Big Weekend

Tomorrow is a pretty big day. Other than being perfect weather, 5:00 p.m. CST will mark the beginning of a project weekend. Full blown projects. I am very excited. I had big plans for the work bench. But, for whatever reason, I think Fri. night and Sat. will involve a lot of welding. Regardless, I plan to finally have some updates soon.

Ash

I have a book entitled Red Oaks & Black Birches: The Science and Lore of Trees by Rebecca Rupp. It is full of all kinds of information about various trees. Some of it it useful, some of it is trivial, some of it apocryphal, but all of it is interesting. And, since all the base and most of the top of my bench will be made of ash, I thought I would pass along some of the more interesting tidbits about it:

- Hank Aaron hit his 755th home run with an ash bat
- Beowulf and King Arthur toted ash spears
- A cord of white ash delivers about 20 million BTUs of heat; or the equivalent of 204 gallons of no. 2 fuel oil
- Ash is a member of the Olive family, Oleaceae, which includes the olive, privet, jasmine, forsythia, and lilac
- The original ash in Norse legend was Yggdrasil, the Tree of the World; Odin the one-eyed king of the gods created the first man from an ash tree and named his "Ask" (the first woman was made from an alder which is a birch)
- In Works and Days, Hesiod describes how Zeus created the third generation of men from a collection of ash spears
- The Algonquian Indians believed that humankind began when the Creator shot an arrow into the heart of an ash tree. Human beings, both male and female, then emerged
- Black ash, or hoop ash, splints were used to make barrel hoops, chair bottoms, woven mats, eel traps, fishing creels, baskets, and animal muzzles.

Heavy milling

As a refresher, these are the original two slabs I posted back before Christmas.


This is a long view of one of them. Each was 12' long.


I broke them down into approximately 79"/65" lengths


Here is the Woodmizer. You can see the stack of wood on the ground near the loader.


This is one of the bench top slabs being readied for cutting.

The slab again. Also, on the loader, you can see what will become the legs. It is white oak. This is some pretty rough looking stuff. It already served one full life as a clamp pad for rolling and emptying railroad cars. Then, it spend some time on the ground and has some real rot on one end.

This is the finished product. It has been roughed out with the Woodmizer, jointed, and planed to thickness. It took pretty much a full 12 hour day to get to this. (Including pulling out and setting up equipment, putting equipment back up, etc.) From left to right:
Board 1 - Base, contains 2 feet
Board 2 - Base, contains 2 top pieces
Board 3 - Top, Center slab 1
Board 4 - Top, Center slab 2
Board 5 - Base, Contains 2 risers
Board 6 - Base, Contains 2 risers
Board 7 & 8 (stacked on top of each other) - Stretchers

Bench Plan Outline

Christmas vacation was very nice. In addition to spending some time on a lathe and explaining to a TSA representative that my mallets were for striking chisels and not airline personnel, I got to experiment with some benches. I will post more later regarding what I learned and how it changed how I am going to build my bench.

I spent a lot of time in the airport figuring out how this thing is going to go together. None of the bench components are original ideas. And, I will give background information/credit where it is most appropriate. For now, I just want to get my outline up so that I will have something to go by.

The majority of the wood for both the base and the top of the bench is going to come out of the two 12/4 ash boards I posted photos of the other day. The remainder will come from some oak, cherry or black walnut. I am not sure yet how it is going to shake out.

I hope to get the drawings done for the bench this week and posted by the end of the weekend.

This is the outline for what all I can tell has to go into the bench at this time. (Sorry, the post did not appear in the outline form I had intended. It makes it a little difficult to follow).

I. CUTTING/MILLING
A. Chainsaw
1. Separate Slab 1 & Slab 2 from main slabs
B. Woodmizer
1. Take ears off of Slabs 1 & 2
2. Cut feet/leg tops/uprights length-wise
3. Cut stretchers in half length-wise
C. Chopsaw/Bandsaw
1. Cut wood to rough length
2. Cut wedges to be used in base
D. Jointer
1. Joint edges of all stock
2. Joint one face of all cut components but slab 1 & 2
E. Planer
1. Plane all stock (except slab 1 & 2) to thickness
2. Plane slab 1 & 2 to flatten (on sled if necessary)

II. BASE
A. Feet
1. Cut arches w/ either band saw or coping saw
2. Clean up with file and scraper
B. Mortise & Tenon (See: Hoadley to insure proper M&T orientation)
1. Cut tenons on risers (tenon saw, 8 total)
2. Cut mortises in feet (Drill press and chisel clean, 4 total)
3. Cut mortises in leg tops (Drill press and chisel clean, 4 total)
4. Glue up and wedge tenons
C. Stretchers
1. Cut recess in stretcher ends (Bore out and connect with coping saw)
2. Cut nut recess (Drill press and chisel)
D. Assemble base
E. Base hardware, etc.
1. Stainless machine bolts, nuts, washers, all spray painted O.D. green
2. Bullets for top out of 1" dowels
3. Cups/live rubber for under feet

III. TOP
A. Slabs
1. Biscuit jointer slots for big biscuits
2. Glue up slabs - need plenty of clamps
B. Dog Hole Strip
1. Cut dog holes (back saw and chop relief with chisel)
2. Cut tail notch
3. Cut dovetail pin
4. Biscuit joint and glue dog hole strip to top
5. Glue on dog hole strip cover
6. Glue 1" x 1" strip along backside of dog hole on bottom of bench

IV. END CAPS
A. Left End Cap
1. Cut pin
2. Groove for spline - do NOT cut full length or will show in tool till
3. Cut half-blind pins on other end
B. Right End Cap
* Needs more study in conjunction with mounting tail vise

V. TOOL TILL
A. Apron
1. Clamp apron on back of bench and mark dovetails
2. Cut dovetails and fit into end caps
3. Cut grove along bottom of apron to accept till bottom
* Till floor needs to be even with bottom of bench
B. Tool Till Floor
1. Dry fit
2. Attach to bottom of bench with screws
* screw through slots perpendicular to bench to allow for seasonal changes
C. Ramps
1. Determine and cut correct miter
2. Glue into place

VI. BOTTOM SPACERS
A. Attach with screws only (slots too)
*Note: vises need to be laid out to insure spacers do not interfere with movement

VII. FRONT VISE (Ref. Woodcraft product sheet)
A. Front Spacer Block
1. Note and bore clearance holes for dogs
2. Attach spacer to bottom of bench with glue and screws
B. Front Vise Face Block
1. Laminate vise face block
2. Bore holes for screw and guides
3. Cut rounded edge (use whatever technique worked well for feet)
C. Bench Top Prep. for Accepting Vise
1. Bore rod and screw holes (clamp face to bench for pattern)
* Holes slightly larger than guide and screw holes (approx. 1/4")
* Make sure holes are perfectly perpendicular
2. Plane flat bench and vise face
D. Attach Vise:
1. Attach vise to face block
2. Present guide rods and screw through bench face
3. From back side, slide carriage onto rods and pull flush with back of dog hole strip
4. Tighten vise screw
5. Once face block is positioned, attach carriage to bench

VIII. END VISE
* Needs more study

IX. FLATTEN TOP
A. Use smoothing and jointer plane

X. FINISH
A. Oil and wax
1. Galoot wax formula
a. 1 part beeswax
b. 1 part turpentine
c. 1 part boiled linseed oil
2. Application
a. 2x daily for 2 weeks
b. 2x weekly for 2 months
c. 2x monthly for 2 years
d. As needed for life

Vises

Santa Claus and Woodcraft Clearance rack was good to me. This is my shoulder vise. The screw is 1-1/4".


This is the tail vise.


Both have Acme threads:

BenchTop

The chief lumber inspector is having a quick look at this ash for suitability as a bench top.


It is some nice 12/4 stuff.


There is some nice figuring in the wood.


I have considered two 10 or so inch slabs.


Although each piece is cracked on the end, I should be able to get some nice legs out of here...


...and here.


This is some of the old 4/4 black walnut I want to try and incorporate somewhere on the bench - maybe the caps of the tail vise.

Change (,) of course

I recently received an e-mail forward from my father-in-law. It read "one of the greatest secrets of life is to have both wisdom and patience". At the bottom of the e-mail was a photo of a bird dog watching a skunk eat out of its bowl. In a rare feat, I have managed to bring wisdom and patience together in my shop. I am postponing the building of the Chestnut Prospector.

I purchased a 1:12 scale model of the Prospector back in October. As of the middle of December, I had managed to build the strong back. To scale, it would have taken me 18 months to get the strong back built for my real canoe. After some reflection, I realized that now may not be the best time in my life to try and build a canoe in my only work space.

This, of course, creates a project vacuum. To fill this vacuum, I am going to build a workbench. It is going to be a traditional workbench, more or less Ulmia style. Thanks to Woodraft's current deep discounts and free shipping, Santa Claus should be dropping a side and tail vise down the chimney real soon.

I hope to pick out the wood for the bench top this weekend. I'm gonna have a look around in the lumber stash, but according to Big John, there is some ash that is a prime candidate for the job. White oak is a possibility, but I do not think it is dry yet. Also, the ash came off of Uncle Hiram's place. We sawed it in August of 2003, so it should be nice and dry. I am not sure what kind of wood will be used for the trestle base. I may use some black walnut for accent on the tail vise and end caps. I am just not sure right now.

Regardless, the canoe model and book has been shelved for the time being. The workbench is the big project.