# Workbench Build



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*First sniff of glue*

I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…

Settled on a Roubo variant, and ordered Benchcrafted hardware. A year and a half ago.

Complete re-design once again. Did a couple tweaks to that and ordered the lumber. Should be well-acclimated to my shop by now.

Threw out the design and started over. Again. Getting pretty good at SketchUp.

And tweaked the design a couple more times. Fairly small tweaks, as far as these things go.

In typical Roubo fashion, the bench will be massive. The more mass the better. To that end, I picked the densest wood I could easily and affordably obtain for the base - Jatoba. Legs will be 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" x 29 1/2" and weigh 30 lbs each. Add in stretchers and bottom shelf and the base will weigh over 200 lbs.

The top will be a laminated slab of cherry. 4" thick by 26" deep and 7' long. That will weigh about 200 lbs on its own. Why cherry? I got a truckload at a good price, plus it looks good.

Add in the hardware, a chop and a deadman and the bench will be over 450 lbs, maybe close to 500. I've got a cabinet planned for the interior space of the bench, should add another 100 lbs by the time it is loaded up with tools. Massive is good.

I had to commit to building the bench at some point, and today was as good a time as any. Still in a cast (left wrist) and still don't have the dust collection hooked up in the new shop. So the top will have to wait a week or two. In the meantime, I can start on the legs.

Here's the lumber for the 4 legs:









Each board is destined to become one leg, so start by cutting them into 33" lengths using my fancy miter saw station:









Getting there…









Two of the boards were just under 6" wide, but the other two were 8". After cutting to length, I ripped them to width. Normally I keep a Freud combo blade on the saw, but this wood calls for something better suited to the task:









I've had it for over a year, still in its plastic wrap. I do like that Freud combo blade 

And quickly, there are 4 stacks of leg pieces and 1 stack of cut-offs. I'll be keeping the cut-offs for something or other…










I still had some time, so I decided to glue up one leg. After jointing and planing, the first stack comes in at 5 3/4".









Glue-up got a little exciting near the end when I emptied the glue jug. Had just enough to do the job. Was worried about the glue setting up before I had time to wait for it to drip from the jug.









Pretty even squeeze-out = good glue-up!









Coming out of clamps in the morning. Hoping to get 2 more done tomorrow.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Sweet. I could have used a little more planning on mine. I just jumped right in.

I'll be watching this one for shizzle.


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## widdle (Mar 10, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


good lookin sticks right there..


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## theoldfart (Sep 9, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


And I thought mine was going to be heavy. Sounds like it's going to be a real looker.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Nothing I enjoy more than a bench build. This one looks pretty juicy with all the right parts.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


That's going to be a massive beast, Mark. Don't mess up the other wrist trying to muscle it around.


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## AnthonyReed (Sep 20, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Yes!!!!


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Ah, well. Another massive amount of good wood being used to build…a bench. Sorry, I just can't justify using beautiful wood to build workshop pieces. I went to the Home Cheapo and bought a bunch of 2×4s for my bench. 49.5 cents per board foot. If you got a better deal on the cherry, well then I take most of it back. And where did you get such a deal on the cherry?!

I'm sure it'll look beautiful, though.


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## tyvekboy (Feb 24, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


I know the agony you went thru designing your workbench. I spent about a month designing the one I posted. After you finish it, youʻre probably going to need to build a tool cabinet to compliment it.


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Very cool. Another beautiful bench to look forward to seeing. If it's anything like the planes you made that you posted in this thread, (And why aren't those separate projects on your profile? They're beautiful and you should show them off!) I'm sure it'll be a looker.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Brian, thank you for reminding me. I had that on the to-do list and somehow it kept getting pushed down in priority until I forgot. 

Jay - I'm not planning on moving it once it is in place. My kids will have to figure out what to do with it in 40 years when they put me in a home.

LJackson - you can't justify it; I can. It is a good point for discussion, though, and I'm going to pose it in the Workbench Smackdown thread (http://lumberjocks.com/topics/31539)


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## john2005 (Jun 8, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *First sniff of glue*
> 
> I've been planning a workbench build for two years, maybe a bit longer. Started by reading everything I could, followed by some quality SketchUp time. Had a design, changed it. Tweaked it again. Threw the design out and started over. More tweaking followed. And so on…
> 
> ...


Gonna look sweet. I'm along for the ride.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*More design tweaking, and some cherry sawdust*

After getting my legs glued up, I decided to look at my plan to see how it would fit the likely final leg dimensions. And realized that the 6×6 legs in the SketchUp model would likely end up at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I spent a couple hours making tweaks. Adjusting the leg dimensions was easy. I also simplified a bunch of the joinery. Used LayOut to make dimensioned drawings for leg joinery.

After all, I have 4 legs glued up and waiting for action.

Was about to start cutting wood for stretchers and I realized that before I could do the leg/stretcher joinery I would need to know the exact dimensions of the top.

When building furniture, I build to a plan. The table is a certain size, the mortises are in certain locations, the legs are so long. Everything is decided beforehand, and you can safely make any individual piece independent of the others and it will fit. Pretty much, anyway. Some joinery does need to fitted by hand, but those fittings generally mean using a chisel or plane to take a 1/100th off here or there.

With a Roubo workbench, the joinery must be made to fit the top. One face of each leg needs to be coplanar with a edge of the top, and just about everything else is fitted from that. And while I have a specific dimension in mind for the width of the top, the reality when gluing up large slabs is that you may not exactly hit that dimension. It isn't that critical if the top is 25 3/4" or 26 1/4" wide, or if the length is +/- 3". You can force the issue, but that might mean wasting a whole board just to get that extra 1/2" in width.

So I started on the top this afternoon. First task - retrieve the boards from up there:









using only one hand.









First board down:









The top will be about 8' long, 26" wide and 4" thick. Did I say 7' long in the first blog entry? I did! That's another one of those things I tweaked last night.

I'm hoping for 1 3/4" from each piece, so I need 15 lengths. That's 8 boards at 9" widths. Pulled them down, cut them to length and ripped them to about 4 1/2".

Slight oopsie. 2 of the boards I pulled down were jatoba instead of cherry. I thought they were kinda heavy. I'll have to put them back up and pull down 2 cherry boards. Munyana.

Here's the 11 pieces I ended up with:









Skinny bench, anyone?









If that was stable enough, I could see getting work done. There wouldn't be any clutter building up on top, at least.

Let's try four legs:

__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content










Time to call it a day.


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## theoldfart (Sep 9, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *More design tweaking, and some cherry sawdust*
> 
> After getting my legs glued up, I decided to look at my plan to see how it would fit the likely final leg dimensions. And realized that the 6×6 legs in the SketchUp model would likely end up at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I spent a couple hours making tweaks. Adjusting the leg dimensions was easy. I also simplified a bunch of the joinery. Used LayOut to make dimensioned drawings for leg joinery.
> 
> ...


Mark, what about keeping the Jatoba as a couple of contrasting boards for the top? Kind of like your racing stripes on those planes. I used two pieces of cherry to get to my desired top width.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *More design tweaking, and some cherry sawdust*
> 
> After getting my legs glued up, I decided to look at my plan to see how it would fit the likely final leg dimensions. And realized that the 6×6 legs in the SketchUp model would likely end up at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I spent a couple hours making tweaks. Adjusting the leg dimensions was easy. I also simplified a bunch of the joinery. Used LayOut to make dimensioned drawings for leg joinery.
> 
> ...


Mark, your storytelling is almost as good as your woodworking. When I read it, my first thought was the same as Kevin's-use the jatoba as contrast. Maybe the dog strip?


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *More design tweaking, and some cherry sawdust*
> 
> After getting my legs glued up, I decided to look at my plan to see how it would fit the likely final leg dimensions. And realized that the 6×6 legs in the SketchUp model would likely end up at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I spent a couple hours making tweaks. Adjusting the leg dimensions was easy. I also simplified a bunch of the joinery. Used LayOut to make dimensioned drawings for leg joinery.
> 
> ...


You crack me up. +1 on the base is made to fit the top. I literally scribed the stretchers with the legs installed.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *More design tweaking, and some cherry sawdust*
> 
> After getting my legs glued up, I decided to look at my plan to see how it would fit the likely final leg dimensions. And realized that the 6×6 legs in the SketchUp model would likely end up at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I spent a couple hours making tweaks. Adjusting the leg dimensions was easy. I also simplified a bunch of the joinery. Used LayOut to make dimensioned drawings for leg joinery.
> 
> ...


Considering using the jatoba. Much easier than putting it back up top


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## mochoa (Oct 9, 2009)

Iguana said:


> *More design tweaking, and some cherry sawdust*
> 
> After getting my legs glued up, I decided to look at my plan to see how it would fit the likely final leg dimensions. And realized that the 6×6 legs in the SketchUp model would likely end up at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I spent a couple hours making tweaks. Adjusting the leg dimensions was easy. I also simplified a bunch of the joinery. Used LayOut to make dimensioned drawings for leg joinery.
> 
> ...


Thats going to be a great bench man.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Half a top*

Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.

Process was to mill 3 boards and glue them up. Mill the next set while the glue was setting.

All clamps on deck!









Line up the boards properly - check to make sure all the grain is running in the same direction:









And get to work









The bottle says the clamp time for the glue is 30 minutes. I swear it took me 25 to just get the clamps on tight.

While that was setting up, I got busy milling another 4 boards for the next section. One had a long radial crack near an end.









I planed that board down quite a bit, to just under 1 1/2" trying to get rid of the crack. No luck, but it was decidedly smaller with a good amount of area for glue on both sides of the crack. If it ever expands and becomes an issue, I'll figure out a way to deal with it.










My forearm is sore now. Pipe clamps take much less work than parallel jaw clamps.

Most of the boards have been netting 1 7/8" width. These 7 boards measure out to 13" total, half of my target width. We'll see how the rest do, but looks like I'll get away with a 14-board top instead of 15.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Half a top*
> 
> Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.
> 
> ...


Nice. I don't think the cracked board will be a problem sandwiched in a lamination.

Jointer taper- I've got a grizzly jointer too. And I noticed the other day that the setup needs adjusting. All three knives are good on the fence side. but drop toward the front edge. Not sure if I can raise the cutterhead on just one side, or if I have to adjust all 3 knives. How'd you do it? Ehh, just got it last year. Need to learn more about it.


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## theoldfart (Sep 9, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Half a top*
> 
> Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.
> 
> ...


Mark, that crack won't hurt a thing. I left a sizable knot hole in one of the narrow pieces of cherry, avoiding any possible dog holes and the like.


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## paxorion (Oct 19, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Half a top*
> 
> Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.
> 
> ...


Were those Irwin parallel clamps? I read a review saying they used fine thread screws for the handle, requiring more turns than usual.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Half a top*
> 
> Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.
> 
> ...


Red - my taper was lengthwise. Seems like my out feed table had been jarred during the shop move. That's relatively straightforward to fix (adjust the height), but it is a bit of trial an error as the table moves ever so slightly when the locking screw is tightened.

For side-to-side taper, first check to see if the tables are coplanar. If they are, then you've got two options. Easiest is to adjust the knives to the table. If they can't be adjusted, the you need to shim either the cutter head bearing or bearing block on the low side. It isn't terribly difficult to do, but it helps if you have a dial indicator to determine how much to shim. Otherwise its trial and error. I had to do this when I installed the spiral head in my jointer. Took about 20 mins using the indicator.

If the tables aren't coplanar, depends on the jointer, but usually you need to shim one side of the dovetail ways on the out feed. That one is a bit of a PITA. :-(


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Half a top*
> 
> Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.
> 
> ...


Pax (or should I address you as "Optimus"?) - yes, those are Irwins. Four of them, anyways. The rest are an import brand identical to the Irwins in every way apart from the color and handle shape. Like, I'm pretty sure they were made on the same factory line using the same moulds and tooling. Just half the price.

Anyways, they do seem to take a lot of work to tighten. I'll have to look at a Bessy to see how the thread pitch compares - these are 10 or 11 tpi.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Half a top*
> 
> Milled and glued up two quarters of the top today. Started edge jointing the first board and realized I had a jointer taper issue. Spent an hour getting that right, or at least pretty close. My longest straight-edge is my 6' builders level, so it is sorted out to whatever degree of accuracy the level allows. Didn't seem to be an issue afterwards, at least.
> 
> ...


Sorry to jack your blog with jointer talk Mark, but I appreciate the help. The tables look good. Think I'll just adjust the knives…maybe sharpen them while I'm at it. Thanks man.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Almost the whole top*

Managed to get all four sections of the top glued up. A bit laborious, but pretty straightforward. Decided to take a suggestion and use some jatoba for contrast.









The plan was to glue up 4 sections of boards. Then I'd flatten each section before gluing the sections together. The rationale was that it would be easier to flatten each section using the powered jointer and planer than it would be the entire top using hand planes.

There were two problems with this approach, both of which I found after the fact. The first problem is that the glued-up sections are heavy and unwieldy. Particularly so for a guy recovering from a fracture in the wrist.










I'm out of the cast now, but the wrist will take some time to fully recover. I discussed physical therapy options with the doc, but when he found out that I build furniture and play guitar, he figured I would get all the therapy I needed.

The second problem is that there is a small but inevitable amount of sag in a board suspended between two points. Even if the board is 2" thick, it will sag under its own weight even before adding the weight of the clamps.

So after glueing the sections, I had four pieces that were all less than flat and had a bow. I was able to run them through the planer to get them mostly flat, but my efforts with the jointer - even using a roller stand to support the infeed - were insufficient to remove the bow. The pieces had about 1/16" gap at the ends. I was committed to a particular board orientation, too, no way I could just flip a section around to have the bows coincide.

On a hunch, I checked with the Sagulator. I calculated that for a 2" thick cherry shelf 4.25 inches wide and supporting 50 lbs of clamps with supports 6' apart will result in a sag of 0.06". Oddly, this is almost exactly the amount of bow I had to contend with.

So I took the jointer to the boards. My interpretation of heft and hubris is a 24" long beech & ipe locomotive:









I continued to use the sawhorses I started with. They were fine for glueing up a small number of boards, but really unsuited for being worked on.

Started being a big shaky gluing together two sections:









And very close to dangerous while working on fitting the third section:









Not to mention a really high and uncomfortable planing height. But the shavings were rather long and pretty:









When I nearly tipped the whole thing over, I decided to make a better way to support the slab. Using scrap 1×4s and 2×4s, I built a pair of these:









Adjustable by changing the location of the horizontal piece between the two uprights. Easy peasy. Other than hauling the slab off the sawhorses and onto their new supports.

Finally got the third section fitted and glued:









Adjusted the support height and fitted and glued up the fourth:









Next step is the dog strip


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## danwolfgang (Mar 10, 2016)

Iguana said:


> *Almost the whole top*
> 
> Managed to get all four sections of the top glued up. A bit laborious, but pretty straightforward. Decided to take a suggestion and use some jatoba for contrast.
> 
> ...


That stand is a really neat (and great!) idea to help make managing the top easier. I may have to build a set of those for my own workbench build!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*

I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.

Jameel Abraham (Mr. Benchcrafted) feels pretty strongly that square dogs are the only way. Chris Schwarz used to be agnostic, but now has a strong preference for round dogs.

Lon Schleining suggests using both. Scott Landis doesn't really state a preference in his book, but most of the benches he shows have square holes.

Interestingly, Roubou's plate 11 bench doesn't have a vise, and therefore no dog holes. It does, however, have round holes for holdfasts. And a square planing stop.









So, naturally, I went with square holes.

A week ago, I milled the dog board. Got a piece of jatoba nice and straight, and cut off a chunk for where the wagon block will slide. That chunk will become the wagon block.

Today I built the jig to make the dog holes. Pretty basic stuff:









I built it square, then cut a spacer with a 2° taper to slant the dogs. The spacer was from a 6-squared 2×10:









Fastened the spacer on the template at my mark:









Next step was to cut a 3/8" slice off the edge of the dog boards. First, drill some holes for alignment when gluing back together:









I'd already laid out where the dog holes are going, so I made sure the alignment holes wouldn't get in the way. (The pencil lines are pretty faint in the pic.) And they are placed toward the bottom of the board. If the top ever gets flattened down far enough to expose the dowels, it is time for a new bench.

Then off to the bandsaw, small chunk first.









Good excuse to tune the bandsaw. The result is nice:









Then comes the long board:









And about 2 feet in, I notice the fence has slipped due to me putting a lot of lateral pressure on the board to keep it squared to the fence. Hasn't slipped much, but enough that I consider re-purposing the board for firewood.

I look in my lumber stash and find some 9/4 jatoba. Would be perfect, except it has over a 1/2" bow. Well, maybe I can salvage this board, just need to make it a bit thinner.

Tighten up the fence lock, set some featherboards to apply lateral pressure. And make the cut. Works out OK, except the one straight board is now two pieces of bacon. Serious reaction wood, I'm kind of glad I didn't use my tablesaw to do the cut. And they are bacon-y enough they may not even clamp flat. (I tried.)

And considering the firewood option again, I decide to see if I can make it work before abandoning the piece. That's the great thing about woodworking - if you screw up, you can always start a fire.

I try using the router to do the first dog hole:









Works OK, but is pretty hard on the router. I waste away most of the holes using my table saw and the tapered spacer.









Routing the rest of each hole is much easier.

I got about halfway through the board and called it a day. The interesting part will be trying to glue the thing back together.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


I can't believe you went with square holes. Your so gonna regret it….lol. I can see tiny advantages to each, but either will hold your work.

Looking good man.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


I may yet change my mind


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


Now you know why round holes. Glue up the top flat and square and then make the dog holes later. No bacon required.

Mmmmmm, bacon! I shouldn't have posted around breakfast time.

We could start a great round vs. square debate. See if we can get to the vitriol of the SawStop threads.


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## john2005 (Jun 8, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


Lookin good Mark.

And I'll enter any debate where I get bacon. Just sayin.


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## BubbaIBA (Nov 23, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


I've done both. My current bench has square, the next will have round. The next bench will only have dog holes that are associated with the tail vise running about half way up the bench, the ones near the front vise are never used….holdfast holes are another story and also the reason for round. Square are a PITA to install, not as functional, nor as versatile, for me it's a no-brainer. YMMV


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


In truth, the reason I went for square dogs boils down to aesthetics. I simply like the look better.


----------



## Kaytrim (Aug 11, 2008)

Iguana said:


> *Square or round? Round or Square? Doggone it, somebody throw me a bone!!!*
> 
> I knew I'd come to this point - and I don't mean throwing out pithy blog entry titles. I'd have to decide what kind of dog holes I want.
> 
> ...


You have your reason for the square holes. One way to avoid the bacon problem is to use two boards of the same type of wood. Then cut the holes on the face of one. I can see the aesthetics of having the holes in the center of the jotoba though. Seeing that the bench is finished as I type this it is all mot. Good looking bench, get some good use of it for a long time.


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Mmmm, bacon*

I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:









Pretty straightforward, taking 1/16" or less off each side. A bit more work on the head recess, but way easier than hogging out the whole hole with the router.

The darker area on the top of the jig is wax.

And here's what I mean by bacon:









Those two boards should be flat and fit together without gaps! Instead I have 3/4" warpage over 4".

I was hoping that I'd be able to clamp them flat during glue-up. So I did a dry clamp using the existing portion of the top as a massive caul on one side:









A couple of clamps short, good excuse to get some more 

Surprisingly, it was reasonably good. Not perfect, so I decided to mill the last (front) board and use that as a caul on the top side:









This also gives me my final top width - approximately 25 1/2". Didn't quite get the same yield on the jatoba boards as I did on the cherry, plus lost some more with resawing and trying to reflatten the two pieces of the dog board. Close enough to my target of 26".

Put some glue on the puppy and let it sit in clamps for 48 hours. There are a couple of small gaps at the glue line, maybe on the order of 1/64". None are large enough for the camera to pick up. I'll probably try to get some epoxy in those gaps, mostly for aesthetic reasons.

After I released the clamps, the board stayed straight, so I'd consider this part of the process a success.

While I was at it, I also glued up the traveller block. I had enough from the cut off that I routed two holes, just in case I mess one up later.









Because the dog in the traveller needs to be sloped opposite to the dogs in the rest of the board, the easy way to do it is cut/route the dogs the same, and then simply turn the traveller around. That, however, means that the thin side of the two-part board will now be on the opposite side and there is the potential that the dog hole in the traveller will not quite line up with the rest of the dog holes. Not to mention that the glue line will switch sides and the grain direction will be reversed.

So OCD kicked in. I rebuilt the jig as a mirror image top/bottom and cut/routed the traveller so the dog hole will be sloped in the correct direction while the board maintains the "correct" orientation. Probably no one will ever notice that but me.


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


A lot of great looking work, Mark! Dog hole board looks fine, and the wagon vice parts, too. Watching your wagon vice build with much OCD enthusiasm. 

Hey, how do you like those pipe clamps with the tall red feet? ShopFox? Bessey? Seen them online, but wondered if they were better than the Jorgenson's from the Borg? No shop has enough clamps…


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


Yep, they are the Besseys. I've also used Jorgensons, prefer the Besseys. They both work well, no real functional differences. I just like the extra bit of clearance for my knuckles when tightening the screw.

And I agree, no shop has enough clamps. Over the last year I've been accumulating the parallel jaw clamps, but I prefer the pipe clamps for most glueups.


----------



## Buckethead (Apr 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


Just read your blog on this again. Your bench is looking highly professional. Your shop has me just a little jealous ;-). I you notice mentioned of using epoxy to fill small gaps. There are a couple on my bench that would benefit from such a treatment. Can you elaborate on that process at all?


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


Well, I haven't done any more work on the thing in the last 2 weeks - my wife thinks the house build is a higher priority  - so I haven't filled in any gaps yet. But the process is simple.

First, decide how you're going to color the epoxy. Uncolored epoxy looks a bit odd in the context of a wood project. Depends on what wood the gap is in. For dark wood, use a dark color. Light wood, light color. On dark woods, black or dark brown analine dye powder works well, as does fine coffee grounds. You can blend natural pigments together, too. And sanding dust from the wood in question will get you a near-perfect color match, quite useful with lighter woods where a pigment/dye match is difficult to do. Or you could bling it up with some copper or brass filings and crushed turquoise  Anyways, figure out your coloring agent and have some of it on hand.

Then, put some making tape around the area to be filled. Get the edges of the tape pieces as close to the edges of the gap as you can, 1 mm or less. This helps to keep the epoxy from levelling out where you don't need it.

Third, mix up some epoxy. Hardware store variety 5-minute epoxy works just fine. Mix it well, and when you think you're done, mix it some more.

Fourth, mix in the coloring agent. You do this after you've mixed the epoxy well. Not too much, just enough to get the color. Too much and you'll interfere with the epoxy's ability to harden.

Fifth, get the epoxy into the gap. Not too much, just enough to fill the gap and a little bit more. It should overflow slightly, that's what the masking tape is for.

Sixth, wait until the epoxy sets up but before it hardens fully. You should be able to touch it without leaving a fingerprint, but if you press on it hard it should deform slightly. That's about 15 minutes using the 5-minute stuff. Then remove the masking tape.

Let the epoxy fully cure overnight or longer (read the information that came with the epoxy to determine full cure time). Then you can remove the excess epoxy with a sharp chisel or plane.

Easy-peasy. Probably took me longer to type that out than it would take to actually fill a gap.


----------



## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


Mark, thank you for the epoxy lesson!


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## Buckethead (Apr 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


Yeah mark… ^^^ thanks!

Have used epoxy in framing for tie downs, and on a transmission one time, but never with a color match. I have been saving dust from sanding. Very fine. I think it will serve as the caulk which makes me what I ain't.


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Mmmm, bacon*
> 
> I finished routing out dog holes. Here's what the jig looked like clamped over one of the roughed-out holes:
> 
> ...


Guys, here's another option for filling gaps and cracks…Elmer's Fiberglass Resin. Get it at the Borg with extra hardener. Can be mixed with oil paints, acrylic, sawdust, pretty much anything to get the color you want.

I used a ton on my bench…black paint for the cracks, reddish umber for the reddish pine around the knots. Cures slower than epoxy, and stinks, but it's a little cheaper by the gallon than epoxy!


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*The Left Tongue*

I'm going to have end caps on my bench, which will work something like a scaled-up breadboard end. The purpose isn't to help hold the top flat, though. On the right end - where the wagon vise is located - the end cap holds the vise screw in place. On the left end, the end cap is mostly to balance out the look of the right end.

It is a big slab. Approximately 25" wide and nearly 4" thick. Even if I had a euro-style slider saw with a 12" blade, I'm not sure the sliding table would take the 200-lb weight of the slab. Although that would be a very easy way to make the necessary cross cuts.

Neither do I have the patience to use a (hand-powered) panel saw to work something this large. Don't know if I could be as precise as I want, either.

So I resorted to using my trusty circular saw. Even went out and bought a new blade.

The biggest problem when using a saw when you have to cut from both side to make a through cut is to get the cuts to line up. The solution is to build a collar that you clamp around the piece. The collar just needs to have guide faces that are coplanar and perpendicular to the piece. It is pretty straightforward to make.

Take a couple of scraps - plywood or hardwood - maybe 4" wide and a bit longer than the piece is wide. They need 1 face and 1 edge flat and squared to each other. Also cut a couple of blocks to be just longer than the piece is thick - maybe by 1/64" to 1/32".

Using a flat assembly table, build something that looks like this:









The blocks are spaced so the collar can slip around the slab. Easy!

Second step is to make sure the saw blade is 90° to the base









Third step is to measure the offset from the blade to the edge of the saw's base. In my case, 5 1/16".









Next, lay out the cut lines:









Line 1 is the outer end of the tongue, while line 2 is the inside shoulder. Lines 3 and 4 are then offset by the saw's cut offset.

Slide the collar over the end of the slab and clamp it on Line #3 to start:









Set the saw blade to cut through 1/2 the slab and then make the first cut with the saw against the guide. Then, keeping the collar clamped in place, flip over the slab and make the second cut:









In this case, I didn't have the saw blade extended quite enough. However, the remaining bit was easy enough to break by using a mallet.










You'll notice that the cuts don't quite line up. Assuming your technique resulted in even cuts on both sides, this means that the edges of the collar aren't perpendicular and coplanar to the slab face. Using a square to check, I shimmed one edge of the collar using a couple strips of masking tape. All is good:









Flip the slab back over and reset the collar to line #4. And reset the saw blade depth to be the shoulder depth you want. In my case, 1 1/4". Make the cut:









Here's the easiest way to cut the rest of the tongue's shoulder - use your saw to freehand closely spaced kerfs:









The kerfs should be spaced closely enough so the you can easily break off the remaining strips of wood with finger pressure. Then use some sharp friends to clean up the shoulder. I used a slick, a chisel and a router plane but there are other ways to skin that cat…

Make sure the collar stays clamped in place during the kerfing and cleanup, because you need to flip the slab over and repeat the process.

Voila - you now have a tongue on the end of the slab.


----------



## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *The Left Tongue*
> 
> I'm going to have end caps on my bench, which will work something like a scaled-up breadboard end. The purpose isn't to help hold the top flat, though. On the right end - where the wagon vise is located - the end cap holds the vise screw in place. On the left end, the end cap is mostly to balance out the look of the right end.
> 
> ...


Nice! Well done Mark!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*The Right Tongue*

The layout for the vise end tongue is a bit more involved because you need to factor in your vise screw, traveller and dog block. Unless you can fabricate them yourself after you make the cuts to your benchtop, you pretty much need to have all those pieces in hand at this point.

I assembled my vise screw, flange and traveller. And the dog block.









That's actually two dog blocks in one piece. I'll cut that apart when I eventually assemble the vise. Keeping it as a larger piece for now gives me a bit of room to make adjustments for fit later.

Setting the vise for maximum extension, lay it out on the bench where the traveller would touch the dog strip.









I marked out a couple points where the traveller would sit, but that's probably not necessary. What is necessary is to mark out a point about 1/4" beyond where the maximum travel would be. That mark will be used later when adding the hardware to hold the traveller in place. (You can always make that mark later, too.)

And mark the other end. The flange gets bolted to the outside of the end cap, so mark where the inside of the flange will sit.









You did plan out where your dog strip should end, right? Going back to the benchtop slab construction, you have to plan for the length of your vise screw. You can always build the slab too long and cut it down, but why waste a bunch of lumber?










The next bit of the layout is critical. I marked off another 1/4" from the inside of the flange just to ensure I had a bit of breathing room. This mark represents the outer edge of my end cap. Then I marked off the final width of my end cap - 2 15/16" in this case. That mark represents where the end cap meets the inside edge of the tongue's shoulder.

And then I add another mark - the length of the tongue.









To recap - Line 1 is the inside edge of the flange from the direct layout. Line 2 gives me 1/4" margin for error. Line 3 is the end cap width and line 4 is the tongue depth.

Next, mark off the saw cut offset from lines 3 and 4:









Square them across with a big square:









I learned something about my benchtop at this point. As the square isn't quite long enough to reach across the top, I tried to use the square from both sides. It didn't line up. And I know my square is square. This means that over the course of glueing up the top - likely when I used my hand planes to joint some of the boards - one or more of the boards got somewhat wedge shaped. It isn't off by much - not enough so you'd notice when looking at it - but enough to make a difference when laying out lines. So I decided to use the front face as my reference and leave it at that. All the pieces will get individually fitted, so being off by something less than 1/16" over 7' doesn't pose an issue.

Then clamp the collar on and cut half the end:









Flip and repeat:









Note the burning! I'm not so impressed with this brand new blade. The only thing it has ever done is make the cross cuts for ends of this benchtop, and it is seriously struggling. I won't buy this brand again.

Reset the collar:









Cut, kerf and clean. Followed by a flip. Cut, kerf and clean again. There is now a second tongue on the benchtop:


----------



## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *The Right Tongue*
> 
> The layout for the vise end tongue is a bit more involved because you need to factor in your vise screw, traveller and dog block. Unless you can fabricate them yourself after you make the cuts to your benchtop, you pretty much need to have all those pieces in hand at this point.
> 
> ...


The problem with most circular saw blades is they are made to cut 2×4s.

Good call on the 1/16" over 7'. I am pretty confident it'll be perfect.


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *The Right Tongue*
> 
> The layout for the vise end tongue is a bit more involved because you need to factor in your vise screw, traveller and dog block. Unless you can fabricate them yourself after you make the cuts to your benchtop, you pretty much need to have all those pieces in hand at this point.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing, Mark! 
You do excellent work, and I learned a ton from this post alone.


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## Flocktothewall (Jan 16, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *The Right Tongue*
> 
> The layout for the vise end tongue is a bit more involved because you need to factor in your vise screw, traveller and dog block. Unless you can fabricate them yourself after you make the cuts to your benchtop, you pretty much need to have all those pieces in hand at this point.
> 
> ...


Im interested in that tail vice… Is it a purchased one or did you make that?


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *The Right Tongue*
> 
> The layout for the vise end tongue is a bit more involved because you need to factor in your vise screw, traveller and dog block. Unless you can fabricate them yourself after you make the cuts to your benchtop, you pretty much need to have all those pieces in hand at this point.
> 
> ...


Luke, I purchased it - Benchcrafted.


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## Flocktothewall (Jan 16, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *The Right Tongue*
> 
> The layout for the vise end tongue is a bit more involved because you need to factor in your vise screw, traveller and dog block. Unless you can fabricate them yourself after you make the cuts to your benchtop, you pretty much need to have all those pieces in hand at this point.
> 
> ...


I didn't recognize it without the tracks on the sides. Thanks!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Vise End Cap*

Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.

Decided to tackle the end cap on the vise side. Condor tails for joinery, naturally 

Popular Woodworking recently sent out an email with article from Jameel Abraham (Mr. Benchcrafted) on the process, pretty easy to follow. Link: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/make-condor-tails

First, though, I laid out the tails full size and played around with sizes to get something that looked right. I ended up with this:









And the result was:









They are a bit loose as a result of me trying to see pencil lines on the dark end grain of the jatoba. Fixable, but I'll be using the masking tape trick to do the other end.

Before fitting the end cap, I decided to clean up the shoulders of the end tenon. I had noticed some flex in the circular saw I used to cut the shoulders which meant that they weren't consistently 90° to the surface. Get out the router and short pattern bit (well, it was already out from cutting the condor tail sockets) and square the shoulder and very lightly clean up the cheek of the tenon.










Also cut off the ends of the tenon with a hand saw. Didn't need to be terribly precise:









As I used the long pattern bit to clean that up:









Led to:









I thought I had the bit extended to just past halfway, but after I turned it over and did the same thing from the other surface it turns out I was about 1/32" short. The rest was easy to clean off with a chisel.

Next step was to mortise the cavity into the end cap. Router motising jig to get most of it and then chisels to square off the ends:









I made the cavity slightly (< 1/32") under width, so when I flipped over the slab to clean the tenon shoulder and cheek with the router, I was able to trim the cheek to get a perfect fit.

How does it fit?









A couple problems became apparent.

First, the tenon is not a consistent length. I set my mortise depth from one end of the tenon, looks like the other end is 1/16" long. I tried to use a block plane to trim the tenon down, but taking off 1/16" of end grain with a hand plane seems like a waste of time when I can use a router.

The other issue is that the shoulders do not line up. Either the collar jig I used was wonky (there's a technical term for you) or the circ saw flexed a lot more than I thought. Or both. Probably both. Anyways, I'll have to fix that, too, before I move on.

But I had to see what it looked like before I quit for the day:


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## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Looks real good, its all about trying and learning. You doing both really well..


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Fun stuff. Looks good!


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Looks good to me, Mark! I'm sure you get the tiny gaps worked out. 

I'm anxious to see more since this is the next step for my bench! Take your time, and lots of photos! And Thanks for sharing…


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Glad to be your guinea pig, Terry ☺


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Mark, no guinea pig…exceptional inspiration!

Bollocks, started just to draw out breadboard ends yesterday for future reference…forgot my English bench has 13×2.25" aprons front and rear. Oooops! Maybe just add an and vise and use it as a wagon?

BTW, the bottom of your bench top is better looking than my whole build! 

Hey, sometimes the truth hurts.


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Terry, an end vise works wells, as a lot of these bench builds attest to. Put a dog hole in the moving jaw, you've got something that works like a wagon.

Why would those aprons interfere with adding a wagon vise? While I'm building my end cap breadboard-style, there's no real need for that. An end cap can be bolted on (and mine will be), maybe using a spline to ensure vertical alignment. You could make yours the same size as the aprons, would give your bench an impressively beefy look.


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Vise End Cap*
> 
> Finally got some time to get back on the bench. After all, its only been 5 months since I last worked on it.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the lessons, Mark!

I just assumed the apron would get in the way of a breadboard, or complicate the install? But, I think I see your point…just include the aprons in the plan. Thanks!

Oh my, cannot imagine what 13" breadboards would look like!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*More on the vise end cap*

Trimming the tenon cheeks and shoulders was fairly straightforward. The hardest part was flipping the 200 lb slab every 5 minutes…

There were two issues. First, the tenon shoulders weren't coplanar. In fact, they formed a kind of X. I doubt my collar jig was that bad, so I'm inclined to think there was a lot of flex in the circ saw, and probably exacerbated by the blade burning issue.

The second issue is that the tenon depth was uneven. That's a layout problem.

It was probably too much to ask to get a perfectly cut tenon from a circular saw, anyways, so I'd recommend planning on trimming/squaring it up from the start.

Here's the non-coplanar issue:









I have a track that clamps across a board and has a slide I can attach to my router. So I figured out the relevant offsets and carefully laid out a square line across the slab at the desired location. Because I need to do this operation on both sides, I extended the layout lines down the sides of the slab, too. Then I clamped the track on the line:









Set the plunge depth to a hair less than the shoulder depth. The tenon is already trimmed to width so I don't want to touch that. I'll use a chisel to trim off the little sliver I miss with the router.

The first trim:









A little bit of tearout in the middle where I attempted a climb cut. D'oh! And that's the top :-(

I was very careful when I extended my layout lines across down the sides. I need to flip the slab and reset the track on the other side. I then had this idea that I could clamp squares in place to register the track against after the flip:









Surprisingly, that worked perfectly. I removed the track, carefully flipped the slab and gently reset the track. Looked like it lined up, so I went for it. Dead on. No pics, you'll see the fit later.

The next step was to trim the tenons to depth. I have an adjustable edge guide jig I use with my router, and I started with that. I removed the adjustable part and attached a fixed-depth fence. Nothing special about that, just a piece of scrap plywood cut to the right width. It was set to just touch the router bit.









And here's how it looks poised for action:









Set the plunge depth to half way, and take a pass:









Flip the slab, do the other side. The end cap fits perfectly, no need to undercut anything.









I got a start on fitting the vise hardware. That'll be the next blog post.


----------



## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *More on the vise end cap*
> 
> Trimming the tenon cheeks and shoulders was fairly straightforward. The hardest part was flipping the 200 lb slab every 5 minutes…
> 
> ...


That turned out nice! You're making me want to build another bench, lol!


----------



## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *More on the vise end cap*
> 
> Trimming the tenon cheeks and shoulders was fairly straightforward. The hardest part was flipping the 200 lb slab every 5 minutes…
> 
> ...


Nice work. Kinda hard to have a "test piece" on such a large scale project so every cut is a live cut. Kinda working without a net. I still admire your work.


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *More on the vise end cap*
> 
> Trimming the tenon cheeks and shoulders was fairly straightforward. The hardest part was flipping the 200 lb slab every 5 minutes…
> 
> ...


I think of the workbench as one massive test piece. Test run for the next one. Probably need to build 5 or 6 to get good at it…


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Wagon Vise Install*

With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.

First step: excavate the cavity where the screw/traveller will sit. I fit the edge guide attachment to my router base and adjusted it to my layout:









A bunch of sawdust later, there is a cavity for the traveller:









I really should move my oil rag can somewhere it won't be a dust collector 

Put the end cap back on to see how it looks from the other side:









Oops! This is where re-reading the instructions and checking my layout assumptions would have helped. The end tongue and consequent mortise in the end cap is too long. I may end up having to glue a small block in the hole as there is a bolt going in that area.

Once I lined everything up again, I laid out for the bolts to hold the end cap in place. Nothing fancy, just 6" long cap screws set into a counterbore:









To get access to the other end of the bolt, I put in 1 1/2" wide, 2 1/2" deep mortises where the bolts end. Used the clamp guide and corresponding router base to make sure they lined up.









Laid out all the vise hardware to see how it looks/fits:









I can't complete the vise install just yet. I need to install the other end cap and get the front board glued on before I can cut the grooves for the tracks.


----------



## yuridichesky (Jan 9, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.
> 
> ...


Mark, your shop looks suspiciously clean for such a good build 

Great job, can't wait to see this work bench done and in action!


----------



## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.
> 
> ...


This is gonna be a beast!


----------



## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.
> 
> ...


Looking great, I don't see any mistakes! 

Oh, I thought your oil can was for chips…I've discovered an empty 5 gallon bucket is handy to keep at one end of the bench! Gravity sucks…


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.
> 
> ...


Yuri, it only looks clean because of the Photoshop "vacuum cleaner" effect. ☺


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## duckmilk (Oct 10, 2014)

Iguana said:


> *Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.
> 
> ...


Your floor looks identical to the one in my last shop…plywood…but cleaner.
Great build. I've been watching. One day, I'll start mine.
Mike


----------



## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> With the end cap being fitted and condor tail joinery cut, the next step was to start the process of fitting the wagon vise.
> 
> ...


Yup, plywood. Over a Dricore subfloor. Quick to install and far easier on the knees than concrete.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*The Other End Cap*

The process for truing up the tongue and mortising the end cap for the non-vise end was the same as for the vise end, so I'll avoid repeating myself.

Once I had the end cap fit, I needed to cut the condor tails. I carefully laid out the front board and got a back shoulder cut precisely. Important, because the tails on the front board have to fit into sockets on both ends. And those sockets are at fixed locations. Once I got that right, I proceeded to cut the tails on the band saw, cleaning up with a chisel.

On to the sockets. Learning from the vise end, I used the masking tape trick to do the layout. Pretty simple, put some masking tape over the end board, and then knife the outline of the tails into the masking tape. Then remove the cut out bits to leave the silhouette of the tails:









It makes it so much easier to see the outline while freehand routing:









The edge of the tape then becomes the chisel guide. It isn't much of a ridge, but it is enough to register a chisel against. Makes it easy to clean up the boundaries of the socket.









Results in a near-perfect fit









Finish up, and see how it fits:


















Then drill/route for the bolts to hold on the end cap. The center bore holes are oversize to allow for movement and a little bit of adjustability. 3/8" bolt into a 17/64" hole.

And bolted on:









Hey! It is cleaned off!

Because the next step is to glue the front board on. Getting ready:









And a few minutes of panic later:









To help in getting the end caps positioned exactly, I left the bolts a bit less than tight. They would move under clamp pressure or with a whack from the mallet. Once I got everything clamped together I then tightened up the bolts.

Last thing was to glue some wedges into the loose-fitting condor tails. Grain orientation matches the adjacent tail so hoping that the fix won't be noticeable from more than a couple feet away.









Cleaned up while the glue was setting. Amazing how much stuff needs to be put away. Lots of router detritus everywhere. Yuri, this is for you:


----------



## yuridichesky (Jan 9, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *The Other End Cap*
> 
> The process for truing up the tongue and mortising the end cap for the non-vise end was the same as for the vise end, so I'll avoid repeating myself.
> 
> ...





> Lots of router detritus everywhere.


I'd call this "some detritus", not "lots", but anyway that's better 

But speaking seriously I do envy how well organized your shop is, no doubt the work bench gonna fit perfectly into it. Once again, pretty cool build!


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *The Other End Cap*
> 
> The process for truing up the tongue and mortising the end cap for the non-vise end was the same as for the vise end, so I'll avoid repeating myself.
> 
> ...


Still looking awesome!
Gotta remember that masking tape trick…


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Finishing the Wagon Vise Install*

First, for Terry -

Step 1:









Step 2:









Step 3:









Step 4:









Kinda like eating an elephant. A little bit at a time…

---

You know how it is when you head into the shop at 9 a.m. thinking you've got a fairly simple task to do, should take about an hour and you can move on to the next part of the project? And then you realize you need to take care of a detail before you can do that one thing? But before you take care of the detail you need to take care of something else and it doesn't work out right. So you need to figure something else out. And all of a sudden it is 5 p.m. and you've just finished that one simple thing? Missing lunch in the process?

Yeah, it was one of those days.

Before doing the legs, I wanted to finish up the wagon vise install. Pretty simple, route the slots for the guides and mount them up. A couple passes with the router and edge guide. How hard can it be?

Well, first, I needed to do a bit of flattening on the bottom. I had milled the end caps and front board slightly wider than the rest of the slab. Realized that I'd never get a perfect glueup if they were the same width, so made it so they would sit about 1/32" proud on top and bottom. Needed to be flushed before I routed for the vise guides, as one guide would be attached to the front board.

I get out the four horsemen:









Notice that they are all single iron planes? They work just fine on cherry, but all give massive tearout on the Jatoba. While I don't really care what the jatoba looks like underneath, this kind of tearout left splintery recesses 1/16" deep. For some reason, that bothers me.

So I haul out the big gun:









The high-angle double iron smoother GMatheson sent me in the plane swap last year. I don't get to use it much but this is the situation it was designed for. Except… The jatoba is really hard. I had to set the smoother for really thin shavings to avoid chatter. And even then, I'd get about 6 passes before the iron showed small chipping. Re-grind, re-hone, re-set the iron and take another 6 very thin passes. Rinse and repeat.

After I finished the first end cap, I realized I had another option. I "rescued" a 70s Handyman smoother from the back of a drawer in my dad's shop when I first got into woodworking. I only used it twice before deciding to make my own, but it was still kicking around somewhere.

Dig it out, grind/hone the iron and try to put it work. It doesn't, chatters like crazy. Ok, re-grind and re-hone, maybe I messed up the iron. And fit the cap iron properly, now that I know what should happen. Still chatters. It weighs about the same as the wooden smoothers, btw. The light weight, combined with a likely out-of-flat sole is probably the cause of the chattering.

Then I remember I've got yet another option. I won a set of Woodriver V3 planes (fore, smoother and LA block) over a year ago and they were still sitting in the unopened box. Figured they were worth a shot. So that entailed stripping them down, degreasing, grinding and honing the irons, fitting the cap iron, tightening the totes, etc. Not just one, but all three.

Here's the fore and smoother:









And that did the trick. The WRs seem like pretty decent planes. Good heft, the smoother subjectively about twice the Handyman. Thick irons with a modern cap iron design. I had the pleasure of using an LV smoother and LA Jack for a few months a while back, and these perform as well as those. The LVs look better and are produced to a higher standard, but these are satisfactory alternatives.

Ended up with "some" detritus:









Now, onto the business of the day.
After laying out the guide locations very carefully, set the router up with the edge guide and routed the slots in two passes each:









Remember the oops on the length of the end cap mortise? Turns out to not be an issue. The bolt hole for the flange is located in a OK spot.









I'll need to chisel away about 1/16" to get clearance for the washer.

After checking that the plate slides easily in the guides, I clamp them down and mark the screw hole locations









Drill pilot holes:









The screws nominally needed a 9/64" pilot, which is what I did. That worked in the cherry, but I was unable to drive the screw into the jatoba - on a fresh battery charge my impact driver stalled out about halfway. I re-piloted at 5/32", and that barely worked.

The instructions said to make the slots 1/4" deep. Using a 1/4" drill bit to set the router plunge depth should result in a perfect depth, right? Nope, I end up being too deep - the plate would not slide into the guides. I ended up needing to shim the guides with two pieces of masking tape each side.

















Next, install the plate and nut. I used a bit of thread lock, probably overkill.









And check the operation:









Easy travel along the full length! Woohoo!

I removed the screw at that point. I'll leave it off until just about the end. No sense in adding an extra 20 lbs to the top while I still need to move it around to work on it.

And that is how 9 a.m. turned into 5 p.m.


----------



## yuridichesky (Jan 9, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Finishing the Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> First, for Terry -
> 
> ...


Second the masking tape trick on the rails. I used it when I needed to adjust angle of parallel guide of my leg vise a little bit. Still works.

How wide is the chisel shown on the pics? Looks like about 2", great stuff.

P.S. I officially give up on the detritus


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Finishing the Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> First, for Terry -
> 
> ...


beautiful work. wow.


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Finishing the Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> First, for Terry -
> 
> ...


Thanks, Mark, that's how I muscle big stuff in the back of the truck, too!

Build looks sweet. Favorited and saved for future reference!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Finishing the Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> First, for Terry -
> 
> ...


Yuri, that is a 2" chisel. Indeed, most handy


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Finishing the Wagon Vise Install*
> 
> First, for Terry -
> 
> ...


Looks great Mark. I agree about the Woodriver planes, respectable alternatives.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Leg Tenons*

To join the legs to the top, I'm going to use blind tenons. I didn't quite have enough lumber to do the full through dovetail tenons - my leg blanks are about 1" short! C'est la vie.

I'd glued up the blanks months ago and left them rough. So I start by foursquaring them. Joint two adjoining faces, plane the other two. Kept at the planer until all four legs were surfaced on all sides, resulting in them being 5 11/16" square.









Next step was to trim the ends and get them all the same length. Clamped a small scrap of plywood to my TS fence to act as a stop.









And then trimmed one end of each leg. Took as little as possible off, maybe 1/4". With the saw blade raised all the way, even after cutting all four sides, there was a small nub left. The flush trim saw and block plane took care of that pretty quickly.









For the second side of each leg, I set the fence/stop at my desired leg length. Then repeated the four cuts/flush trim/plane process on each. That left me with a stack of identically sized legs:









That's about 140 lbs worth of legs.

Time to lay out the tenons on the legs. For the front legs, the tenons will run with the length of the top. That will ensure the front legs stay coplanar with the front edge of the top. Their mortises need to fit tightly on all four sides to help counter racking forces.

For the back legs, the tenons will run across the top. Their mortises will have additional length to allow the top to expand.

Clear? I don't have pics as the pencil lines on jatoba don't show up well on camera.

Now to cut the tenons. Most of the work is done on the table saw, so it went quickly.

First, lay out the tenon depth and set the stop on the xcut sled accordingly. All the tenons will be cut using this stop setting to ensure the leg lengths are all identical.









Then, for each leg, set the shoulder depth according to the layout lines. As much as possible, I made the legs symmetrical so I could use the same stop setting for multiple cut.









Once the shoulders were cut, set up for cutting the cheeks. Set the saw blade height to the tenon depth and leave it there, as all tenons will be cut to this depth.









Then set the stop to cut the outer cheeks. Not like this!









You don't want to trap the offcut between the stop and the blade, so move the stop to the other side.

Like this:









And cut









Note the clamp. While a leg this size standing on end is relatively stable, it still needs to be supported while moving. Rather than worrying about it tipping - or worse, reaching after it if it starts to fall - just clamp it securely to the sled.

Adjust the stop as necessary and soon there a four legs with tenons. Because of how I laid out the tenons, I only had three stop settings.









Not done yet. I want double tenons on each leg. More surface area for glue.

Lower the blade half a turn, set the stop for the inside cheeks.









Rotate it 180° and make the second cut.









Then waste away the material between the two inner cheeks. Soon you've got:









I found out that if you leave a slight sliver of wood between the kerfs, the table saw captures much more of the sawdust. As opposed to spitting it out all over you. The slivers break away easily.

To finish off the inside shoulders, I used my router. I didn't have a template bit quite long enough so I used my 1/2" downcut bit and will let the shaft of the bit be the pilot.









Get it in the router and set the plunge depth.









Clamp the legs to something stable:









And route away the inside shoulders. I ended up with:









You want to wear some basic PPE. If you're like me, you crouch down to have a good view of where the router bit is going. And the router chips are going to be flung at your face at high speed.

Mortises into the top are next.


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## ssnvet (Jan 10, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Tenons*
> 
> To join the legs to the top, I'm going to use blind tenons. I didn't quite have enough lumber to do the full through dovetail tenons - my leg blanks are about 1" short! C'est la vie.
> 
> ...


very crisp and clean looking tennons


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## mochoa (Oct 9, 2009)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Tenons*
> 
> To join the legs to the top, I'm going to use blind tenons. I didn't quite have enough lumber to do the full through dovetail tenons - my leg blanks are about 1" short! C'est la vie.
> 
> ...


Nice Legs!


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Tenons*
> 
> To join the legs to the top, I'm going to use blind tenons. I didn't quite have enough lumber to do the full through dovetail tenons - my leg blanks are about 1" short! C'est la vie.
> 
> ...


yes, very clean!
Nice work.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Leg Into Top Mortises*

To cut the mortises for the leg tenons, I went back to the masking tape. Laid some strips down, and lined up the first leg to be flush with the front of the bench. This leg will ultimately be the leg vise.









I had deliberated left some extra space between two of the dog holes to ensure the leg would fit.

It was easy to knife the outer faces of the tenons, but the inner faces are a bit harder. Because I know the tenons are dead straight, I simply knifed about 1" in on both ends. After removing the leg, I used my 6" ruler to complete the line.









Like the condor tails, I used the small router with a 1/4" spiral bit to freehand waste out the first ~3/8" close to the outline, then chisels to finish this part of the task.









Check the fit:









A couple of tips. First, apply some wax to the bottom of the router plate. It will make it much smoother to run over the tape. And helps it avoid catching and tearing tape.

Second, leave the tape on until final fitting. Makes it easier to see the outline.

Once I was sure the tenons would fit, I wasted away the bulk of the rest of the mortise with the 1/2" spiral bit in my big router. Simple plunges, could be done with a drill. But this is faster 









Next, start to extend the mortise walls. I tried my longer pattern bit, but it vibrated too much. The shorter bit worked well, but only went down about halfway.









I went back to the longer bit to try to finish up, but it still vibrated. Plus, it didn't reach far enough. The solution was to just use the 1/2" spiral bit relying on the shaft above the cutting edge as the pilot. That worked pretty well.









You can see a bit of what appears to be burning at the top of the mortise. This is where the bit's shaft was rubbing against the top of the mortise walls. There was some buildup on the shaft, too, which I cleaned off between mortises. I found that moving faster helped.

I chiselled the corners square. Could've rounded the corners on the tenon, too. But a sharp chisel works quickly.









Does the leg fit? Initially, it wouldn't, and I spent 1/2 hr trying to get a perfect fit. As it stands now, seems like it will fully seat but with an extremely tight fit. Too tight, probably. I may need to do a bit more tuning.









The next leg was the back leg on that side. The mortises are oriented at right angles to the edge, with a bit of extra room on the edge to allow for the top to move









This leg fits much better.









The third leg was the one by the wagon vise. The leg is wider than the spacing between dogs. This was planned - I figure I'll use the first 2 or 3 dogs on a regular basis and didn't want to have odd spacing. The solution will be to cut a channel at the top of the leg to give access to the dog.









The tenon layout on the leg was different, too. When I cut the tenons, I increased the spacing between them to avoid interfering with the dog hole.









Routers and chisels later, the leg fits:









You can see that I had to remove the wagon vise rails to work on these mortises. The astute among you probably realized that at the time I installed them.

And the fourth leg:









Well, that looks a bit odd. How about?









Those legs make the top look a little thin.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Into Top Mortises*
> 
> To cut the mortises for the leg tenons, I went back to the masking tape. Laid some strips down, and lined up the first leg to be flush with the front of the bench. This leg will ultimately be the leg vise.
> 
> ...


Hey Mark. What's the overall finished height you're shooting for?


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Into Top Mortises*
> 
> To cut the mortises for the leg tenons, I went back to the masking tape. Laid some strips down, and lined up the first leg to be flush with the front of the bench. This leg will ultimately be the leg vise.
> 
> ...


Finished height will be 33 1/2". Although that will shrink over time as it sinks into the floor


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Into Top Mortises*
> 
> To cut the mortises for the leg tenons, I went back to the masking tape. Laid some strips down, and lined up the first leg to be flush with the front of the bench. This leg will ultimately be the leg vise.
> 
> ...


^Yeah, you already added floor jacks UNDER this bench, right? 

Looks like a ton of quality work to me. Very inspiring!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Leg Vise Install*

If figured it would be better to work on the vise install on the leg before the bench was assembled. Heeding my own advise, I read and re-read the install instructions again before I started.

First thing I realized was that the leg vise install is as much about the chop as it is about the leg. Makes sense - a vise isn't much with just one surface  So I glued up a board to use as the chop:









The chop needs to be at least 2 1/2" thick and I all have is 8/4" boards, hence the need for the lamination.

After that, I started laying out the relevant things on the leg. Got a phone call and that was it for the day, had to go and do a bunch of non-woodworking things.

And I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. That's very unusual, so I tried to figure out what my subconscious was trying to tell me. Finally realized I had laid out the vise details on the wrong leg!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn, that was close.

First thing this morning, laid out the details on the correct leg.









Drill for the Crisscross pin first. I drilled as far as I could on my drill press first to ensure I'd get a straight hole. The drill press' travel is only 3" or so, I needed something extra to make it all the way through.You do have a long drill bit, right?









To route the long mortise for the Crisscross, I used green masking tape to outline the borders and then freehand routed most of the cavity.









In retrospect, the green tape was a lousy choice. It caught and tore too easily.

After freehand routing, I used my edge guide to get straight sides. Chisel work to square up the ends.

For the bushing, I went back to the white masking tape. Freehand route most of it and chisel the remainder. The white tape works much better.









The board for the chop was workable by this time so I squared it up and resawed it down to ~3"" 









It may not be obvious from this pic, but the two pieces of walnut are distinctly different colors. I'm hoping that effect will not detract from the eventual look of the chop.

After laying out the relevant details on the chop, I drilled for and installed the vise screw/flange/handle.









Interestingly, the kit used machine thread fasteners instead of screws or lags. That means you have to drill and tap the holed for the flange, bushing and nut. Not sure why this is, as the wagon vise guide rails install with screws. Fortunately, I have a tap and die set.

To drill the hole for the vise screw, I first drilled a pilot hole. Then I used a forstner bit to drill from each side, hopefully meeting in the middle. Not quite, the screw end up being off-center on the hole in the back:









Turns out to be 1/16" off center, so I decide to cut 1/8" off the fat side of the chop. This is because I want the cavity for the Crisscross to be centered so I can route it like this:









After routing this same cavity in the leg, I realize I can improve the process. First, no need for free-handing. Second, I only need the tape at the ends. It makes the end of the mortise more visible through the shroud. Third, I can set the edge guide for the far wall of the mortise. Advantages - better router balance, fewer chances for mistakes, and I can waste away the middle part of the cavity without changing router bases.

After routing, chisel the ends square:









And then assemble everything per the instructions.

One thing I picked up on was the vise travel. Or limitations thereon. Because I have a thick legs and a thick chop and the screw is only so long, I will be limited to about 6 1/2" of travel.









If I find that a limitation, I can recess either the nut on the leg or the flange on the chop. Or both.

And here it is in upright configuration:









Even like this, the screw freely spins. I got 4 or 5 revolutions with a sharp pull on the wheel.

At this point, I'll take the wheel/screw and Crisscross off and put them aside until I've got the rest of the bench assembled. I need to shape the chop, too. I've got a pretty good idea of what I want it to look like, hope I can pull it off.


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## yuridichesky (Jan 9, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Vise Install*
> 
> If figured it would be better to work on the vise install on the leg before the bench was assembled. Heeding my own advise, I read and re-read the install instructions again before I started.
> 
> ...


Very interesting illustration of the construction, great reading for work bench builders.

For the lack of drill press whenever I need to make a dead perpendicular through hole I mark up it from the both sides of the part being drilled and then hand drill from both ends using long drill bit so that holes meet approximately in the middle. Works good enough for me.


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## tsangell (Jan 10, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Vise Install*
> 
> If figured it would be better to work on the vise install on the leg before the bench was assembled. Heeding my own advise, I read and re-read the install instructions again before I started.
> 
> ...


Recess the nut, and flip it. You'll gain travel equal to the total height of the nut. Nobody says the nut has to be flush with the face of the leg, either. For more travel, you can sink a cavity into the back of the leg and mount the nut even closer to the chop.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Vise Install*
> 
> If figured it would be better to work on the vise install on the leg before the bench was assembled. Heeding my own advise, I read and re-read the install instructions again before I started.
> 
> ...


The criss cross is hard to beat. You made this look easy. ;-)


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Vise Install*
> 
> If figured it would be better to work on the vise install on the leg before the bench was assembled. Heeding my own advise, I read and re-read the install instructions again before I started.
> 
> ...


Awesome display!
That's quite a vise!


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Iguana said:


> *Leg Vise Install*
> 
> If figured it would be better to work on the vise install on the leg before the bench was assembled. Heeding my own advise, I read and re-read the install instructions again before I started.
> 
> ...


Excellent work. Lucky you got called away when you did. I do my best woodworking thinking when I should be sleeping.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Mortising the legs*

Before I mortised the legs, I decided to inset the nut for the leg vise. Easier to do it now than later. (Thank you, Sylvain and tsangell!) This gives me another 1 1/4" of vise travel. If I need more, I will invert the nut. That can be easily accomplished later.

The process was to lay out crosshairs on a piece of scrap and mark the center:









The layout lines are needed to line up the template with the center of where the nut goes.

Then drill out a hole with the big Forstner bit - 3 1/2" big. I geared down the drill press.










Line up the template on the leg, using the marks on the template plus layout lines on the leg. Clamp it well and bore into the leg:









I found that waxing the exterior of the bit helped.

And the nut is now inset:









Not knowing how stable my stock would be I milled the stretchers oversize so I can let them sit for a day or two before going to final dimensions. I'm confident the boards are dry, but not so confident they don't have a lot of internal stresses.










There are a total of 14 mortises for the 7 stretchers. Not wanting to do each by hand, I made a template so I could cut them quickly with a router.









Note the spacer attached to the fence. 6 of the stretchers will have the same offset from the edge of the leg, while the lower front stretcher needs to be inset another 1 1/2" to clear the back of the mortise for the Crisscross. The plan is to use the same template, doing the 2 oddballs last by removing the spacer.

Clamp the template to a piece of scrap:









And the result:









Dimensions and offset both measure correct, so onto the legs. First "real" mortise:









Depth is 2 3/32". Don't ask me how I came up with that number, seemed to make sense at the time.

Do another 11 mortises at that spacing, then remove the spacer from the template:









Results in a mortise that is inset another 1 1/2", like this:









Muttered a few choice words when I realized I'd done this:









Yeah - forgot to remove the clever spacer at the right time. Ah, I can patch that. Or maybe make it a "feature" 

Next step was to counterbore and drill for the bolts that will hold the front and rear stretchers to the legs. The bench will be able to be knocked down for moving should the need arise.

First, counterbore about 2 1/4", then drill through the center of the counterbore:









Does that line up with the center of the mortise on the other side?









The 6" bolt protrudes about 2" 









I have started on the tenons and fitting them to the mortises. Haven't completed the step, but that'll be the next blog entry.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Mortising the legs*
> 
> Before I mortised the legs, I decided to inset the nut for the leg vise. Easier to do it now than later. (Thank you, Sylvain and tsangell!) This gives me another 1 1/4" of vise travel. If I need more, I will invert the nut. That can be easily accomplished later.
> 
> ...


Wow, I've never made a mistake like that. How does it feel?;-P

Honestly, I've still yet to do mortises this way. Soon I will.

Nice work brother.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Mortising the legs*
> 
> Before I mortised the legs, I decided to inset the nut for the leg vise. Easier to do it now than later. (Thank you, Sylvain and tsangell!) This gives me another 1 1/4" of vise travel. If I need more, I will invert the nut. That can be easily accomplished later.
> 
> ...


It's not a mistake…it's a design element!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Odds and Ends*

Well, I discovered I didn't take any pictures of fitting the tenons to the mortises. Probably because it was kind of tedious and a little bit boring.

The first step was to cut the tenons. For the side stretchers, I cut them the same way I cut the large tenons on the legs - with the table saw. Shoulders first, then stand the piece up and cut the cheeks.

Then I squared up each mortise and used a router plane, a rasp and/or a float to fit each tenon in turn. Three of the 8 tenons were a perfect fit off the saw while 3 were tight and needed a slight adjustment. 2 were loose, I'll have to use epoxy on those.

Then it was on to taking care of all the other little details before the bench can be assembled.

First, I patched the extra mortise in the leg. Glued in a large piece to fill most of the cavity, leaving about 1/8" to go. Squared off the corners and then fit and glued the visible patch.









After the glue dried, I planed the patch flush.









I didn't try to match the grain. Good reminder to pay attention!

I also cut the tenons in the long (front and back) stretchers. After getting them dimensioned, I cut the shoulders on the table saw.









At about 60", these stretchers are too long to readily stand up on the tablesaw so I cut the cheeks on the bandsaw.









Checking the fit of the front stretcher:









Checking the fit of the back stretchers:









To drill the holes for the bolts, I wanted to make sure the stretcher was clamped squarely to leg. This is what I came up with:









And drilled the holes to depth.

Also counterbored and drilled the top stretchers for lag bolts into the top. Not sure I'll need to use lags, but easier to drill now…









I decided to put a small bevel on the bottom of the bench legs. Dunno if this will affect the stability of the bench, but I like the look. It is 1/4" deep by 1" tall, almost exactly 14°. Set up the table saw to make the cut:









And soon enough, I've got 4 legs with bevels at the bottom:









Need to mortise for the nuts holding the stretcher connection bolts. Check the bolt protrusion:









Set up the router track guide accordingly:









Route the mortise and test:









I also did the runner for the deadman. First, glue an oversize piece of maple to the top of the front stretcher. The benchtop acts as a handy caul:









Flush the piece to the stretcher using planes:









Add the mortises for the connection bolt nuts:









And then cut the maple to a triangular shape. Set the table saw fence and tilt the blade to 45° before making the first cut.









Flip the piece end for end and make the second cut:









After that, I bump the fence a hair (maybe 1/100") and repeat the two cuts. It takes just a small extra amount off, which cleans up saw marks and any burning.

Then I put a 1/16" round over on the top of the triangle. Deadman runner is done!









Because I want a shelf on the bottom of the bench, I decide to add cleats to support shelf boards. I had some leftover pieces from making the legs:









Which, after milling, turns into:









Those leftovers will probably go into the fireplace sometime this winter…

Glue and screw the cleats to the bottom stretchers:









I would have preferred to use taller cleats, but needed to keep them to a certain size to avoid interference with the holes for the nuts.

And the stretchers are ready:









At this point, the bench could be assembled. First, though, I want to do a bit of sanding and slap a minimal finish on the parts of base. Just for looks.

I inadvertently started the finishing. Leaving some DNA behind:









Here's where I was leaking. Have absolutely no idea where that came from.


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## Vactet (Dec 13, 2014)

Iguana said:


> *Odds and Ends*
> 
> Well, I discovered I didn't take any pictures of fitting the tenons to the mortises. Probably because it was kind of tedious and a little bit boring.
> 
> ...


Wish I could do that work. Never really got my hand good at doing tendons and all of that, looks great though. 
As per the blood, we bleed for what matters. Plus, it does mark your territory rather well.
Look forward to seeing the rest.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Odds and Ends*
> 
> Well, I discovered I didn't take any pictures of fitting the tenons to the mortises. Probably because it was kind of tedious and a little bit boring.
> 
> ...


nice work Mark…...


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Odds and Ends*
> 
> Well, I discovered I didn't take any pictures of fitting the tenons to the mortises. Probably because it was kind of tedious and a little bit boring.
> 
> ...


Very clean work…and so fast! 

Amazing how such a small nick on one's finger can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Odds and Ends*
> 
> Well, I discovered I didn't take any pictures of fitting the tenons to the mortises. Probably because it was kind of tedious and a little bit boring.
> 
> ...


Terry - I started making sawdust on March 25 this year. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, it'll be done before Christmas Day. That's 9 months, roughly the gestational period for a.human.infant. so call this my baby 

Don, thank you.

Vactet, welcome to LumberJocks. Check out the Work bench smack down thread for good info and folks who can offer pertinent advise. Re: your comment on getting good at mortise and tenon work - like pretty much everything, the only way to get good is to jump in and do. And fortunately when working with wood, if you make a mistake it is usually fixable. As you get more practice, you'll find you make fewer mistakes and you get better at hiding them, too. -


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Getting the base ready for assembly*

While I did most of the odds and ends yesterday, there were a few things I needed to do today to get everything ready to assemble.

First, I have a location conflict with the leg closest to the wagon vise and the first dog hole:









I knew this going in - I need a leg close to the end of travel for the wagon vise, but the dog hole spacing was going to be less than the leg width. For the holes around the leg vise leg, I simply added a bit of space between two holes, but for the leg closest to the wagon vise, I didn't want to mess up the spacing. I'd planned on having to route a cavity into the leg from the beginning.

So I got out the two-edge router guide and created the cavity









Check the fit. Yup, it works.









I also routed a groove for a tongue on top of the deadman into the front board of the top. Forgot to take a pic.

Then put a 1/16" roundover on all exposed sharp edges. The splinters this jatoba throws off are somewhat like spears. Along sharp edges, when something sticks out and you run exposed flesh along it, you end up with a splinter the size of a toothpick and when it heals, a scar. The 10 minutes it take to run a router along edges is well worth the self-protection value. Breaking edges with sandpaper doesn't work well. Half the time, splinters puncture the sandpaper and lodge themselves in whatever sanding block you use. For me, that's usually my thumb.

Tried to get pics of this. 1/16" roundovers don't show up well on camera.

And finally, ran over everything with P180 sandpaper, mostly to erase my layout marks.

Then it was time to get out the glue. First, mixed up some epoxy to deal with the two loose-fitting tenons.









A note on using epoxy - its cure time is sensitive to the ambient temperature. My shop is around 16°C/61°F in the winter. Reasonably comfortable for working, but it took the epoxy 5 hours to set.

Epoxied and PVA'd the first side leg assembly:









Not the epoxy squeeze out on the lower left joint. Try not to do this! But if you do, acetone does a decent job in cleaning up the mess.

Add the second assembly:









Later on, I put some Waterlox on the pieces for the base and the underside of the top. Figured it was easier to do it prior to assembly. One coat won't add much protection but makes a huge difference in the look - compare the tenons to the rest of the stretchers:









I realize it hasn't been clear from my pics, but I've been working with two distinctly different colors of jatoba. One is pretty red and the other is quite orange. With a bit of finish applied, this pic really shows the difference.

Jatoba is photoreactive so I'm hoping both will ultimately head toward the same shade of brown.

And the leg assemblies with finish applied:









Tomorrow, everything will get assembled. I've recruited my dad to come over in the afternoon and we will lift the top in place. While not quite complete, the bench will be functional! I need to start training for my Bondo pose…


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Assembly Day*

I knew today was going to be a good day.

Got out to the shop and started assembling the base. Well, back up a bit - had to clean up and organize some, move the desk/bench thingy to the wall and lay out where exactly I wanted the new bench to be placed. Once it is all together, it will not be moveable without a lot of effort.

Ah, on to the base. Laid the tape down where I wanted it to go and set the legs in place.









Added the stretchers









Right about this time, Dad came by. Perfect timing, an extra set of hands was helpful in bolting the stretchers to the legs.

Then we moved the top into place and carefully lined up the tenons and mortises. Didn't want to go. Jostled it a little and it looked good, but still no luck. Got down to look under the bench, and it seemed about 1/32" off on one end. Gave it a good bump with my hand and it seated. Made a very satisfying "thunk"! Just for good luck, I used a mallet to give it a good whack over each leg. From the sound, you could tell it had seated just fine without the extra persuasion.

Dad wanted to see how the hardware worked so I hooked up the leg and wagon vise hardware.









I get about 4 revolutions with a good twist on the leg vise wheel. Awesome!

An aside - I ended up painting the Bencrafted hardware with a spray bomb. Color is Oil-Rubbed Bronze and I like the look. I'm hoping it will be relatively durable. Here's the spray rack:









Also fitted the dog traveller today:









And made boards (hard maple) for a shelf underneath. Will be tongue and grove:









Had to notch the two end boards to fit around the legs. Got to use the leg vise for the first time!









With this end, I used the table saw to make as much of the cuts as I could and then finished off with hand saws. For the second, I just used the hand saws. Before now, never had a vise to be able to do this type of work easily. I think the hand saws will be seeing much more action.

Adjusted some of the tongues on the boards for better fit:









And at the end of the day, applied some Waterlox to the shelf boards so they can be installed tomorrow.


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## terryR (Jan 30, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Assembly Day*
> 
> I knew today was going to be a good day.
> 
> ...


I know you're ready to complete this build, and get back to furniture…

...but this is nicer than any furniture in our home!

Thanks for all the photos and lessons.

Been thinking of painting my BC hardware, too. Same color.


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## grfrazee (Jul 17, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Assembly Day*
> 
> I knew today was going to be a good day.
> 
> ...


When I did my bench, I initially wanted to do T&G for the shelf boards. When I did a dry fit with just butt-ended boards, there was no real need to do T&G since they all lined up fine and you really can't put enough load on the shelf to make the boards deflect appreciably.

Still, the T&G is a nice touch. I think Chris Schwarz would say to put a nice shadow line on the long sides with a beading plane, though when you have the shelves piled with crap like mine it won't much matter


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Assembly Day*
> 
> I knew today was going to be a good day.
> 
> ...


The T&G is to allow for seasonal movement across the width of the shelf. I could have done a shiplap, but a T&G is better if any of the boards decide to cup.

The boards are a.heavy 7/8" thick. The unsupported span is about 18". Ya, deflection wont be an issue.

It isn't visible in the pics, but I put a small chamfer on the long edges before finishing.

I figure the shelf will be full of stuff in about 3 days, maybe less. I eventually want to build a tool cabinet to go in that space to keep small stuff handy. The drawers in the desk I was using were handy.


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## grfrazee (Jul 17, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Assembly Day*
> 
> I knew today was going to be a good day.
> 
> ...


I ended up adding a cabinet to house all of my planes. Not the prettiest, but it'll do. Another cabinet for smaller tools would be handy, but I'm afraid I don't have the real estate underneath now!


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## exelectrician (Oct 3, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Assembly Day*
> 
> I knew today was going to be a good day.
> 
> ...


You made your dad proud, a bench to last more than a lifetime. Very nice.


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## sb194 (Feb 19, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Assembly Day*
> 
> I knew today was going to be a good day.
> 
> ...


Very nice. I am going to start my bench this winter, and hope I can make it half as nice as this one. It will last for generations.

Sean


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Of Dogs and Deadmen*

*Installed Shelf Boards*

Before I started on the dogs and deaman, I installed the shelf boards. Screwed into the cleats at both ends.









*Of Dogs*

On to the dogs. I followed a diagram I found on the Benchcrafted site (sorry, don't have link), and made the body of the dogs from jatoba. Springs from ash.










The springs were easy - just sliced off the side of a piece of ash. The dogs were a bit more complex shape. Mostly done on the table saw, with one of the cuts on the bandsaw.

I was planning on glueing up a "sheet" of them at a time and then cutting fully-formed dogs. But my ash board was a different width than my jatoba board so it seemed more efficient to glue them up individually. I did make the dogs 6 at a time.

Glued them together. Because the glue joint is on the angled section I glued them up in pairs so they could act as cauls for each other.









And here they are in the bench. Each dog hole has one, with a couple left over.









Sticking up:









They work, but I'm not 100% happy with them. They are not sized properly for the holes, which means there is too much slop when they are being used for clamping. Very easy to make, so I'll crank out another set.

*Of Deadmen*

I had a chunk of walnut I wanted to use as the deadman. It was from the same board as the chop, should be a good match for color. But when I cut it to length, I found this:









Rather than find another board, I think my design can work around the crack. If it fails down the road, I guess I'll have to make another one.

After flattening the board, I laid out a line every inch so I can get my hole spacing correct. The shape will be curvy, so better to do this now than after the curves are cut. Note the use of the white lead pencil - the layout lines show up far better than regular lead.










Then, time to lay out the curves and holes:









I did the rough layout with regular pencil and when I was happy, I put the final lines in white.

Cut it out on the bandsaw









This is better









Drilled the holes (layout was on the back, btw) and this is the first look:









There is a slot on the underside of the top to hold the top of the deadman, so I made and glued in tabs at the top. They need a bevel on the back to allow them to slide in at an angle, and they are lapped onto the deadman.










Also cut and fit the guide to sit on the bottom runner. It is biased to push the bottom of the deadman out about 1/32" from the runner - so the deadman won't rub against the stretcher.









The guide is glued on, and at this point the deadman is functional. I still need to fair the curvy bits and round over the edges. And apply some finish.


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## ToddJB (Jul 26, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Of Dogs and Deadmen*
> 
> *Installed Shelf Boards*
> 
> ...


I did a similar blog once, but your blog and project FAR AND AWAY blow mine out of the water. Super cool design and great entry.


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## johnstoneb (Jun 14, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Of Dogs and Deadmen*
> 
> *Installed Shelf Boards*
> 
> ...


That deadman is sweet. Nice bench too.


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## tyvekboy (Feb 24, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Of Dogs and Deadmen*
> 
> *Installed Shelf Boards*
> 
> ...


Very nice bench and deadman.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Of Dogs and Deadmen*
> 
> *Installed Shelf Boards*
> 
> ...


well done. Your work makes me look lazy.


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## john2005 (Jun 8, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Of Dogs and Deadmen*
> 
> *Installed Shelf Boards*
> 
> ...


I dig the dead man


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## jmwing (Sep 1, 2017)

Iguana said:


> *Of Dogs and Deadmen*
> 
> *Installed Shelf Boards*
> 
> ...


I love your deadman, it reminds me of a chromosome!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Shaping the chop*

Had about 3 hours in the shop Saturday to shape the chop. The basic shaping is done, just need to fair out a couple sections, sand and finish.

Started out by drawing some curves.









It may not be obvious, but there are two curves on each side. You'll see why shortly….

I laid out the inner curve on a piece of scrap MDF, which I'll be using as a template.









Cut that out on the bandsaw









Try to do this in one smooth motion.

Once it was cut out, I sand the bandsaw marks out and fair the curve. There were three places where the bandsaw kerf was a bit deeper - the spots where I paused in the cut to adjust my position. So I mixed up some glazing putty to fill the indentation:









That's way more than I will need - and way more hardener than necessary for the blob of putty.

Mix it up and apply it. Quickly. Once it is mixed, you have about 3 or 4 minutes to work it.









It is sandable after 10 minutes, but while it is curing, I bandsaw the outer curves of the chop. Check to see what it looks like at this point:









After sanding down the filler, I clamp the template to my marks on the chop and route out the relief detail using a pattern bit. Set the depth appropriately - more on this topic later.










Route one side to the curve:









Flip the template, do the other side, and check the look:









Next, lay out the round over on the top. I just do this by hand, but you could use something like the lid of a jar for a template.









I need to cut this out on the bandsaw, but because the chop is no longer square I need to tape the offcut back on to level it out.









And cut the curve









Next, some hand work. Fairing and smoothing the top curve with rasps goes very quickly. You could sand, I suppose, but this is way more satisfying.










Do the same to the side curves, but start with the spokeshave









Back to setting the depth of the pattern bit. I planned on adding a 1/8" roundover on the inner curve, and the step wasn't deep enough for the roundover bit. So I had to deepen the step. It is almost impossible to match up the template with the curve, so you have two options. The first would be to set the template to take slightly more from the curve - basically establish a new curve. Easy enough, but there is another option. I have an undercutting slotting bit to which I've fit a bearing equivalent to the outer diameter of the bit. This effectively makes it a very short pattern bit. That's the option I choose, and I deepen the step far enough so my roundover bit fits.

I add a 1/8" roundover to the inner curve, a 1/4" roundover to the outer curve and a 1/16" roundover everywhere else just to protect edges.

Checking the look:









And I had to leave. Not bad for 3 hours of work.

Most of the work on the chop is done. I just need to fair out a couple areas, including where the curves blend together at the top. Then sand and apply finish.


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## Slyy (Nov 13, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Shaping the chop*
> 
> Had about 3 hours in the shop Saturday to shape the chop. The basic shaping is done, just need to fair out a couple sections, sand and finish.
> 
> ...


Gray looking chop Mark. Haven't seen one quite like that, unique!


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Shaping the chop*
> 
> Had about 3 hours in the shop Saturday to shape the chop. The basic shaping is done, just need to fair out a couple sections, sand and finish.
> 
> ...


Very cool. I kicked around stepped or layered designs for my chop as well, but couldn't come up with a method. Now I know one


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Shaping the chop*
> 
> Had about 3 hours in the shop Saturday to shape the chop. The basic shaping is done, just need to fair out a couple sections, sand and finish.
> 
> ...


Slyy, Red - thank.you.

Red - I kicked this around for a while, too. I came up with another way - CNC


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Shaping the chop*
> 
> Had about 3 hours in the shop Saturday to shape the chop. The basic shaping is done, just need to fair out a couple sections, sand and finish.
> 
> ...


some fancy foot work Mark. Well played!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Wrapping it up*

(Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)

This will be the final blog post of my bench build.

There wasn't much left to do. I finished the shaping of the chop and deadman, which mostly involved adding roundovers, fairing curves and sanding. Then I applied a coat of Waterlox:









To assist with grip, it helps to add a facing of leather to the inside of the chop. Fortunately, part of the Benchcrafted package.









Sized almost perfectly. Roughed up the chop face and applied the leather with a bit of contact cement later.

Cut the chop pin for the Crisscross to length. Enough to recess it about 1/16" on each side.









Put the deadman in place









And the chop









Here they are together. Already accessorizing…









Here's closeups of how I blended the curves at the top of the chop. Was done with a rasp. Awesome tool!


















And then levelled the front board and endcaps to the rest of the slab.









At this point, I'm calling it done. The top needs to be flattened at some point, but it is close enough to flat that I can defer that task to get to some more pressing projects.

And some overall pics of the bench:

























And, of course, the Bondo pose:









The overall dimensions ended up being 33 1/2" high, 99" wide (long?) and 25" deep. The slab is 3 15/16" thick and the legs are 5 11/16" square.

I uploaded my SketchUp model to the warehouse - here's the link

Most of us will only build one bench like this in a lifetime (that's my plan, at least) and I know that I'd do some things differently. While I haven't yet used the bench much, I don't know if I'd end up with a significantly different result, though. I think I've covered off all the basic requirements and it is something I can't ever see outgrowing.

It has been an interesting process, documenting my bench build step-by-step. Sometime I think I've been a bit too wordy or have too many pics, while at the same time thinking I'm not showing the right details. Thanks to all who have read parts of this. And my apologies to all who have suffered through the entire thing.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Awesome! It was fun watching this build and you did an incredible job. Thanks for posting.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Applause! That looks great, Mark!


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## Mojo1 (Jan 13, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Very sweet bench, unbelievable craftsmanship and a great read. Thank you so very much for sharing!


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## exelectrician (Oct 3, 2011)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Now comes the moment of truth, when the first errant (unavoidable deep scar occurs) ... thats when the real work, using the bench as a tool occurs. I know you gonna love using this for a long long time.


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## AJ1104 (Nov 9, 2013)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Mark, Awesome bench. I really enjoyed your detailed build. I know it is a lot of work to document it all. Thank you for sharing the journey! AJ


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## Kaytrim (Aug 11, 2008)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Mark,

Thanks for taking the time to document this bench. The deadman is a nice standout addition. My first real bench was just done using 2×6 framing lumber. Reading through your build has me thinking about my bench and what I could do different when I do build another one. The biggest difference I will have is to use a full leg vice. Benchcrafted is just in town and I will be looking at getting some of the hardware from there.


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## sb194 (Feb 19, 2010)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Great bench. Well done.

Sean


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## duckmilk (Oct 10, 2014)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Outstanding, Mark. I followed this with great interest.


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## Tugboater78 (May 26, 2012)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Awesome blog and turned out awesome. One day, i keep telling myself, i shall get my bench built.


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## Deersplitter (Jan 27, 2017)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Very impressive.


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## EricTwice (Dec 9, 2016)

Iguana said:


> *Wrapping it up*
> 
> (Edit: I've posted this as a project, too. Here.)
> 
> ...


Sweet, It will inspire the user to do fine quality work


----------

