Shop Upgrades

Believe it or not I have actually been much more busy during December than it might seem.

I remade the moving dog part of my wagon vise, making it more robust, and with a better fitting dog. I really should have made the block using lamination the first time, it was much easier and is more precise.

I also figured out a way to play my ipod through an old boom box we have, which makes a much bigger sound.

For christmas I got some woodworking gifts including a 3" granite surface plate. When not in use it is good for adding extra weight to my bench.

I also discovered that the lower thrust bearing for my bandsaw guides has completely seized up, so I will need to replace it, possibly today.

Workbench Improvements

After seeing Christopher Schwarz's post about his latest workbench, I was inspired to make a tool rack on the back of my bench. It's made of poplar with a 3/4" gap. I also added a shelf to my bench which was on my list for a long time. It's made of 1"x 10" pine that I bought at Lowes for about $9. The shelf sits on two pieces that are screwed into the front legs (for the front one) and to the side stretchers (for the back one). Now why didn't I just screw both of them to the legs? Well since I still want my bench to be knockdown, in order to take out the shelf first when breaking down the bench, the shelf will have to rotate and then slide out the side of the bench, so the shelf stretchers cannot be the same size as the interior dimension of the legs. If they were I would have no clearance to rotate the entire shelf. If this sounds confusing to you, don't be worried because it's really not that big of a deal. The individual shelf pieces have a 1/2" wide rabbet so they can be ship lapped. Each shelf piece is nailed in the center with an about 1/16" gap in between each board (use pennies as spacers).

Leather For Workbench

I added some leather to my leg vise, and to my dogs. I can tell that the gripping power is much improved. I also built a new shooting board. It is more robust, and has a low friction plastic strip screwed to it so the plane's side will slide smoother. And lastly, I cut off part of my wagon vise hand crank because I was tired of it protruding above the bench top. That's all for now, I have to figure out what to do with all of this leftover leather.

Instant Bungee Lathe

After seeing a post on the Woodworking With Hand Tools blog, I was inspired to make my own end-vise lathe. I found this article all about making and using this kind of lathe. Here is what I made: As you can see, the bungee cord is strung parallel to my bench, with the power cord tied to the middle of it. The power cord (blue in my lathe) wraps around the piece being turned. The cord goes through the gap for the wagon vise and is attached to a foot pedal. There are two wooden dogs with blunted screws that pinch the workpiece.
Before I built this lathe, I thought it would be inefficient, as you can only cut on the down stroke, but in reality you develop a nice rhythm.

The piece I am turning is dogwood. Be sure to at least make your piece into an octagonal shape, otherwise it will be too rough.

I would like to make some improvements to my set-up. First I want to make a better tool rest. I also want to make a more substantial foot pedal mechanism. I also want to experiment with different kinds of rope for the power cord (my current one is nylon, which I've heard is slightly slippery).

To see more videos of pole lathes in action, see Robin Wood's Youtube Channel.

Workbench Tips and Updates

After working with my bench for a while, I have made some minor changes to it. First I added thin maple springs to my dogs, which is something that I had been meaning to do for a while, but I hadn't gotten around to doing so. While working on my coffin smoother (which is almost done!), I cut my hand on the edge of my vise chop. Apparently the chamfers were too sharp! So I rounded over the top edges of my chop (except for the side that clamps the work). You can still see some blood on there. Next, I drilled another holdfast hole near the left end of my bench. This I will use for doing tasks such as chopping out dovetails an mortises. When I do tasks such as dovetailing, small stock dimensioning, mortising and tenoning, I like to have different stations set up for different tasks. As you can see in the photo, I have the right end of my bench with different stations. From left to right: shooting board and plane, bench hook and crosscut saw for crosscutting, wagon vise for face planing. In this photo I have the right end of my bench set up for dovetailing. I have a piece in my leg vise, and a piece ready for chopping on the left. The holdfast is in the new hole.
I also made some purchases. I bought a Hock plane blade for my #4, some forstner bits, and a small float. Here are two 1/4" holes drilled by the forstner bit, and a twist bit.

And finally a new project! This is a rough design, I think I will go with the leg on the front right. It will have a drawer, and possibly breadboard ends. I'm not sure which what wood I'm going to use, maybe walnut, cherry, or soft maple.

Saw Bench

One of the "secrets" of fast hand sawing is having your work elevated at an optimal height. This may not seem like a big deal, but it really makes a difference. This is my saw bench I made out of construction lumber. The short bottom stretchers are drawbored, and the long stretchers are wedged through tenons. The legs slip into the top, and are pegged with 1/2" oak dowel. Note the artistic license I took by creating the two saw cuts on the left. The top has a 3/4" hole drilled for my gramercy holdfast. The hole is situated so that the pad falls on the top of the leg, which is the strongest part.

Workbench-Finished!

I apologize for not posting earlier, the workbench has been done for at least a week. So here it is. Note where the bench is. This weekend I plan on moving it to the far side of the room, and adding better lighting back there. I will post more pictures soon.Now what's this, pills in the shop? No, it's a jojoba oil applicator made from an old pill jar and a old t-shirt. Works great, but may raise some interesting questions...

Leg Vise

For my workbench's front vise, I went for a leg vise. This is simple and cheap to make. Mine has a 2" thick hickory chop and a old vise screw I got for $8. I made the slot for the parallel guide bar, but some how it ended being way too big, and the bar was too loose. To fix this I clamped it to a large square block of wood, and then put a bunch of slow-setting epoxy in, and some wooden wedges. Ater it dried, I pegged it. It doesn't look great, but it is stout. Since my wooden screw is so beat-up, I decided to use a system first shown on Jameel Abraham's Blog where the guide bar slides on two small wheels, thereby taking the load off of the screw. (He later turned this into one of his products at Benchcrafted, the Glide Leg Vise.) I used small caster wheels that I cut from swiveling casters. The first one I installed was the one behind the leg, it is not adjustable. Since my side stretcher is so low , the wheel is mortised directly into the leg. The front wheel is in a wooden bracket which allowed to adjust it up and down to achieve optimal results.

In this photo, the back wheel is not visible, because it only sticks out about a 1/16" from the stretcher. The location is marked by the protruding nut.

To drill the 2 1/4" clearance hole for the screw I used a hole saw. I had never used one before, and discovered that it works much faster if there is little pressure. The chop could be drilled all the way through, but the leg was drilled from both sides. The garter, the piece that locks the screw in so that when it is released, the chop will travel backwards, is made from 1/8" thick aluminum (it's blue from layout liquid). Since the garter slot is not flush with the shoulder of the screw head, I had to mortise it in. The extra space to the top of the garter is essential. This allows it to be installed and uninstalled.

The nut for the vise screw is lag bolted in. The location is very simple to mark, just tighten the whole thing down, and mark.
I left the chop a little long so I could trim it flush with my bench top. At first I used my LN low-angle block plane, then my Stanley #4, both with poor results. Then I used my Stanley #6, which worked perfectly. It is a very solid tool, and I think that the weight helped give it good momentum to push through the cut.

Sliding Deadman

The sliding deadman's job is to support long boards on edge by either resting the board on a peg or a hold fast. To make mine, I flattened a pine 2" x 8", and rabbeted the top, 5/8" from the front. There is a matching groove in the bottom of the benchtop that is 5/8" from the edge, and 5/8" wide. It is also 1/2" deep, which is the deepest my plow plane goes. This poses a slight problem, as most plans I've seen have the deadman come out by deepening the groove, and having it slide up and then over the bottom. This is why I made the tongue removable, by two screws, I didn't want the tongue to be less than 1/2" long. The bottom track is shaped like a 'v', if I had made a groove, it is likely that sawdust and shavings would have collected in the corners, and not allow the deadman to slide. The bottom 'v' groove was very hard to make, I chopped it out with a chisel, and other tools.

Wagon Vise

For my end vise I decided on an wagon vise. I think I could have gotten away with out one, but I thought it might be nice to have. Benchcrafted sells a very nice version of a wagon vise, but I just don't have that kind of money. The screw I used is sold through Lee Valley as a veneer press screw. It is pretty simple, the screw pushes a dog block which has a runner that slides in two slots under the bench. This screw was tricky. The flange, the part that was supposed to mount onto the dog block, has no holes or anything that allows it to be attached easily. So I made an oak piece that slips over the flange and is screwed to the dog block. Now I need to head over to the kennel for some dogs...