Gave the jointer/planer a serious workout today. Bench Project

[Patrick Walsh]

Yes lots of hours but high quality ones being I was doing what I wanted to be doing not “had”
to be doing.

I will be happy to finally put this project behind me. My next “for me” project is five interior passage doors and jambs, four shoji, a built in chest of drawers and a fair amount of base and case. Styles are all cvgdf and panels drawer fronts and shoji are cvgayc. With maybe 12-16 available to me on weekends for the project I should be a busy guy many moths to come. All the doors will be shaker style no profile but mortise and tennon together. I have yet to decide if I will peg them and do some kind of mitered double tenon type joint or just a double mortise and tenon and glue.

Anyway I need this bench done so I can get the next thing.

As for drying if you look in the background of my pictures you will see I store my limber collection in the rough stickered for just the reason you suggest. On the other hand I always just sticker my stock as I’m working it down to dimension and never stand it on edge. The stock on my bench still has a fair way to go to final dimension and much of it was only jointed on one side so far.

I keep my home shop hospital steril. I tend to vacuume after any proceadure that creates even the slightest mess. As you well know a production shop is a dust pile. I get enough of that when I’m on the clock that I when on my own time it’s well worth the effort to be as cut free as possible.

Pictures bellow are all I have of the shop I work in on this computer and a small sample of a island I built a few months ago. I guess the photos make it look fairly tidy but I promise it’s a hell hole!

FE1AA200-6718-4487-A467-A4F020E3F876.jpg

BBD2EBDF-2558-4F05-85B0-5E8DC1E79AFB.jpg

F3939705-7820-4B01-B161-D9C0E21FBDA4.jpg

That is a very nice bench. A lot of hours in that one for sure.
And there is nothing wrong with stout. One thing I hate myself about light benches is chasing them around while planing heavy on the top, or having it move in any way.

I am sure you know, but would like to point out for others, that the thin ash pieces laying perfectly flat on your bench should be stored on edge with space around if not going to be assembled into something within a couple hours.
Otherwise, you set yourself up for differential moisture content on both faces of the boards, and they will cup or twist before assembly.

Oh, and that space is way,way too clean and organized to be called a shop.

[Derek Cohen]

At this point I was still wondering how I was going to drawbore the top to the legs

Hi Patrick

I would not drawbore the legs to the top. It is unnecessary, given the weight of the top - it is not going to move! I would simply peg them together. This way, if you need to remove the top, it is a simple matter of drilling out straight pegs, not a curved and twisted drawbored peg.

This is how I dealt with my bench - which is 3 1/2" thick European Oak into a Jarrah base (5" x 3 1/2" legs).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Patrick Walsh]

I had considered that as a viable option when I realized I would need four guys to help me lift the top off to mark the drawbore after I had test fit the top to the base.

I hope to get this step done this weekend. We will see, have to work Saturday and should work Sunday.

Tis the season, work work work. Thankful to have it!

Hi Patrick

I would not drawbore the legs to the top. It is unnecessary, given the weight of the top - it is not going to move! I would simply peg them together. This way, if you need to remove the top, it is a simple matter of drilling out straight pegs, not a curved and twisted drawbored peg.

This is how I dealt with my bench - which is 3 1/2" thick European Oak into a Jarrah base (5" x 3 1/2" legs).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Patrick Walsh]

I wrote this big thing and then for some reason this lovely website booted me out or something and I lost everything I wrote.

Probably better that way anyhow. I found a couple hours today to work on my chop. I was pretty excited about this piece of the build, I don’t know why I just was. I think I just really really like the simple radius vrs the more complicated or ornate option others often opt for. It just seems to fit the bench perfect imop.

All you get is pictures. I’m tired and I don’t much have patients for blogging. I would rather be building something or cuddling with the dogs. Maybe it’s just I don’t have much patients for the glitches with this forum. I cant tell you how often I go to post something and have a problem.

Clearly I’m not quite done with the chop but I’m closer and I can see the bench taking shape now. I’m waiting on a second rasp from Lie Nielsen that was backorder.

490E9F4F-C37C-40C9-99DC-7D6D7A75EBCF.jpg

1ADA87E2-664A-476D-96AF-76FC52E5B360.jpg

584ABA3D-3FED-47B7-9A32-E78145ECC6EF.jpg

9ECD149F-AD15-4A69-AACB-B30241A6F60F.jpg

F9513383-8B20-42F7-860A-20B27C791E40.jpg

D1FAD899-215F-4C9D-9643-21652724DE74.jpg

F9513383-8B20-42F7-860A-20B27C791E40.jpg

962B4D69-6D05-42D6-8415-7BE9474B948E.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Wow...that radius really looks nice. Fleshing it out at the tilting shaper was clever, too...it's a big workpiece and that way you got it consistent across the entire face. Nice!

Sorry you had trouble posting. Hopefully, the new forum software will be coming into play real soon now and the vBulletin glitches will be a thing of the past.

[Patrick Walsh]

Jim,

I actually felt really bad wasting out the chop on the shaper. I don’t know why being most of the bench was built using machines. Having settled on a rasp to make the radius on the chop I guess I had visions of doing all the work with a rasp.

I stared with the intent of doing it such a way and quickly realized my new $135 rasp was gonna be junk by the time I was done. I thought about the tablesaw. If I was at work I woulda just used the slider. The alignment on my tablesaw is not 100% spot on so I was reluctant.

Anywho my venting was not directed at you. To be honest I never considered my comments might be taken as offensive anyone. However in retrospect I see those who freely contribute their time and money to this forum would have every right to take offense to my complaining.]. Im not suggesting you took offense just making clear offending was not my intent if I did offend anyone.

Really it was a massive moment of frustration and nothing else.

Wow...that radius really looks nice. Fleshing it out at the tilting shaper was clever, too...it's a big workpiece and that way you got it consistent across the entire face. Nice!

Sorry you had trouble posting. Hopefully, the new forum software will be coming into play real soon now and the vBulletin glitches will be a thing of the past.

[Brian Holcombe]

Smart move not to use the rasp, a rasp really isn't for hogging off material. I hardly use the rasps in my shop, I much rather use saw, plane or chisel to do the rough work....or in your case shaper. Cross grain with a plane would knock down the majority of that in a hurry and allow you to maintain the radius and keep the profile true across the width of the chop.

Looks beautiful in any case, now it's time to beat it up!

[Patrick Walsh]

The infeed is a Felder unit the outfeed is Aigner.

Due to the fence mount on this particular machine the Felder table must be used.

The Felder unit is nice as it has set screws so you can adjust it up down, left right, side to side. On the order hand it also makes it kinda a pain in the butt! It’s also heavy.

I much prefer the Aigner tables. The Aigner tables have no adjustability where the table meets the cast so getting the mounting bracket for the extension table mounted “exact” is very very important.


d

Did your j/p extension tables come from Felder, nor did you make them yourself?

[Patrick Walsh]

I know I had asked you about the rasp and your response was to use a plane as you see rasps as disposable.

I had a mental block about using a plane. I had visions of massive tearout and a radius that was not consultant left to right.

After doing the work with a rasp or actually like ten minutes into the work I did see how it would be a piece of cake with a hand plane.

I thought about a hand saw for like three seconds then decided I why would I do that when I a machine like five feet away that will do a perfect job in like five seconds.

I dint know if I made mention yet of my antics cutting my top laminations to length. Let’s just say my plan was to creat a curf with my track saw then finish them with a Japanese saw. Let’s just say my bench ended up 1” shorter than I originally planned.

All in all I really really liked using the rasp. I ordered a ebony HNT Gordon spokeshave last night to finish up a couple hammer handles I started making. As much as I liked using the rasp I can see for radiused work a sharpe spokeshave could achieve the same results.

As much as I enjoyed the rhythm of the spoke shave I didn’t much care for the nasty scratch pattern it created.

I’m still not even close to done.

Hopefully next week i pin the top the base. Then I have to chop a square hole through the top for the plane stop. I’m also shaking in my pants about this. From what I read the walls of this mortise need to be 100% perfectly plum and square for the wedge to work properly. Then I have the various dog holes to drill. After that I have to smooth the bench sides and legs together and take a card scraper to many of the inside corners that I did not clean prior to assembly “live and learn”. Then build the drawer and it’s inerds. It’s gonna be two tears with a tray that runs on rails with the bottom portion of the drawer all dived up to hold soecifuc tools. All the dividers and the tray will be ebony of course

Then I can oil the whole thing. If only I could get two days off in a row I could easily finish the project.with my dogs going in fir surgery next Friday then then the holiday I dint much expect to ever finish this dam thing....

Smart move not to use the rasp, a rasp really isn't for hogging off material. I hardly use the rasps in my shop, I much rather use saw, plane or chisel to do the rough work....or in your case shaper. Cross grain with a plane would knock down the majority of that in a hurry and allow you to maintain the radius and keep the profile true across the width of the chop.

Looks beautiful in any case, now it's time to beat it up!

[Brian Holcombe]

Rasps come in various degrees of fine-ness, but even a very fine rasp does not leave a finished surface. I like them for weird situations in which I cannot get a spokeshave or plane, which for me is very few situations.

Cross cutting 6" thick material is not easy when it is wide. You need a timber framing saw for that...maybe.

Mafell makes a circular saw that will cut that deep, it has a 16" diameter blade and costs $5k, hah!

Kerfing both sides then finishing it with a Japanese saw should have worked fine, but can be daunting. Planing down those big sections of end grain is a PITA but it is doable. You need a good camber on your plane and a fairly light cut and it needs to be insanely shape.

[Patrick Walsh]

I almost purchased a a giant Makita Beam saw just for the two cuts. Then I thought about what I really want to spend my hard earned money on. I still have a pile of Japanese planes I need to have you show me how to setup. I’ll be honest I alsmost gave the Konobo blade and one of the dai I purchased from So a go the other week. It’s killing me just watching those tools collect dust on my bench. I actually for the hoops to the chisels when I was sick last month.

In my haste to get the top on the legs I forgot to kurf the underside of the bench before I flipped it. As a result I kurfed the top and the the underside of the bench after it was installed on the base. It was hairy AND scary laying under the bench operating the bigger of the two Festool track saws upside down so close to my face and chest. I then used a Japanese saw to fish the cut. For whatever reason my first attempt at this cut with the Japanese saw the blade drifted out of the kurf on the underside of the bench and made a new kurf. This resulted in me setting a new kurf with the track saw and then snapping the rest of the block off with a mallet.

To be honest smoothing that end grain was very very easy with the LN #4 deadly sharp, llike way peasy and fun! This reminds me I still have to smooth one side of the end grain.

Rasps come in various degrees of fine-ness, but even a very fine rasp does not leave a finished surface. I like them for weird situations in which I cannot get a spokeshave or plane, which for me is very few situations.

Cross cutting 6" thick material is not easy when it is wide. You need a timber framing saw for that...maybe.

Mafell makes a circular saw that will cut that deep, it has a 16" diameter blade and costs $5k, hah!

Kerfing both sides then finishing it with a Japanese saw should have worked fine, but can be daunting. Planing down those big sections of end grain is a PITA but it is doable. You need a good camber on your plane and a fairly light cut and it needs to be insanely shape.

[Jim Becker]

Practically speaking, hogging the material off that thick block with a nice power tool and then refining and finishing the radius by hand is perfectly fine in my mind...especially when one has only so much time available to do these things!

BTW, I didn't take the vent on the posting problem as anything other than what is should be...normal frustration with something not working properly. As noted, with any luck, that particular issue will hopefully not recur when the site moves to the new software.

[Brian Holcombe]

I almost purchased a a giant Makita Beam saw just for the two cuts. Then I thought about what I really want to spend my hard earned money on. I still have a pile of Japanese planes I need to have you show me how to setup. I’ll be honest I alsmost gave the Konobo blade and one of the dai I purchased from So a go the other week. It’s killing me just watching those tools collect dust on my bench. I actually for the hoops to the chisels when I was sick last month.

In my haste to get the top on the legs I forgot to kurf the underside of the bench before I flipped it. As a result I kurfed the top and the the underside of the bench after it was installed on the base. It was hairy AND scary laying under the bench operating the bigger of the two Festool track saws upside down so close to my face and chest. I then used a Japanese saw to fish the cut. For whatever reason my first attempt at this cut with the Japanese saw the blade drifted out of the kurf on the underside of the bench and made a new kurf. This resulted in me setting a new kurf with the track saw and then snapping the rest of the block off with a mallet.

To be honest smoothing that end grain was very very easy with the LN #4 deadly sharp, llike way peasy and fun! This reminds me I still have to smooth one side of the end grain.

It’s worth the wait!

i Agee, unless one transitions into a timber framing career then one of those saws is just not worth investing in.

Thats a difficult cut to make if you can only reach it from one side. I like to swap sides every few inches so I can lead the kerf.

[Brian Holcombe]

Practically speaking, hogging the material off that thick block with a nice power tool and then refining and finishing the radius by hand is perfectly fine in my mind...especially when one has only so much time available to do these things!

BTW, I didn't take the vent on the posting problem as anything other than what is should be...normal frustration with something not working properly. As noted, with any luck, that particular issue will hopefully not recur when the site moves to the new software.

Not sure if this is directed at me, but I was not disagreeing wth that approach. Instead commenting on which hand tools are most effective at completing the job.

[Jim Becker]

Not sure if this is directed at me, but I was not disagreeing wth that approach.

No, I was responding to the OP, specifically to post #96.