My bench again

Re: Battens are the Secret

Tom Ryan

>Chris Schwarz said: "Thanks to Dean, Rob Tarule and Adam, I've learned the secret of the batten." Fine, but what is the secret? From the picture, I'm guessing that the battens keep the board being planed from sliding towards the back of the bench. Is that it, or is there more to it?

Re: I agree and a question

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>It's sounding like you might be happy trying a Japanese planing beam.

Pam

Beautiful Bench Christopher!

Dan Clermont

>Your becnh is absolutely gorgeous!

I love the pic with the large bay window in the background and if I didn't have a pic of my daughter as a background on my work computer I would certainly have that shot.

Dan Clermont

Re: I agree and a question

Dan Clermont

>I tend to only "lock" a board between dogs and vises when using a scrub or jack plane.

For all other planing I prefer to use a stop or batten.

Dan Clermont

Re: Battens are the Secret

Dean J in MN

>

Chris Schwarz said: "Thanks to Dean, Rob Tarule and Adam, I've learned the secret of the batten." Fine, but what is the secret? From the picture, I'm guessing that the battens keep the board being planed from sliding towards the back of the bench. Is that it, or is there more to it?

Oh, there is more to it, but I can't tell you. The oath of the 'Brotherhood of the Batten' forbids the secrets of the batten to be bestowed on those not in the Brotherhood.

Really, you are correct, the batten stops the board from moving. Be it toward the back of the bench, or any other direction you choose.

This is something you don't get with a tail vise. My former bench had a tail vise and I more than once popped the board out from between the dogs while planing at an angle. The only way around that was to pinch the board tighter, which may deform the board you are trying to work. (Or use a batten, hmmmm)

The 'secret' is that battens are so flexible, you get multiple points to plane against: the planing stop stops the board from heading off the end of you bench (and often is all you need) and the batten restricts the movement toward the back. So the board really 'locks' into place if you plane at a angle as you do when you are rough planing. Further, that board is not being pinched, so you avoid the possibility of deforming. In my mind, the more valuable thing is the board isn't attached to the bench. I can pick it up, slide it over, flip it, all of this by just picking it up an putting it back down. This applies to the use of the crochet for edge work as well.

Battens are great for cutting dados as well, although you can just use the holdfast shanks as well. Place two battens on the bench, bank the board against them, and push your dado plane toward the battens. Tail vise offers no help in resisting forces perpendicular to the front of the bench (without the use of a batten or some restraint).

There is more, but I urge you to give it a try, you'll find all sorts of ways a little scrap of wood can help.

-Dean

Re: I agree and a question

Adam Cherubini

>I tend to only "lock" a board between dogs and vises when using a scrub or jack plane.

Dan,

Since I usually plane at some angle to the grain when roughing a board, I found pinching my stock between dogs didn't work well for me. Again, this is one of those notions we must challenge. It works for Dan and we should probably figure out what he's doing that makes it work. Generally, indirect load paths or load paths depending on friction don't work in real life. Whether its a twin screw vise or a planing stop or a stiff work bench, you want something directly behind (opposite) that force to counter it.

I have a tail vise and I use it. As a vise its pretty kick @ss, but its not necessary or even great for planing stock, IMHO.

Adam

Exactly

Adam Cherubini

>It's sounding like you might be happy trying a Japanese planing beam.

That's exactly where we are, Pam. For my part, that brings me a certain degree of comfort as well.

BTW, some of the buildings in pennsbury had termite damaged sills and posts. A father and sons timberframing team came in to make the needed repairs. They used power tools, but clearly did some hand work as well. They set up what can only be decribed as a japanese trestle made of scrap timbers clamped on saw horses to hold their pieces. I enjoyed seeing the interlocking cuts they made to splice the posts. Very cool stuff.

Adam

Re: I agree and a question

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I made a couple of L shaped battens for just this purpose, with 3/4" dowels that fit into parallel rows of dog holes, 1/4" high. They work great.

Pam

Re: Exactly

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Cool, glad I wasn't self deluding.

Those timber framers can do magic. BTW, broke ground on my new workshop last week, took down a subsidiary shed that was in the path, just hope the rains hold off for another month or two, what with all that storage stuff sitting outside, including some nice boards.

Pam

Re: I agree and a question

Dan Clermont

>Hi Adam,

I don;t own a digital camera so I can;t demonstrate but I clamp a piece of scrap on the oppostie side of my bench and butt it up against the board to be planed. This prevents it from popping out of the dogs whilst working across the grain.

Depending on the length of board I may have to do this in a couple of locations.

Hope that sort of explains it.

Dan C

which begs the question

Adam Cherubini

>Why then do you need the tail vise stop? As it is I guess you can criss cross which is nice but not necessary.

Tail vises are nice, I have nothing against them. But I guess my impressions from the workbench book was that they were a necessity. That's my mistake.

Adam