"charlie b" wrote in message
...
Mike:
Ain't the prettiest but looks like a user.
Suggestions though
1. knock of the sharp corners now rather than after they
gouge out part of your body. They will bite you-
honest.
Good suggestion and I'll consider it, but since I laminated MDF and then
contact cemented masonite onto the edges, I probably will have to live with
the sharp corners, at least on the bench top. I am thinking about
chamfering the outside corners of the Veritas vise jaws, though.
2. lightly round over the edges - reaching under the
bench to get a tool and making contact with the
back of your forearm will be less painful.
This might be more doable. I'm already planning a storage cabinet, with 3
or 4 drawers on one side and a cabinet with shelves on the other. I also
have a nice 30" wide piece of wall convenient to the workbench where I'm
going to build a nice handtool cabinet. I've looked yours over and it is a
great example and something to emulate. Whenever I get around to building
my cabinet, I'll definately have some questions for you. One I can think of
right now is how do you secure the large bench planes in a vertical
position? I've seen this in a lot of cabinets, but never any really
detailed descriptions of how it is done. Did you consult any books in
designing your cabinet?
3. don't know if your bench dogs will ovalize your
dog holes but I do know that the whack down, bump
to remove, hold downs will in relatively few uses,
especially if you whack them down hard.
These bench dogs have a wire spring on the side that keeps them snug in the
hole. I haven't noticed any deforming of the dog holes yet, but I haven't
really used it much yet. Hopefully that won't happen too badly. The hold
down I have (the Veritas version) seems to ride pretty easily in the dog
holes. The dowel portion has some ridges on it, that apparently act to hold
it in place as the horizontal force resulting from tightening the clamping
screw is generated. It works quite well, and definately doesn't require the
blunt force those tap-in-place hold downs require.
4. probably to late to add leg levelers but should
you ever get around to doing another bench or
changing the feet on this one (as if) check out
the bottom of this page (all one line)
http://www.wood-workers.com/users/charlieb/!M&T/CBbench20.html
Using an allen wrench you can adjust them up or
down without having to lay on the floor, fiddling with
a pair of wrenches. The foot swivels so you can
compensate for floors that are less than flat and
smooth. Some 60 or 80 grit glued to the bottom and
the bench won't slide, even on an epoxied floor.
IF THE BOTTOM OF THE LEGS AIN'T COPLANAR THE TOP
AIN'T GONNA BE FLAT LONG.
Bullseye levels make leveling - however you shim/
wedge things - easier and quicker.
This point is well taken. I'm still playing with the layout of the bench a
bit - basically moving it an inch or two and then working around it awhile
to see how I like it. I don't have a whole lot of options, so it won't take
me long to decide where it will be "permanently". My garage floor is so out
of level it's sad, so it really will depend greatly on the specific location
on how I will have to shim/level it. But, you're right and I'm not going to
waste too much time for fear of getting any twist in the benchtop.
Hadn't thought of putting a dog hole on the side the
the vise jaw but it makes sense. Am going to have
to go over the Allen book again. Way too many things
to miss in that book, even on the third pass. Add the
Landis book and it's mental overload time.
I looked through the Allen book again this morning and realized I'd
misrepresented it previously (not sure if it was in this thread or one on
the spalted board). In the book's illustrations it does show the dog hole
in the side of the twin-screw vise front jaw, and also in one of the
photographs of a completed bench. It's just that in the text there is no
mention of this dog hole, so I neglected to credit this book as the source
for this. In the Veritas instructions, IIRC, there are also instructions
for this. As you might have noticed in the pictures I took of the bench
using this dog hole to hold a board for jointing, it will be extremely handy
in a lot of clamping situations. I'm still going to make some board jacks
to use with the front vise, however, for instances where I'd rather not
apply clamping force to the ends of boards.
OK to pick your brain on installing the Veritas Twin
Screw?
Sure, that's no problem. It was pretty straightforward, and I followed the
warning in the instructions not to deviate from the path. But, ask me
anything you want and I'll try to help as best I can.
Thanks for the page with all the good photos.
charlie b
ps - your shop floor is WAY to clean. That will change
once all those hand planes start getting used.
And curlies will clog that dust collector.
Well, I did sweep the floor (just around the bench) prior to picture taking,
so don't be fooled too much. And I have a trash can separator (that works
quite well, by the way), so hopefully the majority of curlies will find
their home there. Now that I have the bench all my other shop rearrangement
plans are in dire need of progressing. I have to clean out about 150 bf of
ash, find a temporary place to store about 50 cans of finishes and related
supplies, move some ladders to a new home, build 6 feet of floor and wall
cabinets, etc. etc. I think the next year or so is going to find me living
in a bit of squalor in the shop, because SWMBO doesn't sympathize too much
with "shop projects". She just this morning gently "prodded" me about
getting to the 12 feet of built in bookcases she wants me to build for our
finished attic. And the 3-month old's dresser....the high chair....picture
frames....
Ain't life great
Mike