Honey, I Shrunk The Bench
#11
Last October you might remember I bought a maple bench at an estate sale.



It had good bones, but it also had numerous issues; one end cap was missing, the other was a thick laminated block of maple attached with two small dowels, the top attachment was wonky , the top was full of blind dog holes, the front vise was totally unusable - but most importantly, it didn't work for my wheelchair.

So repair work was in order, largely by me, but also with great help by Kevin (BaileyNo5) and his huge Laguna bandsaw and my wife and her brother (doing the heavy lifting).



I decided to fill in all of the blind dog holes and half of the through holes, which meant I had to make a little flush-cut saw.



But the main thing I had to do was lower the bench by 5 1/2" (remove top, rock legs over, cut through legs, repeat) - it went from 37" to 31.5". I also attached the new end caps (made from the old one) with bolts (I put on the little 7" Record clone on a whim - it was just sitting on my garage floor, so what the heck - not sure how much it will be used in that position, but that was the only place it would go).





I also had to notch the tops of the rear legs and add two smaller stretchers to replace the ones I had sawn off. I also decided to bolt on the original front stretcher above the back one for added strength and weight.





The remaining dog holes are at the right distance from the edge of the bench for holdfasts.



It's not done yet (I put a wooden jaw on the new vise this afternoon), and I'd like to resurface it at some point, but not bad for 13 months' work.
In Japan, there's probably a WoodNet equivalent where they're debating about Western chisels being a lot like Japanese plumbers. - AHill
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#12
Looks a lot better! Why plug every other through dog hole?
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#13
Hugh, it looks great, good job! But you can't just make an offhand comment like "...I had to make a flush-cut saw...." and not expect any questions. Now you gotta tell us about that.
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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#14
This is the best, most inspiring post I've ever seen on Woodnet!

Do you have a blog I can follow?
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#15
Very, very nice!

Hey, could we see a better pic of the cabinet sitting on the bench in pic number 2?

It looks like some sort of wall mounted tool cabinet.
...Naval Aviators, that had balz made of brass and the size of bowling balls, getting shot off the deck at night, in heavy seas, hoping that when they leave the deck that the ship is pointed towards the sky and not the water.

AD1 T. O. Cronkhite
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#16
http://www.hughgibbins.com/ doesn't work.
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#17
Nicely done indeed!

Andy
I am quickly realizing that I have NO natural talent... But I am trying to fake it.
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#18
Mighty fine craftsmanship. Well done indeed.

Stewie;
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#19
BaileyNo5 said:

Hugh, it looks great, good job! But you can't just make an offhand comment like "...I had to make a flush-cut saw...." and not expect any questions.


Or the justifiable congrats on the cleverness of the design. So, "Congrats on a clever design!"
Quote:

Now you gotta tell us about that.


+1

I'd like to hear how you came to the half-toothed-and-half-smooth configuration. Do tell...
"For true creativity, we have to think beyond our tools." - MsNomer -
"Measuring is the enemy of precision." - Chris Schwarz on story sticks -
"only one opinion counts, the one that pays." - daveferg -
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#20
TobyC said:


Looks a lot better! Why plug every other through dog hole?




Thanks - not a huge fan of lots of holes - magnets for dropping things for me. A few should do fine for me.
In Japan, there's probably a WoodNet equivalent where they're debating about Western chisels being a lot like Japanese plumbers. - AHill
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