Frankenbench begins

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Looks nice, Joe. I would be perfectly happy with a 3.5" bench, and I think with kiln dried lumber I should be OK. I am having to buy sight-unseen and put the wood on a boat. Once it gets here there's no sending it back or going back for extra either. I do have plenty of fudge factor because the boards are 10' long so I can pick and choose my cuts and the offcuts are for future projects unless I decide to make the shelving out of them, which would kind of be wasting good wood. The rest of the bench will be mahogany which I can get locally in >2" thickness and wide widths.

I found this today while looking for last-minute ideas. Exactly what I am doing with the pattern maker's vise. http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/...rkbench-part-5

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Update: The mahogany for the base has been acclimating for a while and is now absolutely dry and ready for the build. I am ordering some ash today from the states, so it will be a few weeks before I actually see it on island. I'll let it sit a while before using it, but being kiln dried I am hoping it will not need much to acclimate. I have a 2'x8' plank that I use to build surfboards on and laid it on my existing bench to see how tight that would make my shop. It was surprisingly not at all tight, and with rearranging a few things it's even better now. The plan is to make the long portion 7' and the short portion 5.5', so the overhang where the pattern maker's vise will be is 18" long, 14" wide. (Bench is 28" wide, and overhang portion is half that.) Refer back to drawing for clarity.

With the Hovarter vise on one end, and the pattern maker's vise on the other, I'll have over 9' of clamping capacity with both opposing vises all the way open. My first big project is going to be making some 9' tall doors to replace my entry door. (old house- big doors). I also have a ton of shutters to build.

I plan to bleach the ash so that it is as light in color as possible. I want to brighten things up in the shop a bit, and also I like working on a light colored top. Will keep ya posted. Expect this to be a very long, drawn-out project.

[Chris Hachet]

Let's try this s again. I keep deleting my response.

Brian, I thought long and hard about a planing bench, but I would still need a bench and I don't want to keep knocking something down and setting it up. The shop is bigger than I may have suggested. It is roughly 12 x 17. I am moving stuff around and it will fit fine with 3' between me and the tool cabinet, and close to that on the pattern vise end. The other side has tons of room but has to serve as a pass through to the exit door on one end, and entrance to the downstairs kitchen (which has been commandeered as a sharpening area) on the other end. The air compressor will move into the storage area and that tall cabinet moves out of the way as well. I am moving stuff around so the shop is a wreck. The stuff piled on the bench is waiting for me to finish moving stuff.

Attachment 319747Attachment 319748


Kent- Surfboards and replacing these 8.5' doors with mahogany ones are on the list.
Attachment 319749


Joe- Benchcrafted and Hovarter are the only two leg vises I am considering.

Both vises work really well....love my Bench crafted Vise. I like the way youa re trying to maximize your space. I work in a two car garage and it still feels small.

[Tim Cooper Louisiana]

Hey Malcolm. Your bench design seems very neat. I spent over an hour trying to find those Hovarter vices. I had read about them but couldn't find the name. I now blame you over the fact that I gave up and spent $700 on the benchcrafted Roubo kit.

I was was just going to ask, but then I googled a bit. I'm guessing that you make some cool surfboards and kayaks. If so, that stuff looks amazing. To get to the point, I love the poster. Very Templarishery. That must be a word because spell check didn't even react. Do you have any available for order? I apologize for rambling.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Hey Malcolm. Your bench design seems very neat. I spent over an hour trying to find those Hovarter vices. I had read about them but couldn't find the name. I now blame you over the fact that I gave up and spent $700 on the benchcrafted Roubo kit.

I was was just going to ask, but then I googled a bit. I'm guessing that you make some cool surfboards and kayaks. If so, that stuff looks amazing. To get to the point, I love the poster. Very Templarishery. That must be a word because spell check didn't even react. Do you have any available for order? I apologize for rambling.

Hello Tim, the Cross of Saint James is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago- a trek across Spain that was instrumental in how I met my wife and where we got engaged. I built her a surfboard with it and the shell that is also a symbol of the Camino both inlaid on the surfboard. The cross became my trademark and is now on every board I make. Sorry, the poster was a one-off that my wife had made for me.

I am am anxious to see the Hovarter in action. I am getting their twin screw tail vise and the Benchcrafted leg vise. I just want those two vises- or else I would stick with Hovarter all the way. I love how the Benchcrafted glides open, and I would often need to open the leg vise while holding a board. The Benchcrafted seems easy to do that with. I also like the look of the classic handle.

[Jim Ritter]

Hovarter makes a really nice leg vise unit. You can have a traditional wooden hub or a polished wheel and switch them out just by pulling a pin.



I teamed it up with a chain for for a quick release no pin leg vise which is awesome.
Jim

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Jim, I totaled my Hovarter order, and it's about $900 for a leg vise, twin "screw" vise (not really screws, but what else ya gonna call it?), a crossmember ("X") for the leg vise, two round wheels, and one cap for the second rod on the twin screw. Without a doubt, I am sold on the Hovarter- now I just have to sell a few things to pay for it.

My mahogany for the base is 122" long, and I am making the bench 33.5" tall. That means with factoring 1" for the tenon height, my legs need to be 30" tall. That means with saw kerf factored in, I am going to have to make these cuts very accurate, because I don't have much fudge factor. The wood is very dry, so I'm hoping not much movement once cut, so I will cut them very close to length, let them sit, then start shaping them to final dimensions.

I have something up my sleeve with a removable tray under the top that can be slid back and forth and adjusted to be flat or at an angle (for easier tool grabbing). Stay tuned.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

image.jpgMy ash is shipping today. Boy, don't say that Three times fast!!! It should be here early next week if it gets on this boat. The guy sent me a picture. 12 boards, each one 12 feet long x 8" x 2". Should have plenty left over. Once it arrives I will rough dimension it and let it sit in the shop and acclimate. It is coming from Florida, so hopefully not much acclimation will be needed.

Sent Hovarter an email with some final questions. I get a bonus in 2 weeks and plan to make the big purchase. Exciting times.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm glad this thread opened up again. I am reading with relish, Malcolm. I love that you are a man of many vises. I would appreciate the flexibility to work from all sides and angles as you are. One thing I don't see is a tail vise. Not your cup of tea, huh? How about a little wagon vise on the short side opposing the twin screw? I like a tail vise or wagon vise for planing narrow things. Some things like chair legs feel too long for a face/leg vise but too narrow for a twin screw. A wagon (vis a vis a tail) is nice in this case because the handle stays fixed relative to the bench end, which means you won't impede the corner which appears to be critical to fitting your trapezoidal room.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I'm glad this thread opened up again. I am reading with relish, Malcolm. I love that you are a man of many vises. I would appreciate the flexibility to work from all sides and angles as you are. One thing I don't see is a tail vise. Not your cup of tea, huh? How about a little wagon vise on the short side opposing the twin screw? I like a tail vise or wagon vise for planing narrow things. Some things like chair legs feel too long for a face/leg vise but too narrow for a twin screw. A wagon (vis a vis a tail) is nice in this case because the handle stays fixed relative to the bench end, which means you won't impede the corner which appears to be critical to fitting your trapezoidal room.

Have a hot dog with that relish! I don't see a need for a tail vise when you have a twin screw mounted on the end of the bench. Also what I plan to do, and in fact I need to check my email to see if Mr. Hovarter responded to my questions about this) is to mount the end vise where the rod (screw) is as close as possible to the edge, and dog holes hopefully falling about 2.5" to center from the edge of the bench. With that, no need for a wagon vise, although they are way cool, and I did think about putting one on the other side of the bench. The problem there is you really need to mount them in the overhang, and that is already taken up with the dual rod (twin screw) vise. Hovarter offers removable handles, and has an optional cap for the handle not in use. I plan to move the capped rod as far to the long edge of the bench as possible. Since the cap is only somewhere around 3" diameter (waiting for Hovarter to verify), it won't protrude past the edge. On the other side- the rod with the wheel on it will be mounted 4.5" in from the side so the 8" diameter wheel doesn't protrude past the edge on that side.

I really need to do a diagram- hard to say in words. Anyway- there's no more money for a wagon vise, and honestly 3 vises is almost too much. A wagon vise, as cool as they are, might get me called eccentric. (Although I take that as a compliment.)

I'm a man of many needs. The leg vise along with the sliding deadman allows me to edge joint long boards. I almost exclusively buy 10' rough cut mahogany. Typically I hand joint the edge, then use that against the fence on a table saw. So I need the long side clamping ability. I also wanted a wide vise because one of the most frequent things I use a vise for is cutting things to length. A lot of times I just clamp it and cut it and go straight to the shooting board. I also wanted a minimum of 18" between the rods for dovetailing. Yes, I know I can dovetail on the face vise and deadman, but I wanted to slide the vise open, clamp the board, and go at it. I have a lot of drawers to make for upcoming projects.

The pattern maker's vise also gives me vertical clamping for chair legs with room to access it on all sides, and ability to spin it. I like that. Also I make patterns for boat fittings, and I wanted the pattern maker's vise to hang by itself with no obstructions on either side. To me, this is an ideal way to hang a pattern maker's vise. I am really excited about that aspect of the bench.

By the way, keep in mind I build surfboards, which are usually from 8' to 11' and even 14' long, although the 14' one would be built outside. I need to clamp 8' or longer boards on top of the bench. The two opposing vises with 12"+ jaw openings gives me a total of over 9' of capacity. Perfect, because almost all the doors in my house are between 8 and 9 feet, and I also have tons of shutters to build for the windows and doors. So that's kind of the whole story of why the vise choices.

....but wouldn't a wagon vise be nice? :-) Don't start me- I'm already broke.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

According to Len Hovarter, the vise can clamp on one side alone as long as you clamp on or inboard of the rod. The minimum distance the rod can be is 4.25" from the edge. Well darn. I want my dogs 2" from the edge. I wonder how much risk I will be taking to just do it and drill the dog holes 2" outbound of the rod. Is it really going to rack that much just 2" off? I will ask him. I hate bothering the guy.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I posted a shop tour in the workshop section, and you can see my mockup of the Roubo to show how it's going to fit in the shop. It is tight, but plenty of room to walk around and roll tools around it. I'm very happy. Also you can see the mahogany, which I will be cutting this week, laying on the floor. It's not stickered because I moved it there temporarily and am about to load it up on the Jeep and take it to the big shop to break it down into all the parts, then bring it back home to do the glueups. I have access to a big professional shop that I use for big stuff like that. Usually I will joint these boards on the bench before running them through the saw.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Update: The ash shipped on a different boat, which arrives Saturday. I won't actually be able to pick it up until Monday, but already went to customs and excise to clear it in, and they didn't charge any duties or give me any grief- Hooray!

I have made a very tough decision to switch from the Hovarter vise to the Lie-Nielsen twin-screw vise. Why? Well Len told me that the Hovarter vise cannot clamp outside the two rods without possible issues. I won't go into details- basically he said a couple of inches may not matter, but it could be a problem. It is designed to clamp on or between the rods. Well, I can't take a chance, so I am getting the LN twin-screw. That was a tough decision not only because I really liked the ease of the Hovarter, but also I was really eyeballing the Veritas twin-screw. I chose LN because I liked the beefy threadbox, the fact that it can have just one handle (hate having two- one always smacks you when you least expect it), and the concealed chain of the LN was more favored by me. I could have probably routed a space for the Veritas to conceal, but I decided the LN was the way to go. The LN's biggest downside was 8.25" opening versus 12" on the Veritas. I have a Pattern Maker's vise with 14" opening already, so it wasn't a big deal. That said, you may remember that part of this bench plan is that the two opposing vises work together to clamp boards 9' plus, which I do a whole lot. In fact, usually the mahogany I get is 10' long, and I have some doors to make that are 9'. I can still get 9' overall with the LN, so I'm ok.

It's too late to stop me. I have the order in my cart already, and as soon as I post this, I'm clicking it. I do this to prevent impulse buying, but I'm pretty sure it's a done deal. Also I am going to get the Benchcrafted classic with the crisscross. I decided as cool as the Hovarter is, there's nothing like the ability to crush a workpiece and ruin it with a good strong threaded vise screw! No, but seriously, I decided the Benchcrafted opens and closes plenty fast, and I would prefer to just stick with what I know works. My hat is tipped to Mr. Hovarter, who has made an exceptional vise, and I admire his out of the box thinking.

Oh, and yes- I went with the classic. I already have a boat, so I don't need a helm on my workbench, and I really like the parkerized finish of the classic. Also, I feel that even though the rod is longer than the diameter of the wheel handle, it can slide either way to be out of the way of whatever I'm doing on whichever side of the vise I am on, and I feel it will not interfere as much when I need to stand right in front of the leg vise to work.

So bye, bye bonus, and hello vises! I'm glad I did this. The LN vise should allow me to put my dog holes just 2.5" from the edge of the bench, which I really like. I'm getting more into moulding planes and feel I may want the workpiece to rest at or slightly beyond the edge.

Lee Valley free shipping roped me in as well- I ordered some of the prairie dogs for the chop of the LN vise since the chop is so tall.

One last thing- I did a search for this thread and it seems there was another person with a "Frankenbench" thread, so this bench is now dubbed "Schweizerbench." I won't change the name of the thread. :-)

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Measure twice- cuss once. Well, the ash came today. I borrowed the workshop truck and went to get it. I had to wait two hours while they dug for it. Ugh. There was a rainstorm coming that I really wanted to avoid. Fortunately it dumped on the east end before it hit me. We get these quick showers here all the time.

Got to the shop and two trainers were there that offered to help me cut them to length. Things were going a bit fast, so I used an offcut as a setup block on the chop saw (yes, I broke the Neanderthal code) to ensure all cuts were the same. Anyone see my mistake? I used the cutoff and not the long one. Always use the one to finished length as your gauge since lumber is never the same length. This is what happens when you rush. It turns out one board was a foot shorter than the others, and had I not been stupid and used the long piece to size up instead of the offcut I would have been fine. Well, there will be one scarf joint in this build. Ugh. A very amateur mistake. I share it as a "teaching moment."

I must say, this ash is beautiful stuff. It is not as heavy as I expected- lighter than the mahogany I get here, but it is tight grained and I am happy. Photo shows it loaded up with approaching storm, which looked worse in person but the background is actually all clouds, and a pic I took at the shipping dock where I picked up the lumber, which shows how quickly weather can turn here. I knew something was brewing because of the wind shift from the south and temperature drop.
image.jpg
image.jpgimage.jpg

[Malcolm Schweizer]

image.jpg

Sleep well, my pretties. The short ones on top are offcuts. I will use some for the vise chop and I am hoping to have enough to resaw into slats for the shelf.