Bench Project

[mahking51]

Here are a couple of pics of my new bench in progress. This is my first effort at reducing my greenheart mountain!

My Axminster jointer and T/planer cope with it quite well as long as I don't take too thick a cut.
The stretchers are made out of a couple of bits of oak I had lying around and a friend ran up some large barrel nuts to take the M12 bolts. I don't think it is going anywhere!
The top will be 3" greenheart and will have a tail vice and a Veritas chain vice and round dog holes.
Because it will be so heavy I am going to fit 4" Jacking castors so I can roll the bench outside the shop in the summertime.
Finish is Danish Oil.
As it comes along I will post more pics.
Regards
martin[/img]

 

[DaveL]

Martin,

Looking good.

I am making a new bench and weight is one thing I am looking for, the Clarke bench I have is just too light, moves about when you start planing with anything bigger than a block plane. :shock: :? I think your greenheart is going to be the winner, I am only using ash. :roll:

I best take some pictures when it starts going together. 8)

 

[Alf]

Martin,

Ooo, that's going to be one solid bench. Lovely-jubbly. And helping to reduce the European Greenheart mountain* too - excellent. :wink:

Cheers, Alf

* For the benefit of newer members

 

[Chris Knight]

Martin,

Looks like a good start, should be as solid as a rock.

Are you putting drawers or cupboards under? What kind of casters have you got in mind - any links? Someone here posted a link to these folk http://www.abacus-furniture.co.uk/20.htm who seem to have some really tough heavy duty things.

 

[mahking51]

Chris
I like the castors on your link, very high tech!
Iwas thinking more along the lines of the ones hhere:
www.rosshandling.co.uk
I would use a socket in my cordless for winding them up and down.
Martin

 

[Philly]

Looking good Martin!
Keep us up to date,
Philly
P.s. any news on the Xcaliber? :wink:

 

[mahking51]

Hi all,
Latest progress on the bench project:
Finally finished laminating the front and top skirt sections; changed the front skirt thickness from 3" to 4 1/2"; top core is about 1 7/8" and ready to be biscuited to front after I have drilled the dog holes (Thanks Waka for a decent jointer!)
I decided to completely enclose the twin screw vice nuts within the front skirt and keep as much meat as possible in the screw thread areas, quite tricky as there is not much to play with with such a large vice.
Bought a Dieter Schmit tail vice assembly (Thanks Ian D!) which arrived quickly and is a solid and well made unit and very reasonablely priced at around £95 delivered.
Here are skirt sections:

Encapsulated Vice nut:

Also have made the front jaw for the vice with some oak trim:

I have decided not to go for the jacking castors as they are way to expensive so instead will make an old fashioned 'skate to lift each end on the odd times it needs moving.

Next big step after the dog holes will be to join the two skirt sections. I will get some help there as I don't have enough cramps and space to do the job properly.

Will up date as it goes along.
Best regards to all.
Martin[/url]

 

[Alf]

Very cool. 8) Obviously it's going to waltz across the floor in the lightest of breezes, being such a lightweight, but you can't have everything... :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Chris Knight]

It is looking very good Martin. Keep the pics coming!

 

[tim]

That looks fabulous - really love all the contrasting laminations.

Have you worked out what the final weight will be?

Cheers

Tim

 

[devonwoody]

Bench is looking good. Also nice to see you are a Triton man.

 

[Waka]

Martin

Really looking good. Glad I could be of help.

 

[DaveL]

Now I thought that my ash bench was going to be heavy but I think yours is going to put mine in the light weight class. :x
Nice looking work, I will post some pictures of mine when I get the tuit for doing more that just planing the timber. :roll:

 

[mahking51]

Managed to drill the dog holes in the vice front jaw and front skirt section; not easy as its all very heavy and the 3/4" Clico bit I bought just for this is about 1" too short and also the stroke of my drill press is 3/4" too short.
I had to drill each hole and then raise the whole lot with the bit in the hole to finish. Very hard work!

Thanks to Waka lending me his PC biscuit joiner I managed to do the skirt/top glue up on my own with no problems:

Next step was to start assembling the front vice; nice clear instructions with the Veritas unit and no real problems:

It is very important not to forget as I did to plane the front jaw 2 degrees off to allow a good tight closure.

Here is vice installed with dogs and finished:

Next step is to fit the left end cap using two barrel nuts and bolts; not too much room here as I have the bigger vice so will drill from top instead of bottom and use plugs.

Had a very pleasant afternoon in the sun doing this, spring is on the way...
Cheers all!

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Looking good Martin,

How are you getting on with the tail-vise design

Ian

 

[Philly]

That is going to be one darn good bench, Martin!
Keep up the good work
Philly

 

[mahking51]

Ian

There are only a couple of bits of this project that give me a bit of worry, foremost is the tail vice as it is completely different to the one on the plan. I think that I may build a mock up in softwood using your pics as a guide and see how I get on. Perhaps that will make it seem a bit less daunting!

The other thing I am not looking forward to is acheiving a truly flat bench top. So far I have put each section through the thicknesser before gluing up and although not at all bad there is always a slight misregietration of the surfaces, from just about feelable to perhaps just under a mm.
Then again I have left the top of the vice slightly proud and will do same with endcaps.

I only have a very old No6 plane that I bought second hand and a not very good condition 4-1/2 smoothing plane. Both need a lot of work before thety will do. hand planing has never been a strong point of mine, I suspect I'm in for some long overdue practise!

Regards
Martin

 

[Chris Knight]

It looks very smooth Martin!

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Martin,
If your struggling with the design of the tailvise i'll re draw in sketch-up if that would be of any help. but it wont be until tomorrow this is 'millar time'
I used a no 7 to flatten. youre no 6 should be fine for this purpose, but make sure you have a good flat sole and sharp blade

Ian

 

[mahking51]

Ian
That would be a huge help if you really don't mind. I've read all I can find but there is no substitute for realworld experience.
Thanks a lot
Martin