Sawbench Build

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice start on some nice looking wood.

[Stewie Simpson]

Robert; take this a comment only. There are valid reasons why the wide face of the board should be dressed flat, prior to jointing the edge.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Thanks David. I'm liking the wood as well.

Stewie, I wouldn't disagree. It made sense to me to do it this way for this piece, and I wanted to try the method. The edge joint came out well.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Made a bit of progress on this. I ended up having to make some tool accessories and refurbish some old forgotten ebay purchases in order to complete some of the tasks on this.

I left of with 4-square parts...now to make them 6-square. 300mm Gyokucho ryoba ready for duty:

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The ends of the top are planed down to a knife line freehand. I'm using one of my kanna here- they are remarkably effective on end grain, taking thick shavings and doing the job quickly:

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Followed up with a fine set smoother, yielding nicely finished end grain:

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For the uprights I rigged up a shooting board out of some MDF and a scrap of white oak. It is set up for kanna and working on the pull stroke:

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With all the pieces now to final dimensions, I can lay out the joinery (dovetailed/wedged tenons)

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There is a lot of transfer marking involved. This works ok on the cross grain marks, but on anything going with the grain, it can be perilous on this red oak. The knife ticks I use to transfer a mark for a mortise wall can easily be lost and/or confused with a random line in the grain. I marked the tenons first, then transferred those marks to the mortises. I cut the mortises first, and I was doing this I became suspicious of the mortise wall markings...let's say I have my doubts the transfer from tenon to mortise went perfectly. Luckily I saved the tenons for last, so I can plane off the tenon marks and transfer new marks from the actually existing mortises.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Onto the mortise cutting...these are the featured implements of destruction:

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This show begins with the 1/2" auger, wasting the center out of the 11/16" square, 2" deep mortises:

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Now the bulk of the waste is chopped out with a 5/8" firmer chisel. This is an old Samson I got from ebay several years ago but never had a reason to fettle into shape until now. It's actually better than a proper mortise chisel for this occasion, because its not too thick, leaving some room to maneuver. I sharpened it with a full flat bevel, for riding into the cut, at about 33 degrees.

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With the center drilled out, the mortising goes quite quickly. After 4 or 5 series of chops, I am basically done with one side, except for final paring (I oversized the mortise compared to the chisel because I am not too confident on avoiding twisting with a mortise the deep and narrow)

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After all of the chopping is done:

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After cleaning up the mortise interiors with a paring chisel, I set about flaring the mortises from the top side, to accept the wedged tenons. The mortises are to be flared at 5 degrees each side, and I made a paring block to guide the chisel for this step:

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This is where it stands currently, with all 8 mortises complete in the top.

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Tenons to follow. Thanks for reading.

[James Waldron]

Like sawhorses, saw benches will work best in pairs. For long rips three is even better.

jtk

Depends on design:

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This beastie is 42 inches long, good for ripping stock up to 5 feet or 6-7 feet with clamps (or hold fast once I get around to drilling holes). Longer stock, I go with 2 benches.