12-21-2009, 10:35 AM
After I had dealt with the dovetails the last portion I wanted to get out of the way before I glued up the front apron was the mortices for the front leg tenons. The ones for the back slab were a bit of a pain because of how deep they are so I decided to make them while they were still open. I simply layed out their position on the front apron and the rest of the slab and cut and chiseled to depth paying particular attention to the front apron and how close it was to being flush with the front legs getting closer and closer with a router plane.
I tested the fit frequently and got it very tight. Unfortunately it was a little to tight as once it got to a particular point in the dry fit I couldn't really get it apart. And getting it fully seated required some tap dancing by the wife on the top. Thankfully the base is softer then the top or there could have been some issues. The above image is how it looked prior to glue up.
After the glue up I fitted the vices, cut the leg vice to final length, planed down the dovetails (I'll post a final image of how they turned out), put in the dog block and then proceeded to flatten the bench.
I had spent a fair amount of time trying to get the slabs level with shims and screws (big Spax ones that I got from Jameel) so there wasn't a great deal for me to do. 8 light traversing passes (one way and the next) with a jack and 4 with a jointer and it was level except for one small section on an end (you can see the pencil marks in the middle of the left end of the front slab, the end result was significantly smaller (that picture was taken about half way through) and really inconsequential) which was a little more then a 32nd out and not worth taking that much off the rest of the bench to level such a small section.
I had wanted the bench to be a little rough and not glass smooth so I didn't actually plane again after the traversing. I checked the length and it was flat and I had used light passes and a high angle (50 degrees) so it was fairly smooth as was.
So I took off all the vice hardware and the rollers, took everything apart and started oiling it up. The third coat of Watco Danish Oil got applied this morning and I'll put the bench back together tonight. Here are some teaser images of the final top. After I'm done with the oiling the only issue outstanding is the "tool tray" which I can probably dimension out and glue up tonight.
I tested the fit frequently and got it very tight. Unfortunately it was a little to tight as once it got to a particular point in the dry fit I couldn't really get it apart. And getting it fully seated required some tap dancing by the wife on the top. Thankfully the base is softer then the top or there could have been some issues. The above image is how it looked prior to glue up.
After the glue up I fitted the vices, cut the leg vice to final length, planed down the dovetails (I'll post a final image of how they turned out), put in the dog block and then proceeded to flatten the bench.
I had spent a fair amount of time trying to get the slabs level with shims and screws (big Spax ones that I got from Jameel) so there wasn't a great deal for me to do. 8 light traversing passes (one way and the next) with a jack and 4 with a jointer and it was level except for one small section on an end (you can see the pencil marks in the middle of the left end of the front slab, the end result was significantly smaller (that picture was taken about half way through) and really inconsequential) which was a little more then a 32nd out and not worth taking that much off the rest of the bench to level such a small section.
I had wanted the bench to be a little rough and not glass smooth so I didn't actually plane again after the traversing. I checked the length and it was flat and I had used light passes and a high angle (50 degrees) so it was fairly smooth as was.
So I took off all the vice hardware and the rollers, took everything apart and started oiling it up. The third coat of Watco Danish Oil got applied this morning and I'll put the bench back together tonight. Here are some teaser images of the final top. After I'm done with the oiling the only issue outstanding is the "tool tray" which I can probably dimension out and glue up tonight.
