I have perhaps 2-3 hours every night for wood working,
If I'm not too fatigued from my day job;
If I'm not suffering from bouts of depression;
If I felt like continuing the work;
If it does not rain.(Tarpaulin is my friend)
I chose Kapur because that's what the timer merchant had, in terms of price range , size required and weight. At $2.50 (4 x 2s) a foot ($5-6 for the 4 x 4s), it's also resonably affordable. I would describe the wood as hard (like oak) quite dense, and have a smell resembling camphor blended nicely with baby vomit.
The top will be 21 Inches wide by five feet long. 21 inch because of the 6 slabs of 3.5 x 3.5 Kapur wood to be bolted to form the top. 5 feet because any longer, I will not be able to enter my workspace; the balcony. Here (below) you will see one such slab. Each weighs approximately 25-30 lbs. I used a fore plane to correct the cups and warps.
Kapur can be easy to plane, or impossible, depending on the piece. Some may have interlocking and reversing grains that challenge your best tuned planes.
Align all your slabs in the same grain direction!
This is necessary and important when you need to flatten your benchtop later. Mark all the directions clearly. Instead of a felt tip pen,I did my marking with a bamboo sumishashi (a Japanese inspired scrap of bamboo dipped in India ink.) In his wonderful book,"Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use" Toshio Odate describes a typical marking brush. Below is a little drawing if you want to make one. They are typically 6-8" long. One end for writing, the other for scribing lines. The good thing about such pens is that they are cheap and biodegradable, the marks water proof when dry. The scribing tip can be renewed by whittling with a chisel, the pen side with a hammer.
Glorious tear-out encountered. Bench base was knocked a few feet forward. So much for the weight. I charted the plane direction so that subsequent cuts will not take out more chuncks.
Besides judiciously marking grain changes with arrows, writing some brief words on troubled boards may help you take the best course of planing action the next day.
A seldom discussed discipline in woodworking is knowing when to stop. Some days, all your tools will misbehave, and nothing seems to go right. Take a break. Stop for the day. Tomorrow will always reveal a better approach. I don't know why, but try it.
Some eight months later..
I've completed the tail vice, (not glued up yet, out of a curious apprehension that things may change as the build progresses)
I lined up the planks that will be my benchtop, and I sit the tail vice on top at the right hand corner. (Heck, I've even wedged in a ramp for the tool well. I know many people hate tool wells, for they collect junk.) The idle piece will be one of the end caps.
Trust me, this took the whole evening just for lugging the wood and arranging them. I suddenly remembered what I learned (and what I just wrote on top) from the last bench I built:
YOU DO NOT SCREW WITH KAPUR.
I have previously neglected to align the grain direction. This time, I tested each piece with a Stanley 9 1/2 Block Plane, and I mark them clearly with India ink and a bamboo pen. Failure to do so would result in tear outs the size of Connecticut. (Well, tear outs will still happen with this grain reversed beast)
I also mark each piece with their designated position, such as "front strip, doghole strip, etc)
Spent, I then hauled the planks to their storage.
I looked at the floor and see that it needs sweeping, still my Jointer gently weeps...uh..sorry George
Day 3
I am an instinctive worker by nature, and instinctively, I took out my ebay purchase for sharpening. Instinctively, I suspect I'll need it during the bench build (even though I haven't a shave horse). These are just one of the thousands of things I do to avoid continuation on my bench. What's that word in English again...?
Tools for Draw Knife restoration:
1)Diamond file
2)C-Clamp
3)Procrastination on Bench build
...some 2-3 months later,
If I were to have the top surface of the bench dog flush with the top, it must slope at 10 degrees.
Since I cannot have any dogholes in front of the front vise, (they will protrude below the top and hit the vise itself), I counted six dogholes, if I spaced them 4 inches apart. 4 inches because 3 seemed too close, and with 5 inches, the tail vice will need to be cranked more than half of its 8 inch opening for the next doghole.
As long as you cant the dog holes, you'll be fine. Any angle will work.In my case, I followed the bench dog I purchased from Japan woodworker: 10 Degrees.
Where there are no dog holes in the strip directly in front of the front vise, I will make a special dog that can be clamped in the front vise itself. More on that in a while.
Sawing out the recess for the tail vise. Ever ripped 3 1/2" of tough lumber with 20" saw? Shown is the point I gave up. Just too tough. I finished up the recess with a roofing hatchet.
Chopping out the waste for the front vise. This recess is for the rear jaw, which is embedded in the front strip. Being "half-blind" I can only saw this much. The rest is still elbow grease with a chisel and a mallet.
The view of the bench slab (Bottom side up) Note the completed recess.
The bench plate for the tail vise is held fast by six #10 screws and a prayer. Note that the bottom 3 holes has nothing to anchor on. Yes, I'll need to lag screw on an additional piece of wood.
12 December 2013
Some of you may regard my bench as nothing more than a poorly assembled block on trestles.
But for me, an epic adventure in hand tools.
The only electricity used on my bench are those powering the light bulb on my swivel lamp.
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