is what trim is for eh?




























That about wraps up as far as I was able to push the plow this time around. Hopefully I will be able to put together a little more time in the workshop soon as I am pretty close to getting the top on and will post again after that point. In the meantime, thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.


----------



## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *Lessons and adaptations along the way*
> 
> Got a chance to push the workbench a little farther along last weekend so a quick update on my progress. When I last left off, I had dry fit the mortise and tennon joints for the legs together having primarily hand cut them with chisels. I was awaiting the arrival of my steel city drill press which finally showed up mid June or so and that lay in my garage for another couple of weeks in its box. Had a party with some guitar buidling friends and they got it up out of the box and together realtively quickly, helped that I plied them with good food and homebrew  and of course we were all enjoying the smiles of Forest.
> 
> ...


You were able to accomplish quite a bit of work here! Good to see a post from you on this…

Look forward to the next one!


----------



## thetimberkid (Apr 5, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Lessons and adaptations along the way*
> 
> Got a chance to push the workbench a little farther along last weekend so a quick update on my progress. When I last left off, I had dry fit the mortise and tennon joints for the legs together having primarily hand cut them with chisels. I was awaiting the arrival of my steel city drill press which finally showed up mid June or so and that lay in my garage for another couple of weeks in its box. Had a party with some guitar buidling friends and they got it up out of the box and together realtively quickly, helped that I plied them with good food and homebrew  and of course we were all enjoying the smiles of Forest.
> 
> ...


Looking good!

Thanks for the post

Callum


----------



## jeanmarc (Mar 23, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *Lessons and adaptations along the way*
> 
> Got a chance to push the workbench a little farther along last weekend so a quick update on my progress. When I last left off, I had dry fit the mortise and tennon joints for the legs together having primarily hand cut them with chisels. I was awaiting the arrival of my steel city drill press which finally showed up mid June or so and that lay in my garage for another couple of weeks in its box. Had a party with some guitar buidling friends and they got it up out of the box and together realtively quickly, helped that I plied them with good food and homebrew  and of course we were all enjoying the smiles of Forest.
> 
> ...


*LOOKING GOOD*


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

*End in Sight*









I have actually had the bench in this stage since early September when my father in law was in town to give me a hand in mounting the top, beam and all, to the sled. It went on just right the first time which was rewarding, until I looked closer at the planing beam pipes and realized I was going to have to make some adjustments on the alignment holes in the top. After several go 'rounds, we finally got that into a workable solution. Then I raised the planing beam only to discover it caught on the support for the top of the bench before getting all the way to the top. So after taking the beam back off and ripping a little margin off the back side, I was able to raise it to the top.

My satisfaction was short-lived though as I found my careful measurements to center the planing beam on the vertical pipe clamps were in fact accurate. 








The only catch was that there wasn't very much left to support a board.








So free advice here to anyone wanting to make this bench, cheat the planing beam forward of center when you are measuring and cutting out the holes for the vertical pipe clamps. This wasn't self-evident from the drawing in the article, nor from the dozens of times I have watched the demo video on FWW. 








Another issue I encountered was that the beam was cupped up at the edges. There was quite a drop near the well where the tail vise pipe clamps ride, so I spent a good part of a Saturday with my scrub plane and alternately the jack plane taking the beam down. I got a little over zealous towards the end and actually took the edges down too far, so I have some tuning to do on the end where the pipe clamp screws are. But it is getting close.








I installed a simple sheet of 3/4" plywood over the stretchers for a shelf as to create space for the bench, I had to take apart my former rickety bench which also was my tool storage area. You can see the planes and other tools now loosely organized here on the shelf. Down the road I will make a more creative solution, but for the meantime the goal is to get everything functional. I am planning on adding a rail to both sides of the shelf to prevent any of the planes or other tools from taking flight off the edge. I think one long rail on a series of small blocks on each side will suffice and still allow me to sweep shavings and dust off rather easily.








One thing I added that you can't see easily is that I added a couple narrow rails to the well for the mdf boards to ride on rather than the pipes of the pipe clamps. I read a post by John White that he would have changed his design in this regard so since I had some extra small straight pieces of stock (that used to be attached to the back edge of the planing beam) I installed those and they seem to work pretty good thus far.

It still feels like there is a good bit of work on this project, formerly I would have been able to knock it out on a Saturday, but these days I am spending a good bit of time taking care of my new son and that is fine with me. I hope we will have plenty of adventures using the bench down the road and he needs to get a little taller before he is ready for that… and acquire some basic motor skills etc. but it sure is going fast already. Anyway a few things I have yet to do. Finish fine tuning the top so it is flat across. Cut and mount the wood jaws for the tail vise pipe clamps, joint the front of the planing beam and glue another piece of flat stock to it to add width on the front, construct and install the wedge which I think I am going to make removable as a safety feature - thinking I will use some threaded cam style clamps and t-track for that, still have to better fit the pipe clamps that function as front vises for all those holes and drill holes for the speed pins, put the finger holes in the mdf boards over the well, install the rails on the shelf and apply a finish to the wood. By the time I get all that done, I am sure I will think of some other additions. 
I have already made initial use of the bench for cutting some stock, but am looking forward to actually doing some fine work on it. It is really solid and I am going to enjoy planing on it as a great improvement from my old rickety bench.


----------



## David (Jan 26, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *End in Sight*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Michael -

Excellent job on your New-Fangled Workbench!

I built a similar, but somewhat *modified version of this bench*. I used a lot of T-Track and made my planing wedges removable.










David
*The Folding Rule*


----------



## MichaelW (Feb 20, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> *End in Sight*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks David,
Prior to building my bench, I actually came across your site and reviewed the video you had posted at the time. I was impressed and would classify yours a lexus and mine more in the toyota realm. I think you have made some excellent improvements and have a first class bench. Over time I hope I am able to tinker with the features of the bench and add some features, you know… electric windows, AC, seat warmers mp3 etc. but for now just have to keep the windows down in the summer and hope the AM reception is good. Thanks again for looking and the compliment!


----------



## David (Jan 26, 2007)

MichaelW said:


> *End in Sight*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Michael -

Now you have me thinking . . . I like the idea of AC and seat warmers!

Congrats on a great bench!

David


----------

