not the final bench re-do post.......

 First up are are few observations about my recent surgery on the workbench. After my last flip back to upright status, I thought the bench looked a little high. I hadn't changed the height in any way but for some reason it appeared to be 6" taller and a lot smaller.

Once I got over the height visual miscue, I noticed that the bench was a tad leaner.  No more protruding shoulder vise on the front and no more 1/2 of a tool tray hanging out the back. I like this lean smaller looking bench. I am especially liking the clean front and rear edges. Not that I clamped a lot to my bench, but now I can do it everywhere. All my catch all, pile it here, corners on the bench are gone. All I have left now is 100% prime woodworking real estate.

The Bench is 83" long x 23 1/2" deep x 35" high. The new vise is installed and I don't think that I will miss the shoulder vise at all. For my dovetailing ops I'll use my moxon which was basically the only thing I used the shoulder vise for anyways.

front and rear jaws

I changed my mind on using the the LVL stuff for both jaws on the vise. This stuff is almost 2" thick and that would push the back jaw too far from the edge of the bench top.  Plus it would eat into my open clamping capacity. I found a piece of ash (I think) and that will be my new back jaw. I originally wanted to use the bench edge as the rear jaw but after watching my Paul Seller's workbench video, I'm going with a rear jaw. I could see in his other videos  too,where that separation is an asset.

marking the holes in the ash

flushing the oak to the LVL

using the scrub to remove most of the proud

ugly grain reversal

screw on the knob snapped off - what's next?

rod spacer bar and e-ring

rear view

 I was a little concerned about this bar and the base rubbing together. I purposely put it away from the upright by a 1/2". There is plenty of clearance from the vise closed to being fully open.

bad bad nylock nut

I like nylock nuts a lot. You don't have to worry about vibrations etc loosening the nut on you. This one on the left felt screwy going on and would not tighten down at all.  So I tried to remove it and it wasn't coming off.

broke the tip off my screwdriver trying to remove it

finally got it off

 My vise grip pliers on the head and a 1/2" box end wrench on the nylock equals snapping the head off. I removed and threw away the other two nylocks and replaced them with good old fashioned split lock washers and bolts.

10" open

20" across the jaws

4 1/2" to the bars

7" outboard on the face jaw

Hands down this capacity beats the snot out of the old shoulder vise. Couple this with a easy to operate quick release feature and I have a winner here. Fit and finish are pretty good for a former bloc country. The paint job (green isn't a favorite color) is pretty good with no drips or paint being were it isn't supposed to be. I would buy another one if I had too.

vise crimpy thingie

I had bought this from Lee Valley when I bought the vise. I never worried about racking with my shoulder vise - it was installed on a pivot. With this vise I am going to have to be concerned with racking. I shouldn't have any problems with this thingie.

not good

I don't know what is causing this angled gap here that is pissing me off to no end. Part of the problem is me being in a hurry to get this done. I drilled the holes for the face vise in place and after I tightened down the nuts, this is what I got. Before I did  the face vise nuts this clamped down straight across. I'll have to look at this and find a fix for it but that will come later. I what to do something on  a woodworking project for a while first.

scoring blade killer

mini tite mark scoring blades

I broke both of these blades on this wood from New Zealand. As I was pulling the blade towards me both of these blades just disintegrated. This is the only wood that I have broken a blade on. As I used a new blade on this wood here I was struck by how easy it scored and marked the wood. Maybe my problem was that the blades were dull and needed to be sharpened. Sharpening these isn't something that I spent sleepless nights thinking about. Might have to change that and add these to the schedule.

I am using the 1/2" stock I bought to make totes to make the drawers for the workbench.  I am going to dovetail them together and I didn't have any problems marking them with the new blade.

I'm thinking of buying smaller veneer press screws - these are 18" long

cut the tails on the wrong boards

I was making good progress on cutting my tails. The first two drawers came out ok and I've been trying something new with my sawing. For a while when it came time to saw when the saw would be to the left of the line I've been flipping the board around so that the saw would be to the right of the line again. I've been practicing sawing with the saw to the left of the line and I did all my tails, even the errant ones, without flipping the board.

I only had one cut that was off the line. On 3 others I starting sawing into the waste side of the line and I was able to correct them  and get back on the line. Along with getting better at sawing, my confidence in myself to tackle any sawing is increasing.

This was it for the day. I am feeling much better but I'm still not a 100%. I have a residual annoying cough left but I don't have to empty the snot locker every ten seconds anymore.  If I was 90%, I would have stayed in the shop and finished both of these. I am hoping that tomorrow I can fix the vise without having to flip the bench onto it's back. The dovetail thingie is an easy fix. And I have to make another handle for the vise. In the interim, I'm using my original LN handle.

accidental woodworker

"Why do they call it Rush Hour when nothing moves?"
Robin Williams