Alright chaps.
This has been in bits for a while now. Had a quiet day or two so thought I'd sort it out.
I mentioned before the oak end to my bench had undergone a cascamite glue failure. I thought I'd screwed/bolted it on and filled the heads with beech dowel. So I spent a nervous few minutes drilling then approaching the metal heads behind the dowel trying not to bork my tools.
Anyway. I'm an idiot. I'd just glued and dowelled the oak end on so I could have just pried it off and saved myself some work and some nice oak...
I didn't though and the old oak bit was done in so I cut some yew that was lying about to size. Learnt a bit since building the bench so left a little oversize and planed it to fit in situ. This time I just glued it on with hideglue (titebond in a bottle *Thanks Andy T) screwed it on and plugged with some oak dowel.
Fitting was actually a doddle because it's designed to just be screwed on although you need to get the holes for the spikes accurate. I used chalk to get the holes positioned.
You know sometimes, things just appear to be going too well? The spikes were 16mm. I have a 16mm auger bit. No 15 or 17 mind. But it didn't fit properly at first. Hmmmm.
.... But I also have a 19mm bit. That accounted for the casting thickening at the base.
But also. By mad chance, I also have a 16mm starM 16mm countersink (amazing bit of kit btw) that just happened to be the exact hole diameter and made me feel all professional. (Shhh!) 3 different bits to make one hole. Easy at the back. Stop giggling.
When you are waiting for it to go wrong moment because everything is going far
tooo well! That's what it felt like.
Anyway. All went ok. Sweet!
The only problem I had in fact was getting the bench on it's ar*e. It's not the weight, just the mass and the size for one man. I tried a few things then thought walk away.
Went down the shed this morning. Looked at it.
If only I had some big metal handles I could plug into the top...
Well, turns out I did. And it works really well.
Space age router work holding. Also bench handles. Who knew?
Need to break the arris off the edges of that oak and slap a little BLO on but hey. It's done.
Only issue is I might need to source some new form of spring as the quick release is not bang on. It 'works' but it's an effort.
That's definitely sortable and a minor price for having such a lovely thing in my shed. I feel quite privileged tbh.
Thanks for all the help and advice on this one fellas.
Cheers as always
Chris