15 holes gone........

A couple of years ago TFWW came out with a new bench hook. I immediately ponied up my cash american for a pair. I had bought a woodcraft bench hook but it  broke the first time I used it. I've been beating on these TFWW ones without so much as a whimper from them since I got them.

The hooks have performed flawlessly. They have held down tight every time I've used them. I don't have any issues or dislikes with them. They have been champion bench hooks. However,  I did have a problem with the holes they went in.

When I got these hooks I was so excited and I thought I was writing a new chapter of wonderful things to come in RJB's woodworking world. I thought these hooks were going to be the be all of all the be all. And the starting point was to make holes in my workbench. So holes I made.

I made 15 of them. I measured the the reach of the hooks and I started from one end of the bench and made sure they over lapped until I got to the other end of the bench. I made two rows of them so the reach overlapped front to back too.  It was brilliant. I was patting myself on the back. There wasn't one square inch of real estate that I couldn't clamp down with my new bench hooks.

I drilled all 15 holes in the bench with a corded drill and I drilled them all like I used the leaning tower of Pisa as a drilling guide.  I didn't get a single one straight but the hooks did work none the less. I guess the wedging action doesn't care if it's straight 90 degree hole. This comes from being incredibly excited and not having the patience to do the job the right way. Oh well, next time.....

I've been using these holes as is since I did them and I've made a few observations on them. First and foremost, I didn't need 15 holes. I use two of them consistently and of the other 13, I only used 2 of them a couple of times. That makes 11 holes untouched and now was the time to correct this.

removing most of the proud

 This was the first dovetail saw I bought. I have never used it for that purpose and I probably never will. I use it for flush cutting. It's reversible and older then dirt and I'll most likely be buried with it. Oh by the way it's a tad dull and the teeth are covered with glue. It's on the to do list to fix but it's been on it for 20+ years.
 
Like a lot of things I do in the shop this was a spur of the I don't have anything else to do kind of moment (the shelf was cooking).  So I don't have any begin pics and I'm starting at the toward the end pics. All the holes were plugged with a short length of maple dowel with a kerf cut in it for a wedge. I put some white glue on them and I whacked them in as close as I could to the bench top and then I set the wedges to tighten them up solid.

a better flush cutter

This is a japanese dovetail saw that is a pretty good saw to use for flush cutting. You just have to be careful with it because it will dig in before you have a chance to aw sh--..

tandem workers

I used the block plane to knock down 99% of the proud. I then followed up with the #3 and flushed it down  the final 1% to the bench top. I noticed that I have another divot in the bench top that I have put a dutchman in. I'll put that on the to do list too.

just two holes this time

Since I've already proved that I only used two holes on a regular basis, I'm going with that number. I plan on drilling them (with a guide) so that the pads are a tad off center toward the left side of the bench. I might put a third one in to help hold down the moxon vise but I'll wait on all of this.

Another point I have noticed lately regarding bench hooks in pics I've seen of them- it's usually just 2 of them and they're located in the middle-ish of the workbench. That's about where I want to put my homeless set of hooks.

battle scarred bench top

Having all these dings, patched holes, dutchmans, and stains on the bench doesn't bother me. It's a workbench. Not a piece of furniture in the living room. Battle scars are fine by me as I have seen many pictures of worse looking benches then mine. And some of them were still being used to make things.

The big plan right now is to wait on making the new bench hook holes until I get the new woodworking vise installed. I may have to shift the bench top right to left a little or maybe front to back. I don't want to have to do this dance again. I might have to decide on the holes before then because the bride wants her bookcase yesterday.

accidental woodworker

hanging shelf pt II.........

I've been a wanna be hand tool worker for a while now. Something has always been holding me back and today I think I solved the mystery of why. I've always been attracted to I made this with my hands vs I made this with a machine where all the motions and actions come from me and me alone. I want to be able to say don't need a machine because I have the hand skills necessary to replicate any machine done work.

That's what I proved to myself today. I've removed a road block that said I needed a machine in order to get the precision to make something. I overcame my fear of failure doing it by hand. I made a shelf unit and I did it with only 2 machine cuts. I proved that I am capable of the precision to make a functional and good looking piece of furniture. The feeling of knowing that I accomplished this mostly with my hand tools and my hands is beyond any words that I could use to describe it.

mortises laid out, ready to chop it out

I had tried to make a through mortise with a bench chisel a couple of months back. I had seen a video of Paul Sellers making a through mortise and tenon in oak this way. I had to try it and it worked. I made a through mortise in a piece of poplar if memory serves me right. This time around it's the real deal not practice.

first one done, one more to go

two of these mortises to do too

Paul Sellers makes this mortise a 1/4" deep with a bench chisel. The same chisel used to make the through mortise made this one using the same technique. I don't have his experience so I went as deep as I dared and then used my router to get both of these mortises to the same depth.

through mortise #2 first side

through mortise #2 working the other side

through mortise #2 done - I'm a believer

For cabinet work like this you don't need a pig sticker mortiser. Bench chisels are up for the task.

marking for the shoulder for the stop mortise rail

marking the shoulders for the through mortise rail

knife walls done ready to cut the shoulders

cutting the cheeks on the stop mortise rails

sawed down the top about 1/4" on the through tenon rail

45 cut down one side

flip and do the other side at 45

saw the cheek off by going straight down

cheeks down ready for a test fit

mortise not deep enough - did the router plane dance again

through mortise

I had to do a little rasping of the tenon to get it to fit as it was a tad fat. I'd rather be fat here then thin.

dry fit ok everything fits good

laying at thirds for the arch detail

my home made arch drawing thingie

saw kerfs almost to the line

this is how I chiseled the arch

a couple of minutes work with a spokeshave

rounding over the ends

I did the initial rounding over on the ends with a block plane. I am using a rasp to get rid of the hard lines left by the block plane.

rounding over the top and bottom

I've been dying to try this rounding over detail that I see Paul Sellers do. I really like this detail a lot. It's simple to do and I think it looks good. I wasn't thinking that I hadn't done this yet and I just did it. I usually like to practice new things first.

done

I didn't screw it up. I used the chisel to remove most of the stock and get to the rough shape. I then improved the look with a file. I tried to get the round over to end in a point on the edge close to the middle.

dry fit

I didn't want any surprises when it came to glue up time. Everything fits wells and all the joints are tight. Hopefully it'll go together just as well once I get some glue on it. And for this glue up I'm using white glue because that's what Paul used.

cleanup before glue up

I'm using my edge plane to clean up and make all my end grain edges to look good. I toyed with putting a chamfer on it but I decided to keep it the way it is in the book. Maybe on #2 I can experiment with the look.

cleaning the front edge of the sides- 2 swipes and all the pencil marks are gone

 I sanded the inside of the sides with 150 sandpaper I didn't want to use a plane over all the dadoes and mortises.

cooking

I glued this up white glue and I'm going to let it cook until tomorrow. I didn't glue the top and bottom caps yet. I didn't do it because I wasn't happy with the clamps I had and getting them to reach over the clamps on the sides. So tomorrow I'll do the top and bottom when there aren't any clamps on the side to interfere with that glue up.

two day pile of shavings I like this better then tablesaw dust

I did it. I finally got a hand tool and hand work mostly project done. I know that my hand skills can only get better from here. I'm ready to tackle rip sawing but I'll work first on being able to cross cut plumb first.

accidental woodworker

new shelving project........

It was supposed to rain today and I was supposed to go to Highlands Hardwoods in New Hampshire too. At dawn the skies were clear and there were a few dark clouds off to the west of me but no rain. All the weather reports agreed on it being a rainy day. I didn't want to chance a two hour plus drive in a rain shower so I went to Pepin Lumber instead and got some pine.

next project comes from this

Pepin Lumber stock

Pepin sells this pine in 1x4, 8, 10, and 12 inch widths but only in 6' lengths. It's just about clear for 99% of each board I got which were 4- 1x8's and 1- 1x4. This will give me enough stock to make two of the upcoming project.

sawing the stock to rough lengths with my favorite xcut saw

all the pieces rough cut 

I did this stock prep all with a hand saw. 2 sides, top and bottom cap, 3 shelves, and 2 cross braces. The only machine cut I am making is to rough cut all the pieces a tad over sized in width. Next up is squaring up.

started with shooting one end square

jig in the back shoots the long edge square

one end square and one long edge square to that

cut to width

After I cut everything to rough width, I am now making the outside edges parallel and square. I started with the two sides first.

same treatment for the shelves

I didn't go nutso here trying to get the shelves to be the same width as the sides. I left them a tad wider and once they are glued in placed I'll trim the proud flush with a plane.

Besides my rough cut to width with the tablesaw, I also squared up the opposite ends that I did with my shooter. I tried to cross cut them close to the finished length but I was doing a horrible job in the plumb department. Most of my cuts looked liked miter cuts. It would have been horrendous trying to square up all those wild end grain cuts. Those cuts were done my table saw.

shelf sides are bowed

The sides are bowed just enough that I can't ignore it. I'm using the jack here to just make the bow flat and no more.

cleaning up the boards

I used my 4 1/2 first to do the bulk of the cleanup. I then followed up with my #3 to clean up the plane tracks left by the 4 1/2. I rounded the corners on my #3 iron and with a shallow cut, it doesn't leave any plane tracks.

laid out and labeled

Paul Sellers used 7/8" stock for his shelf build and I'm using 3/4" stock. Pepin had 5/4 pine but all they had in stock was #2 and what I saw had to many knots etc etc for this project.

stepping off for the shelves

I couldn't use Paul's measurements because of the stock thickness difference. So I finally got to use my 10" dividers. I set a mark at 1/4" at the top and bottom for the shelf side ends being buried in the top/bottom caps and stepped off 4 equal spaces. On my fourth stepping off I got it exact.

knife wall start for the shelf dadoes

marking for the width by using each shelf

repeating the knife wall on the other side

ready for the shelf

I cleaned out most the dado with a 1/2" paring chisel. I've had this set of paring chisels for at least 25 years and I can count on one hand how many times I've used them and still have 4 fingers left. My bench chisels are big enough to do this but the paring chisels have a 12" reach. I can control them nicely with one hand on the handle and the other guiding the blade.

nice fit

Three down and 7 more to go. 3 more for the shelves and 2 each for the top and bottom caps. That makes 10 housing dadoes in all.

marking for the notch at the ends of the shelves

sawing the notches out

shelves notched and installed - diagonals are 1/16" off

marking the dado for the top cap

last of the stopped dadoes routed

cut the notches in the shelf side ends for the top and bottom caps

everything fits nice

Not a bad output for a one day. I am pleased with what I ended up with here. I had only two minor glitches to deal with and neither is going to stop the sun from rising. The first one was that I swapped the top and bottom caps around. The original top had a defect that I put on the top where it wouldn't be seen. Now it's on the bottom of the bottom cap. It's on the edge and I hope that I can remove it when I round the edges over.



Tomorrow I'll do the two cross braces, clean it up, glue it up and set it aside to cook. I am making 2 of these because I want to practice before I make the bookcase for my wife. I plan on using some of the same joinery techniques when I make that one.

accidental woodworker