Starting on my workbench

[Marcus Ward]

I've started on my workbench. I've got about half the top glued up. So far it's 3" thick white oak and about 14" wide, 7.5' long. I'm going to add 10 more inches to it, the front will probably be a 5" thick skirt maybe 4" wide. Feeding that initial glueup into my planer last night was a bear of a job. I'm glad I didn't make it any thicker, we would have needed a chain hoist to move it.

After much consideration I think I'm going to have to have a tail vise. I spent all morning figuring out how to build one with the cheaper lee valley hardware and I think I've got it figured out. I'm basing this bench on the grizzly H8110 as I like the layout and the drawers will be nice storage for my ever increasing inventory of hand planes. I think I'm going to skip the tool tray though because I have a habit of filling available space with junk and less space for junk is probably a good thing. Anyone have a compelling argument in favor of the tool tray?

One of my big questions is whether to go with square or round dog holes. I'm at a point where I can add either one but I am sort of stuck on the various pluses and minuses of each design. Anyone care to comment?

Luckily I am tall enough that the perfect height also happens to be the height of my table saw table so it will be positioned near it to catch lumber.

Here are a couple of pics of my vise design. They're linked because they're kind of big. I need to tweak it a little but I think this will work.

http://www.f-64.org/vise/vise6.jpg

http://www.f-64.org/vise/vise7.jpg



Here is a pic of the glueup.

[David Weaver]

Definitely not going to lift that up and move it around with your pinky finger.

[Jason Beam]

Not bad!

The vise design looks interesting and I'll be keeping an eye on your design as I may decide to add a tail to my recently completed bench, too.

I have settled firmly on round dog holes because I like that they can hold irregular shapes better without digging square corners into the workpiece. That, and my holdfasts will fit the same holes. Hopefully that reduces the number of holes I need to drill.

I agree with not having a tool tray. For me, it's just one more chip/shaving/dust catcher that would have to be maintained. My intention is to develop the "put it away if it's not in your hands" philosophy or some variation thereof. I also like the idea of having the added mass of wood instead of the cavity.


What style base do you plan to make for it?

Will you be going shoulder vise or a regular front vise?

[Marcus Ward]

I'll do a regular front vise for it. The base is going to be made from pine, all pegged mortise and tenon, a large stretcher on the back and a small stretcher on the front at the top of the cabinet. Shaker style maybe? I'm not sure what you'd call it. I'm going to leave a gap under the top for setting tools when not in use but that need to be handy soon.

Here are how the legs are going to be built with the cabinets not shown (huge file). I left a tiny stretcher in front to not eat up all the drawer space but to have something the shelf can rest on and the dividers can attach to.

http://www.f-64.org/vise/benchlegs.jpg

[Marcus Ward]

Here are 2 (large) pics of how I envision the base:

http://www.f-64.org/vise/bench1.jpg

http://www.f-64.org/vise/bench2.jpg

I am thinking maybe some holes along the back edge for chisel storage while working would be nice too. Anyone have those on their bench?

Another thought on the vise - where the tenon on the jaw goes through the skirt on the table there should be something on the back, a square of wood, large washer, something to keep the vise going straight and not allowing it to rack to one side. As it is now the only thing holding it in line is the screw.

[Jason Beam]

A friend has a "mini" bench that's about 2' square that he clamps to his main bench for when he needs elevated surfaces for dovetails and such. On that bench, he has holes of various shapes for all of his hand cut joinery tools - chisels, malets, gauges, etc. It works really well for those kinds of things.

I'm glad you showed more pics. I fully understand your vision for the shelf under the top.

For the vise - Will the "nut" be mounted to an apron piece that is applied to the end? If so, you've got a chance now to make a T-shaped slot for that tenon to run in. Then you could mount a cross piece to your tenon once inserted (to ease disassembly if needed). That'd keep the whole mechanism from twisting or pulling away from the runner. Think that'd work?

If you don't plan an apron for that end, you could easily build a t-shaped block to mount the screw's nut to so that it'd still be quite strong. I like the idea of an apron over there, though, because it puts the clamping force into the strongest grain direction possible.

EDIT: Oh! Maybe better yet, turn that tenon into a dovetail?

[Marcus Ward]

Yeah that's the idea, the mount the nut on the apron and you're right, I need a slot to hold the vise against the table so it doesn't rack. I thought of that after I planned it out so it's not in the pics.

I'm kind of grinding my teeth waiting for payday so I can go to the sawmill and buy some more oak. Plus I'm building a morris chair for my wife at the same time and need more quartersawn.

[Jason Beam]

Isn't it weird how that works? For me, there's always an abundance of one thing, but not everything ... Lotsa time? I'm outta wood ... Plenty of wood? No time for the shop ... Time and wood aplenty? Well you don't have the right fastener for that and it's sunday ... Got all that? No ideas!!

Thankfully, the latter is probably not soon to come now that I've got a list as long as my arm of things I have to build as soon as the shop's in order. I drywalled the interior this spring and spent this entire summer getting re-organized. Soon, though, sawdust will be flying again!

[Todd Hyman]

Marcus,

That's some nice drawings. Are these from Sketch-up?

[Marcus Ward]

Yes, those are from sketchup. I've used it a few times but sort of got over the learning hump today and whipped that up.

Tonight I started cutting mortises for my wife's morris chair and after the first 2, noticed I had cut them both an inch too low. I'm all out of cusswords.

[Jason Beam]

DOH!!!

Hate when that happens

[Marcus Ward]

Tonight I cut my first dovetail ever. I had to use a bandsaw to cut it and I freehanded one of the pin cuts. It turned out okay. This was a test run for the dovetail that will attach the side to the end of my tail vise. The pin piece is 3 inches thick, the tail piece is 2 inches thick. They're oak. Chiseling the pin waste out was a bear.

[Robert Rozaieski]

Tonight I cut my first dovetail ever. I had to use a bandsaw to cut it and I freehanded one of the pin cuts. It turned out okay. This was a test run for the dovetail that will attach the side to the end of my face vise. The pin piece is 3 inches thick, the tail piece is 2 inches thick. They're oak. Chiseling the pin waste out was a bear.

Looks good! Better than the ones on my bench. I hear you on the hardness of the oak, however, if you ever work on any of the exotics you'll appreciate how "easy" oak is to work with. I've recently come to appreciate the "ease" of working domestic woods like oak and maple after doing some chisel work in my first ever piece of purpleheart. Now this stuff is like iron. Makes oak seem like pine! Not sure I will ever use it again. It eats up hand tool edges like candy.

[Ruston Hughes]

Yeah that's the idea, the mount the nut on the apron and you're right, I need a slot to hold the vise against the table so it doesn't rack. I thought of that after I planned it out so it's not in the pics.

One other thing to consider with respect to racking is the point where the force is applied in relation to the vise screw (e.g. the dogs). If the dogs are outside of the vise screw (closer to the edge of the bench) the vise will want to rack in that direction. Even if you use a guide with a T slot it has the potential to place a lot of force on that guide. Ideally, if the dog holes were directly over the vise screw there would be no side-to-side racking forces on the vise. However, I don't know if that's practical when looking at how you would construct a vise with the dog holes directly over the screw.

[Marcus Ward]

That's true, but putting the dog holes over the vise screw would be a problem because they couldn't be very deep. Mine are going to be about an inch to the left of the screw, and I think if I make the slot and guide out of thick enough oak it won't be a problem.