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Thread: Building Potting Benches

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    ...And finally for this installment, a confession. After using a beat up eggbeater drill to make the first couple of bolt holes my battery drill came out to do the rest. jtk
    No sweat Jim, this is exactly how Roy does it on the Woodwrights shops. Between takes he gets the work done using power tools too! JK

    Jim, this potting bench project is fine furniture. Your documentation of this project is very much appreciated. Learning lots about methods of work. Thank you!

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Barry View Post
    No sweat Jim, this is exactly how Roy does it on the Woodwrights shops. Between takes he gets the work done using power tools too! JK

    Jim, this potting bench project is fine furniture. Your documentation of this project is very much appreciated. Learning lots about methods of work. Thank you!
    Thanks for the exoneration.

    Methods of work is what it is all about. The skills learned with a plane or a chisel can be used in many places.

    You are welcome.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  3. #33
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    Oh No Mr. Bill!

    Conner came by today. I forgot to take the camera to the shop. While my attention was on the bench, he was carving a heart with the initials of a girl he knows at school. He is planning on giving it to her after spring break.

    Any way most of today was pretty straight forward with a slight change to the plan.

    Originally my benches have used a 12 quart dish pan for the dry sink. The other day when while shopping we were perusing the kitchen department, there were some 18 quart dishpans on the shelf. My trusty, in my pocket for at least the last 25 years, tape measure was whipped out and the dimensions were noted. This bench has a larger sink area than any of my previous benches. Sure enough, there was enough room to accommodate the larger dishpan with only a few minor changes. So today while in town one of the 18 quart dishpans was added to the shopping.

    12 Quart.jpg
    12 Quart

    18 Quart.jpg
    18 Quart

    With the 12 quart pan there is enough clearance for the cross pieces to extend all the way to the edge of the shelf supports. The 18 quart pan is a little taller. This was solved by making the cross pieces fit inside the pan. The top left piece of the door was aligned to its adjacent shelf slat with an 1/8" spacer. A center line was drawn on the top side of the brace and a divider was used to set it in place. This was done so no matter how the dishpan was set in the shelf there would be clearance. When all looked good, a clamp was used to hold the pieces together. Then screws were installed. The round ends on the cross braces were made with a large gouge.

    Door Underside.jpg

    There are various screw patterns that will work. There needs to be a triangular pattern or non parallelogram pattern so the shape can not deform. Here the straight line of the screws at the side and the trapezoid in the center. The outside slats are installed first. The last piece in the picture has not been fastened. A 1/2" spacer can be seen between the clamps. Pilot holes were drilled with the bit in the picture in my battery powered drill motor. It was also used to drive the screws. Conner got an education in screw clocking.

    The two pieces in the center have hand holds cut into them.

    Door Done.jpg

    These were made using a forestner bit and then sawn. The ends were cleaned up using chisels, gouges and a half round sheer file.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #34
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    Jim,

    Like Pat and the rest have said, I am really enjoying this thread. It is interesting and helps me understand some steps that will help my woodworking in regards to careful fitting work.

    Sometime you will have to give folks like me some instruction in clocking the woodscrews. I wonder how folks get them to work out just so.

    At any rate nice job, and thanks for all the work posting this. I know it must be quite time consuming. It will be neat to see the finished bench!

    I am sure lots of others have the same thoughts.

    Thanks and regards,

    Stew

  5. #35
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    Sometime you will have to give folks like me some instruction in clocking the woodscrews. I wonder how folks get them to work out just so.
    It is actually fairly easy.

    It starts with drilling the pilot hole. The tool used for almost all of my drilling for this size can be seen in the door underside image in my previous post. It makes a countersink, shank pilot and thread pilot hole. The bit can be adjusted for depth. One of the things I told Conner today was to check against the setting to the screws as you go. Maybe he should be tested on that next time and then tell him why it is important to do.

    My drill motor has a clutch. With these screws it usually gets them pretty close set on 6 (of 16). Once at this point there are a couple of ways to go.

    With a battery drill and the trigger disengaged the chuck can (at least on mine) be turned by hand. Also on mine with the trigger engaged the handle leverage can be utilized as long as the other hand is on the chuck. I usually wax the screws before they are driven.

    Another option is to turn the last half turn by hand. I usually keep a screwdriver on the bench when doing this.

    Driving screws is a tasks to be done with care. The speed comes with practice and not having do overs.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  6. #36
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    Some work was accomplished today.

    First was the final trim on the door or sink cover. A gouge was used to remove the corner of the rabbet in the area of the hand hole:

    Starting the Gouge Cut.jpg

    The cut is started by making small "stop" cuts at the end where the grain is coming up. (cut carefully against the grain)

    Gouge Work.jpg

    Then come in from the direction with the grain and take light cuts until the desired depth is cut. After this the area was sanded and the sharp corner at the top of the rabbet was rounded over in the hand hole area. Note: This image is from cutting the front. The previous was taken while cutting the back stretcher.

    My enthusiasm for using some molding planes was piqued today after reading Bill Brush's post about finding some molding planes. This and I won a bid for a pair of hollow & round planes. So the upper shelf got some treatment:

    Shaping the Edge.jpg

    This was a little rough. Hey, it is rough cut cedar, you should have seen it before it was planed. Sanding up to 220 and then rubbing it with shavings made it acceptable. The corners need to be rounded. I would like to carve the back splash for the shelf, but that would add to the work. If it doesn't sell quickly maybe then it will get some more treatment.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  7. #37
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    Entering the Home Stretch

    Making the shelf is fairly straight forward. The piece was cut to length by marking against the dados in the legs. I do not like to leave the shelf end square so a template used for other work was called into service to mark a shape on the end of the shelf:

    Ogee Template on shelf.jpg

    It was cut on a bandsaw.

    There is a piece that goes across the back on top of the shelf. The top of it was rounded over with a block plane to match the top of the leg. Then there is a support under the shelf. It was held in place for marking and then half laps were cut in to it.

    Snug Fit Rail.jpg

    The laps were cut a little proud. Clamps were used to hold it in place to mark the top of the end so it could be shaped to be in harmony with the other pieces in the neighborhood.

    Then the marks were transfered to the faces:

    Bench Hook - Extra Hand.jpg

    Here the bench hook is like a third hand. This one has done a lot of work in its time. If you don't use bench hooks, you might want to give them a try. You may wonder how you ever got along without them.

    The end was rounded over using chisels, block planes and whatever else seemed to work:

    Chisel Trimming.jpg

    Just like undercutting tenon shoulders, a little undercutting on the face of a lap joint can make it fit a lot better:

    Under cuttting the Lap.jpg

    It came together well:

    --Shelf End Detail.jpg more detail.jpg

    Here is how it looks before my wife did some sanding:

    Ready to Sand.jpg

    it now has some BLO splashed on and should get some more tomorrow.

    Now if I could only find a better source for cedar...

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  8. #38
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    Jim,

    Pretty cool, looks great! If you wouldn't mind, please add a couple of close ups once the oil finish is complete. Very nice benches. I can see why they have sold well in the past.

    I edited the post to add the below items:

    Jim, after your reply on your clocking video, I came back and looked even more closely at the finished photo, looking for the details better than I did the first time.

    The front dovetails, and lap joints in the legs for holding the shelves look great! When I first looked at the photos I noticed the neat even spacing of the slats and the very nice job on the ogee. Of course when I went back to look for details I saw more, such as the lap joints and dovetails, but fundamentally I like the very nice attention to detail such as the slat spacing, etc., and nice design. Again, nice job!

    And, I hope they sell well.

    Stew
    Last edited by Stew Denton; 04-01-2015 at 12:09 AM.

  9. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stew Denton View Post
    Jim,

    Pretty cool, looks great! If you wouldn't mind, please add a couple of close ups once the oil finish is complete. Very nice benches. I can see why they have sold well in the past.

    [snip]

    And, I hope they sell well.

    Stew
    Thanks Stew. Don't mind at all, here are a few more pics after the oil coat. It is a bit wet outside today so the bench is still sitting in the shop.

    Top shelf detail:

    Top Left Detail.jpg

    Front corner detail:

    Front Left Detail.jpg

    Bench after first coat of BLO:

    BLO Coated.jpg

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  10. #40
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    Jim,

    Thanks for the added photos. The oil brought out the grain very nicely.

    Thank you again for all of the photos and information on the project. From the previous posts of the others, and the number of folks that viewed the project, I would say that a lot of us enjoyed your project a great deal. I certainly did, and believe I learned from it.

    Thanks and regards,

    Stew

  11. #41
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    Jim,
    I've enjoyed following along on this build. It is always nice to see the work flow details of others. I always pick up a few little tips every time. Thanks.

  12. #42
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    An Addendum For Tricks

    Often Candy, my wife, helps on gluing up things. Today she was busy working in the greenhouse on getting more plants ready for the farmers market.

    So today it was a one person glue up on the second potting bench which had parts cut at the same time as the one done in the thread leading up to this.

    A trick for one person glue ups seems obvious, but maybe someone will see it as something they missed:

    One Person Gluing.jpg

    A small spring clamp can hold the pad block in place while the clamp is brought into place.

    They could also be held on the clamp with double stick tape if there is any around.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  13. #43
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    All tricks are worth sharing Jim so thanks for this.
    "If you have all your fingers, you can convert to Metric"

  14. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    There are a few design elements to consider...
    Here is a bit more detail on the dowel making and marking. A new helper was added to the tools:

    Fortunately two potting benches parts were being made at the same time when this thread started. Feeling that one would sell got me a bit of a head start before Mother's Day weekend. Good thing, someone bought a bench last Saturday.

    Here are a few details from building potting benches. Riven wood follows the grain. For a little extra strength in my bench's dry sink support these are preferred over the dowel stock available commercially. Some of those have the grain angled across the dowel. Why court failure when it is simple to avoid it?

    Riving Dowel Stock.jpg

    With all the scraps around my shop this puts it to good use.

    The end going into the dowel former is tapered using a chisel to make it feed better.

    End Prep.jpg

    Because the stock is a little over size it is first run through a 1/2" dowel former. It is then trimmed again using a chisel and knocked through the 3/8" dowel former.

    Whack a Dowel.jpg

    My oak scrap is cut to 4-1/2" before riving. This is to make dowels that can be driven in approximately 2"+. To find the center a small mark is placed on two dowels side by side at what looks like center.

    Guessing Center.jpg

    Then one of the dowels is flipped end for end and if there is any discrepancy between the two marks, the center is marked between them.

    Finding Center step 2.jpg

    Close enough. Cutting dowel stock is one of the places where using my pull saw is preferred.

    Marking the drilling points for dowels has been a clumsy affair.

    Clumsy Dowel Marking.jpg

    Trying to hold a square, a measuring shim and marking the holes is a bit cumbersome. So a new marking gauge was made.

    New Helper.jpg

    This block rests against the piece being doweled and the shelf rail. There was a 3/8" rabbet cut in the block of 2X scrap. A piece of 3/4" scrap was mounted into this. The edge of the long 3/4" scrap centers on the vertical piece. While thinking about this about a half dozen ways came to mind. This seemed the simplest and has applications for other projects.

    Much easier in the long run without having to measure where to put the holes while holding all these things at the same time.

    Marking.jpg

    Building potting benches will likely be part of my woodworking in the foreseeable future. May as well make it go as easy and quickly as possible.

    Now more parts have to be made for more benches for when and if this one sells.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  15. #45
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    It is interesting to see you having success with just banging the dowels through the dowel jig. I have a plate, and if I try to just split stock and hammer them through I usually end up with a fair proportion of kindling. I have better luck starting them into the plate a short distance more or less to mark the size. Then I flip a plane upside down and clamp it in the bench vice and use it to trim the "marked" piece very close to size before putting it all the way through the plate.

    The benches are very nice. Not hard to see why they sell.

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