Square dog hole apron process

[Kent A Bathurst]

Wow, Beautiful bench Kent! I love the character.

Can you talk a little about the cabinet build, is it your design or from plans?

Thank you!

Too kind. Looks much worse in person. The El-um Crick [Kansas farmer pronunciation] Walnut classes it up. I made up the design kinda on-the-fly.

In the middle photo, you can see stretchers with wedged through-tenons. The ends of the bench are assembled frames, and the stretchers hold the bottoms of the frames in position.

The cabinet is nothing more than a 5-sided box [top,bottom,left side, right side, back] made of 3/4" RO plywood. Plus a divider inteh middle to support the drawers.

The bottom has two cleats made out of some kinda "layin' around the shop" wood, positioned to nest between the stretchers. The cabinet runs end-to-end between the legs, and overhangs the stretchers by an inch or two front and back. There is a 2" or so gap between top of cabinet and bench top BUT this works only because the dog holes are out in front of the cabinet. If they were over the cabinet, they would hit the top, and the cabinet height would have to be shorter.

The box slides into the opening, and the cleats align it betweeen the stretchers. It just sits there - no fasteners. Drawers made of 1/2" RO ply sides and 1/4" RO ply bottoms, 24"w x 20"d. Heights vary. Walnut fronts attached to drawer boxes. Handles made from RO.

Current load of stuff inside has to be well over 100#, so it ain't moving. There must be 35# of fasteners in just that one drawer.



Bench 6.jpg Bench 5.jpg

[Ned Otter]

Have spent a bit of time on a workbench with a classic tail vise, and from what I was told, you shouldn't really bear down too much, as it can cause the work piece to bow. Given that, and what was already said here, methinks glue alone will be good enough.

Milled up the apron today

Thx,

Ned

Actually Kent, I agree with you ... I was going to edit my earlier post and remove the screws.

There will be about 3-6" between the dogs, I assume, which means that there is this amount of glued area times two (each side). That would be pretty strong.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kent A Bathurst]

......... you shouldn't really bear down too much........

Milled up the apron today

I was just being a wise guy about the 20 ton press, of course.

Send photos when assembled.

[Jim Koepke]

Have spent a bit of time on a workbench with a classic tail vise, and from what I was told, you shouldn't really bear down too much, as it can cause the work piece to bow. Given that, and what was already said here, methinks glue alone will be good enough.

Milled up the apron today

Thx,

Ned

My bench came with a very simple (inexpensive) vise. Working with it over the years has convinced me simplicity can lead to versatility.

Planing Thin Stock.jpg

This type of vice is subject to racking. To counter the racking a shim stack was built. The stack also has the ability to regulate how much pressure can be applied to the work being held.

Anti rack spacer stack > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?183743

jtk