So I have been struggling to hold my work in my current bench for some time now. I have been saving for quite some time to buy the Benchcrafted tail vise and classic leg vise. Well the time arrived and the purchase was made. A good friend of mine has a Woodmizer and had some large Ash boards(some thicker than others) laying about that did not get stacked right when they were cut so they had some large checks, mainly through the center. He offered u up and threw them in the back of the mini van and brought them home. My plan was for this to be a hand tools only build but it turned out to be a hybrid. I broke the boards down with a skill saw and used a late '40s Delta 6" short bed jointer to rough out my stock. The rest has been all hand work. The size of the bench was determined by the available stock. The end cap and leg vice will be from some Hickory I had milled up about 4 years ago. Lets just say they have some character. All lumber used is air dried. The top ended up being 4 7/8 x 22 1/4 x 6' 5 5/8". I got a little excited when it came time to install the tail vise an decided to use a borrowed Skil plunge router to make the mortises for the vise rails. As I was routing the bit had slipped and the mortise got deeper and deeper before I noticed( about a 1/4" deeper). Its a good thing its on the underside. I leveled out the mortise with a chisel and glued in some patches. This brings me to where i am today. I think i have about 2 months in to it so far from the time I picked up the lumber. Ill post more as i progress if you are interested. IMG_0093.jpgIMG_0109.jpgIMG_0112.jpgIMG_0165.jpgIMG_0181.jpgIMG_0183.jpg
Thanks for looking,
Eric