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Since I was waiting for finish to dry I continued working on other parts of the bench build. After cutting the vee in the bottom of the dead man I started roughing it out. A couple of pictures show me notching out the top .T also put a coat of finish on the sides and bottom of the top, which is 4 inched thick. I have been waiting for the end cap to be fit on so I can cut it to length. It may look short in the pictures but there is still at least 1/4 of an inch to cut off the chop to get it flush with the top. My next step it to put in the holes for the criss cross before routing the morticed to receive the criss cross. This in the part of the build that I have to do this so I can do that. Like getting the chop to work on the criss cross be fore sculpting or putting in the holes and getting the dead man working before cutting the sides. and so on.
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At least I hope you enjoy seeing a work in progress.
Tom
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Location: Wapakoneta, OH
Very nice Tom. (17)
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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Location: KY
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Location: Iowa
Always like your build-alongs.
Frank S in IA
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10-06-2024, 09:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2024, 09:50 AM by tablesawtom.)
Some people on this forum like to show their shavings from a plane so I though I would too. All the work on this bench was done with a #6 , which seems to be the size of plane a lot of wood workers don't feel they need.
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The picture shows the wagon block high
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some more shavings
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The block has been made flush with a plane. It took some ingenuity since the bench is on casters. I used my feet a lot and my leg wrapped around the leg to hold it when planning.
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It has taken all of this post and you may not realize it but I have just shown how to make a wagon vise, minus a purchased dowel for the handle, for $49.90. Minus the bench top of course
More to come. I also have pictures of the ley vise almost finished. I am still debating between a traditional tool tray and just making it a split top. Love to hear from you on that subject.
Tom
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I had a busy Saturday and after finishing the wagon vise, minus the hole or holes for the dog(s) I continued on the leg vise
Since I prefer a crisscross over the traditional way of a pin at the bottom i drill the pin holes first. My crisscross is 1 1/4 wide and made out of hard maple. so I needed to drill the hole 5/8ths from the side. There was a person on You Tube, who said he was sorry that he had bought an expensive floor model drill press and that he never used it much any more. He said he didn't feel a drill press was needed in a shop and that there were other ways of drilling holes Granted I don't have a need one of the newer over $1000 drill presses but in this case I need a perpendicular hole in both the leg portion and the chop. I like to drill the hole before the slot is cut so the drill goes straight. I use an extra long 5/1i6ths drill bit to finish the hole through. A drill will follow the hole so if one has a hole 4-5 inches deep the long drill will just finish the hole. I am not sorry if this offends you but I feel that, at least bench top drill press is needed in every shop and preferably a floors model if room permits.
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I needed to cut the slot for the crisscross and needed to have the slot in the center of the hole and needed to find it to make sure. The hole was drilled quite some time ago. I drilled out the waist and then used a router with an edge guide to finish both the leg and chop. I squared the slots with a chisel gust to make it look better.
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I did finish fitting my wooden nut
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I made my crisscross and mounted my criss cross. I drilled the hole in the center on each and then cut off both ends of a 5/16s bolt for the center pin and but them together and then drilled the hole in the other end and then rounded the diameters of both ends. You will just have to trust me , but the original crisscross was made out of wood and a wooden crisscross has held up fine on my other bench for over 10 years so a cast iron crisscross is not needed. The hard maple was a chunk of wood left over Any hardwood will work. total cost was time ( maybe 15 minutes ) and 3 bolts. I had 3 5/16ths by 5 inches long. And 3 wood screws ( more about that later). Total cost, less than one dollar. I forgot to mention one cut off wheel on my dermal.
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I have the vise opening and closing on the screw ( not touching the screw in any way ) and have not fastened the chop to the screw yet. The chop will open and close 7 inches before it starts binding. The longer the crisscross the farther the vise will open. I had no planes , only a picture when I built this bench, so the height to the top of the stretcher from the floor, in relation to the distance to the screw determined the length of the criss cross,
I bought the shoulder vis screw a couple of years ago when it was around $39 so minus wood, I have about $40 in the front vise and wagon vise. More about the wooden screw later.
Tom
