I banged out some thru mortises this past winter for a new work bench.
I was going to use wedges to complete them, but I haven't cut the angle
in the mortise yet.

Anyway, I had dry assembled them together and now that summer is here I
can't get them apart. I have brought the assembly into my air
conditioned space hoping it will dry out wood and shrink it back to
winter conditions, but I'll bet that won't work. Anyone got any ideas
how I can them them apart. I have tried banging the hell out of them,
spreading them with clamps... nothing.

On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:08:07 -0400, tiredofspam wrote:

I banged out some thru mortises this past winter for a new work bench.
I was going to use wedges to complete them, but I haven't cut the angle
in the mortise yet.

Anyway, I had dry assembled them together and now that summer is here I
can't get them apart. I have brought the assembly into my air
conditioned space hoping it will dry out wood and shrink it back to
winter conditions, but I'll bet that won't work. Anyone got any ideas
how I can them them apart. I have tried banging the hell out of them,
spreading them with clamps... nothing.

Congratulations on the well made joints,
drying is about the only option, if they
don't respond to reasonable force.

Cover with a tarpaulin and put an electric
space heater under them for a week or so and
it should loosen the up.

Be careful what you cover them with and be aware
of firehazard with the space heater.

basilisk

Be careful what you cover them with and be aware
of firehazard with the space heater.

basilisk

Yup, you need to build a kiln of sorts.

Classic build method of Windsor chairs is to dry the round tennons in
the oven and then bangthem in place and once the suck back up some
moisture you are done.

You could just add some healthy pins and be done.

On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:08:07 -0400, tiredofspam wrote:

I banged out some thru mortises this past winter for a new work bench.
I was going to use wedges to complete them, but I haven't cut the angle
in the mortise yet.

Anyway, I had dry assembled them together and now that summer is here I
can't get them apart. I have brought the assembly into my air
conditioned space hoping it will dry out wood and shrink it back to
winter conditions, but I'll bet that won't work. Anyone got any ideas
how I can them them apart. I have tried banging the hell out of them,
spreading them with clamps... nothing.

It is going to be the tenon edges that have it locked up,
it might be possible to insert a narrowed bladed multi
tool into the edges of the tenon and free the joints up.

basilisk

On Jul 19, 3:08*pm, tiredofspam nospam.nospam.com wrote:
I banged out some thru mortises this past winter for a new work bench.
I was going to use wedges to complete them, but I haven't cut the angle
in the mortise yet.

Anyway, I had dry assembled them together and now that summer is here I
can't get them apart. I have brought the assembly into my air
conditioned space hoping it will dry out wood and shrink it back to
winter conditions, but I'll bet that won't work. Anyone got any ideas
how I can them them apart. I have tried banging the hell out of them,
spreading them with clamps... nothing.

Nice job on the tight joints! Have you tried Momma's blow dryer, scrap
wood and a post maul? Where there's a will, there's a way. Can you
wait 'til next winter?

RP

On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:21:36 -0400, "dadiOH"
wrote the following:

tiredofspam wrote:
I banged out some thru mortises this past winter for a new work bench.
I was going to use wedges to complete them, but I haven't cut the
angle in the mortise yet.

Anyway, I had dry assembled them together and now that summer is here
I can't get them apart. I have brought the assembly into my air
conditioned space hoping it will dry out wood and shrink it back to
winter conditions, but I'll bet that won't work. Anyone got any ideas
how I can them them apart. I have tried banging the hell out of them,
spreading them with clamps... nothing.

Hair dryer?

Air conditioner: Removes the moisture which allows the swelling to go
down in the tenon.

--
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels,
throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions,
without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act
with cheerfulness. -- Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 12, 1711

I've had it in the Air conditioned air for 3 days. I'll keep a week or
2. The idea of heating up the area using a space heater to dry it out
seems counter intuitive to me.
A) it's too freaking hot here.
B) it might not get rid of the moisture as heat doesn't always get rid
of moisture, proof of that is the summer... ... yea yea I know we need
humidifiers to add moisture to the heated rooms... but I can't bring
myself to heat the thing.

On 7/20/2010 9:38 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:21:36 -0400,
wrote the following:

tiredofspam wrote:
I banged out some thru mortises this past winter for a new work bench.
I was going to use wedges to complete them, but I haven't cut the
angle in the mortise yet.

Anyway, I had dry assembled them together and now that summer is here
I can't get them apart. I have brought the assembly into my air
conditioned space hoping it will dry out wood and shrink it back to
winter conditions, but I'll bet that won't work. Anyone got any ideas
how I can them them apart. I have tried banging the hell out of them,
spreading them with clamps... nothing.

Hair dryer?

Air conditioner: Removes the moisture which allows the swelling to go
down in the tenon.

--
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels,
throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions,
without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act
with cheerfulness. -- Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 12, 1711

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:27:23 -0400, "dadiOH"
wrote the following:

tiredofspam wrote:
I've had it in the Air conditioned air for 3 days. I'll keep a week or
2. The idea of heating up the area using a space heater to dry it out
seems counter intuitive to me.
A) it's too freaking hot here.
B) it might not get rid of the moisture as heat doesn't always get rid
of moisture,

Drat. Now my wife has to stop using her clothes dryer.

Those parts might be dehumidified in a large vacuum bag, like they use
for veneering. Suck it down into a vacuum and the moisture evaporates
and is sucked out.

--
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels,
throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions,
without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act
with cheerfulness. -- Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 12, 1711

Thats a great idea since the air conditioning failed to free it up.

I don't have a big enough bag, but do have a medical grade vacuum that I
bought many years ago. Guess I'll have to make a bag.
Thanks.

BTW I guess I can then stick it in the dryer 8)

On 7/21/2010 6:21 PM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:27:23 -0400,
wrote the following:

tiredofspam wrote:
I've had it in the Air conditioned air for 3 days. I'll keep a week or
2. The idea of heating up the area using a space heater to dry it out
seems counter intuitive to me.
A) it's too freaking hot here.
B) it might not get rid of the moisture as heat doesn't always get rid
of moisture,

Drat. Now my wife has to stop using her clothes dryer.

Those parts might be dehumidified in a large vacuum bag, like they use
for veneering. Suck it down into a vacuum and the moisture evaporates
and is sucked out.

--
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels,
throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions,
without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act
with cheerfulness. -- Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 12, 1711