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Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Craftsman 12" Bandsaw – Fully Rebuilt + Turning Blanks

Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

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Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#1

Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

Arw01

>WARNING -- Bandwidth challenged this will take a while

I've grown away from my router, and all the screaming, dust flying, opps I slipped. The recent issue of American Woodworker with it's tuck away assembly table has gotten me off my duff to actually build the bench on the back wall of the shop, use the laminated glue beam I got for free,and make a bench above this rolling assembly table, which I still need to make also.

The sides will be traditional, no bottom stretcher, so a robust top stretcher sized below the top enough for drawers will be used. Have not yet decided if I install a shoulder vise or not.

So I've started my bench after about 15 years of letting some oak dunnage dry out:


I borrowed some looks from my Workbench book, specifically Klaus bench feet, drew them up on some graph paper, scanned it, and changed the size to fit my wood in photoshop:


I made a full size template from masonite and used that to draw onto my blanks. Took those to my bandsaw, and then too the OSS.


My intention was a 3/4" wide mortise, but I didn't have a No 12 auger bit, so I used a no 11. After chopping out the rest of this mortise, I found my actually width to be about 11/16 vs the 3/4 I was after, so I will adjust my tenons when I cut them.


If the auger screw did not foul, it was 87 cranks to put the screw through the bottom, I then fliped the piece and punched through from the bottom.


A bit more work from there was to chop out the rest of the mortise with a Japanese Mortise Chisel, I flattened the back a bit behind the edge, put a quick polish on it, slapped it into a veritas honing guide and proceeded to put one hell of an edge on it (DMT diamond, Shapton 1000, 5000, 8000). After the first mortise, it is still SHARP.


As I said, my elbow is sore, so I am not sure how much more work I will do today. After reading a thread on oldtools about wall smoothness, I thik I will try one my files on the walls of this chopped mortise to smooth it out a bit more.

The Klaus bench plan calls for a wedged mortise, so I might taper the bottom edge just a tough to allow for that.

Alan

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#2

Wow

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>87 cranks, eh? No wonder your elbow is sore. Very impressive.

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#3

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

arw01

>Photo of the glue lam beams that I scrounged for the top of the bench. These came from a custom house being built at a ski resort and were just laying in the construction slash pile.


img

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#4

Steve Kubien

Gimme a break!

Steve Kubien

>Alan wrote: "So I've started my bench after about 15 years of letting some oak dunnage dry out"

Alan, who are you trying to kid? This is either a blatant display of wood-hoarding or epic-level procrastination.:)

I applaud, which ever is the case! Looks like a good start.

Ice and ibuprofen should get you ready for another 87 or so turns.

Steve Kubien

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#5

Re: Gimme a break!

Arw01

>Wood hoarding? me?? na....

A bit of procrastination while I planned, and never quite having enough for a top. Now I have a top and want a base that will outlast it!

Alan

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#6

A quicker way? (pics)

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Hi Alan, long to no see. Looks like you found some time away from the family duties to get at your workbench...I, on the other hand, am having the opposite problem. I haven't worked on my bench since October, the wife's due in July (at the same time as Rob's course, so I doubt I'll be able to attend this year), and at work we have another international contract, so home time might be getting scarce. :-(

I admire your drive to use a brace, but for that job I'd be reaching for my electric drill...

You might want to try a different way of cutting your mortises. In the long run, I find the method below is faster, especially if you're drilling the holes by hand. You might want to try one mortise this way to check it out. The only thing you have to watch is that you must size your mortise and tenon to match your mortise chisel (which looks to be around 1/2" in your photos, the same size as I used in the following pictures).

I first drill a single pilot hole in the middle of the mortise. This gives the chips somewhere to go and lets me drive the chisel much more deeply than if there were no pilot hole. The perpendicular pencil lines are a crutch to keep my chisel square to the cut.


Second, I chop towards one end, stopping just short of the end. I'll clean up the last 2 or 3 mm or the mortise once I've hogged out most of the waste.

Then chop to the other end. You will have to make about three passes to get a mortise 2-3" deep. Once you've reached your final depth, chop the ends of the mortise square. Check to see that your sides and ends are parallel and square:


This method goes pretty quick. There's lots of mortises in a workbench base.


I used wedged mortises on my base, but I don't think they're necessary. With a 4"x3" tenon, there's a huge glue surface. In the photo below I haven't cut the space for the wedge into the tenon.


Since I don't have an OSS, I cleaned up the ends of the sled feet with spokeshaves, and gave them a wet-sanding when applying the oil finish. Smooth as a baby's bottom.


Hope to see you in Calgary this summer,

Regards,

Steven

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#7

Re: A quicker way? (pics)

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Oops, missed one photo - the part about chopping to one end


img

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#8

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

paul womack

>WARNING -- Bandwidth challenged this will take a while

You might find my recent posting on reducing image sizes helpful.

BugBear

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#9

Re: sample smaller pic

paul womack

>The attached photo was simply cropped, color corrected, sub-sampled, and saved.

BugBear


img

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#10

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

Arw01

>Not intersted in reducing my photo sizes because...

1. I LIKE big pictures, allows you to zoom in if you have questions

2. I don't have to have 2X as many pictures on my server

3. I don't have to waste shop/family time shrinking photos

4. Small photos limit you in printing quality

5. I open all interesting links in other tabs so I can continue browsing

while they open up.

6. They make lousy windows backgrounds shrunk down and then blown back up.

Alan

ps did the relatives ever get to emailing back and forth for an information swap?

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

#11

Re: Bench feet and my elbow is sore!

paul womack

>

Not intersted in reducing my photo sizes because...

1. I LIKE big pictures, allows you to zoom in if you have questions

2. I don't have to have 2X as many pictures on my server

3. I don't have to waste shop/family time shrinking photos

4. Small photos limit you in printing quality

5. I open all interesting links in other tabs so I can continue browsing

while they open up.

6. They make lousy windows backgrounds shrunk down and then blown back up.


Err. OK. You've described what *you* like. Most people make websites according to what their users might want :-)

And broad-band availability is is still far enough from universal that it can't be taken for granted.

If you refuse to sub-sample and/or do the thumbnail thing, you might consider helping your low-bandwidth readers by having smaller pages (i.e. less pictures per page).

ps did the relatives ever get to emailing back and forth for an information swap?

Don't know - I passed on the info, and left 'em to it.

BugBear

👍 This page answered my questions

Your vote helps other woodworkers quickly find the answers and techniques that actually work in the shop.