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Thread: My First Workbench Build - A Journal

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
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    Loveland, CO
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    418
    The other night I got the third board smoothed out and squared up. I have to say, it's a lot easier with the properly-sharpened irons. Made a lot more shavings for just a single board this time, about an entire plastic tote bin full. But, I'm feeling more confident now that I know I can get the legs done.

    I hope to get more done this weekend. Maybe I'll go back and re-smooth the first two boards before anything else. Looks like this will be a fairly lengthy project. (That's actually good, as it'll keep me busy for a little while.)

  2. #32
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    Mar 2006
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    Austin Texas
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    Outstanding curlies. It looks like your planning progress is in the "leaps and bounds" area right now. More photos as you go along please.
    David

  3. #33
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    Jan 2014
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    Thanks, David! Those long curly shavings are actually from my #7C. I'll continue taking photos as I go.

    I did get the pair of 6x8's I want to use for my top each ripped in half today. I cheated and went with my table saw for these cuts, as I really didn't want to rip them by hand. I ended up doing about a 3" deep cut through the center, and then did the same on the opposite side after flipping the board the long way. Worked fine, but still plenty of cleanup to do there.

    Just moving those two big beams around got me tired, so I'm not sure if I'll do more this weekend or not. But either way, I might want to touch up my irons before heading into more planing. At least on my #4. I wonder if changing the bevel to 30 degrees would make it easier. Or perhaps putting just a touch of camber on the blade..? It's flat right now, with the corners rounded so the tracks aren't as bad.

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    Princeton, NJ
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    A slight camber will help. You may want to be at 30 degrees, but I wouldn't worry about it. My western blades are all at 35. I work mostly hardwoods, but it's fine on softwoods as well. The important part is that the chips should come straight out of the plane (not rolling up) that's about the only way i have found to get a clear finish on Doug fir..

    Minimizing tear out is important even in the rough and medium planes. When you are working those large beams when they begin to get close to flat you will only want to be taking a few nice passes.
    Last edited by Brian Holcombe; 01-23-2016 at 6:59 PM.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  5. #35
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    Mar 2006
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    Austin Texas
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    The thing about final cutting angles on plane irons is that it is easy to experiment by using a micro bevel as the final cutting angle. Lots of folks grind (by hand or power grind) a primary bevel of around 25 deg, then use their finest sharpening stone to add in a 30 or 35 deg secondary or micro bevel at the very tip end (cutting end) of the plane iron. This micro bevel need only be a sixteenth or so deep into the edge of the plane iron and does not take many passes over the stone to create. If it is not working as well as what was on there before, it is not much work to go back to that or try another angle.
    David

  6. #36
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    Jan 2014
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    Loveland, CO
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    The PM-V11 blade came with a cutting bevel of 35 degrees, so I figured I would try it out. The metal came off fairly easily when I sharpened up the blade, so I don't think taking it down to 30 degrees would be very difficult. I think I'll stick with the 35 degrees, but maybe put a small amount of camber on it and see how it works. I need to sharpen up anyway, so why not try it?

  7. #37
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    Australia
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    Eric. Having a 35* primary bevel on a Bd iron is quite unusual. More commonly found on a Bu plane to achieve an approach angle of 47*. All the best with the work bench build. Look forward to following your progress.

    Stewie;

  8. #38
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    Jan 2014
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    Loveland, CO
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    Made some more shavings. I apologize for no photos this time around, but my image host has been acting up the past couple days and their site is basically unusable right now.

    I went back and squared up one of the first two boards I worked on. This went much faster with the properly-sharpened irons. I also learned a fair amount just through using my planes about how they function to make a surface flat. It's amazing what you can learn by actually using your tools, right?

    I then went to work on my second of the first two boards, and I think I'm going to just pick another one instead. This board has knots in it that are very hard and difficult to plane. Even with the sharp irons, those areas are raised up and the plane doesn't want to dig in and shave the area down. Plus, all sides still require quite a bit of work. So, I'll probably just pick out one of the extra 6x8's that I have that doesn't have these knots, and just cut a leg section from it to use instead of this one.

    I'll save this knotty board for something else later on.

  9. #39
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    Jan 2014
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    Loveland, CO
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    Looks like the image host is behaving again. Some photos of the "action".



    The pieces for one side of the split top. Looks like I'll already have a few counterbored holes for bench dogs or holdfasts.



    The difficult knots I tried and failed to plane flat. Everything inside the circle is too high.


  10. #40
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    Jan 2014
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    Loveland, CO
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    Got a little bit more done this morning. I started work my third leg piece. I ended up just grabbing the fourth short 6x8 and went at it. It has a lot fewer knots in it than the previous one I tried working. So, this is going much better already. I ended up squaring two sides in the time that I had. Hopefully I'll finish up the rest tomorrow or Monday. Then I'll start working on the pieces for the stringers. Those should go fairly quickly, since they're quite a bit smaller, at around 3x3 or so.

    I know this part isn't terribly exciting, but it's my understanding that the prep stages are very important to ensure quality in the final product. Hopefully there's not too much boredom floating around out there...

    On a completely unrelated side note, I'm very excited to have planted seeds for my super hot peppers tonight. They're slower growers, so need a longer starting period.

  11. #41
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    Jan 2014
    Location
    Loveland, CO
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    Well, not much to really show, but I finally got back to making shavings on my bench tonight after finishing my side project. It took a while, but I finally flattened out the first face of the final leg of the bench. Seems like setting up the first reference surface takes the longest amount of time...

    If anyone's curious, here's the side project I made for my wife for V-day.


  12. #42
    Nice box. Good luck with the peppers.

    Keep using those planes, and before you know it, you'll feel confident enough to try anything.


    I built my workbench with a 5" thick DougFir top. It's a heavy joker, and it was physically demanding at the time... However, I'm glad I have it now.

  13. #43
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    Jan 2014
    Location
    Loveland, CO
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    Thanks, Nick! I can already tell that the practice is making a difference. I still have a long way to go, but it's helping a lot already just to use my planes and get used to them.

  14. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by Eric Schubert View Post
    The difficult knots I tried and failed to plane flat. Everything inside the circle is too high.

    I have that problem occasionally. My solution is normally to use a smoother or a block plane to knock down the high spot, then go over it again with my #7. The block plane works well on knots, probably due to the low angle, though it takes a finer shaving.

    I have found that I don't seem to get the same high spots if I rough it all out with a heavily cambered blade, then take very light passes to clean up. If there are knots or twisted grain I move the plane faster to let the momentum of the plane work in my favor against the change in the woods hardness.
    Making furniture teaches us new ways to remove splinters.

  15. #45
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    Jan 2014
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    Loveland, CO
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    Thanks, Matt. I had considered breaking out the block plane. But, since I had extra pieces of wood, I just decided to work on a different one without the knots in it. But, that will be good information when I come back to that piece at some point and have to deal with them.

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