Bench Reconfiguration Diary

[Si600]

I'm considering mounting a flush woodworking vice to my bench, on the short edge on the corner, see pictures!

Obviously the existing leg will have to be changed for something suitable.

The question is I suppose, is there any reason I shouldn't? I don't have space for a second bench at the moment, and the engineers vice will get in the way of any planing elbows if I put it on the long face.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Si600

[SpondonBassed]

No reason why you shouldn't.

You could make the leg modification so that you can remove the newer vice if you need to for a one-off.  Having said that... I'd imagine you'd be more likely to find the engineer's vice in the way but you can remove that too without a lot of hassle.

I have a similarly sized workbench and limitations.  I have a vice on each of the long and the short edges that are accessible.  If one or both of them is in the way it or they can be removed and put back after.

[SpondonBassed]

Have you got extra pointy elbows then...?

[Si600]

No more than the next average human. Seeing as the bench is only 2m long, and the current vice is in the middle, I can envisage an elbow/cast iron interface at some point if I put the other vice on the front.

It's only held on with two bolts, so not the end of the world to move it when using the new one.

Edited May 2, 2020 by Si600

[SpondonBassed]

3 minutes ago, Si600 said:

elbow/cast iron interface

Drop the Dead Donkey

[Si600]

OK...

So. Release the four fifths of the back leg and set them up in the workmate for finishing.

I thought I'd taken more pictures, but you get the idea.

Because I've changed my mind and I'm now fitting a leg vice, I had to buy some more timber. I got the cutting service in the shop to cut the board into 100mm widths.

Glue up four fifths of the front leg.

Spend an hour sharpening two chisels and a plane iron. Hopefully once I get good at it I'll just need a couple of strokes on the coarse and then fine grit. I don't sharpen enough because I'm rubbish at it, so I always need to do more when I do.

Realise that I've made a mistake. Two of the front leg boards are supposed to have the mortice for the St. Peter's Cross to go into. Spend a few moments cursing and considering forcing them apart. Decide not too, it just makes the mortice slightly harder, for me, not a professional like the rest of you.

Plane the back leg components with the freshly sharpened plane. They're about a mm under 70mm, close to square and parallel but I've only got a single bulb in the middle of the workshop, which must be the next thing on the list.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Si600

[Si600]

Released from captivity and planed the two (four) fifths of the front leg. I'm very happy with these, they're square on the long sides, parallel and a smidge oversized, 100.5 or something.

Admittedly I've got fed up with cutting the other board into 70mm strips, and I've still got the vice chop to make.

I'm now at the staring at it stage, trying to decide where the screw should go and the mortice for the cross mechanism.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Si600

[Si600]

No further visible progress, but I've ordered a lead screw and I'm pretty sure I've finalised the locations of everything. At least until tomorrow.

As you may have gathered I'm faking the joinery by making the mortice holes as gaps in laminated legs. As well as gluing the stretchers in, would you screw or dowel them as well?

[TheGreek]

Gutted...I opened this thread in the hope that somebody was actually building a 28-31 model A. Damn!!

If you were, you'd obviously have to put it on 32 rails, Jag independent rear, "I" beam front, Moon discs, wide whites and an original flathead. Has to be minimalist Boyd Coddington stylee - no louvres or door handles...

Anybody else recording the new series of "Overhaulin'"? 

Edited May 26, 2020 by TheGreek

[Si600]

It's a joke between Dad1138 and I. I suggested that Build Diaries could have a sub page so people like me who are mucking around with non musical projects could be quarantined from the genuinely talented builders.

We decided that Build Diaries encompasses everything, as long as it's reasonably related to BC, so no Model A hotrods. Hence the name.

Like all good in jokes, no-one understands it and the intended recipient hasn't, AFAIK, noticed.

I'd like to have the desire to do a hotrod, rather than just own one, but I don't!

[Bobthedog]

18 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Gutted...I opened this thread in the hope that somebody was actually building a 28-31 model A. Damn!!

If you were, you'd obviously have to put it on 32 rails, Jag independent rear, "I" beam front, Moon discs, wide whites and an original flathead. Has to be minimalist Boyd Coddington stylee - no louvres or door handles...

Anybody else recording the new series of "Overhaulin'"? 

Leland Sklar has a T:

 

[TheGreek]

My eldest brother built, amongst other things, a Jago 1923 Ford model T when I was (much) younger. 

He also radically altered a Morris Minor to look like a 40s Ford. With 6" removed from the roof pillars (chopped), the bulge removed from the doors, the frenched number plate smoothed out, and a custom grill, it won numerous prizes at shows during the late 70s before the owner, Lee McDowell, sold it to somebody who wrote it off.

I've spent hours on t'net looking for photos without success.

Edited May 26, 2020 by TheGreek

[SpondonBassed]

...and they complained about motorbikes in the DoI!

Si... I have no idea what you're talking about with four fifths of a leg and such.  Surely that means you don't have an entire leg to stand on?

Still... I'm reading with interest because of that.

[Richard R]

Mrs. R: What are you reading?

Me: About a man building a bench. It's exciting because of something called a leg vice, which I have no idea about and I hope is actually related to woodwork.

Mrs R:  And that's interesting?

Me: Well, perhaps not as mainstream as the article on the  1979 Aston Martin Vantage I showed you earlier. But we established that even though one would fit in the garage, and I have wanted one since I was 11, £250,000 is rather a lot of money. So I am reading about a man making a bench, as happiness is about achieving realistic goals.

What is a leg vice BTW?

[Si600]

6 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

...and they complained about motorbikes in the DoI!

Si... I have no idea what you're talking about with four fifths of a leg and such.  Surely that means you don't have an entire leg to stand on?

Still... I'm reading with interest because of that.

I'm building the legs up out of 18mm block board. They're going to have 5 layers with the middle layer being the stretchers. At the moment I've only glued the solid parts together so I have two two part laminations. Which my sense of 'humour' turns into four fifths of a leg.

[Si600]

@Richard R a leg vice is one of these:

 

The bench I have is an ex Red Bull GP one from MK and came with a mismatched pair of metal legs. Because of where I want the vice I have to replace the old one as I can't cut through the metal without causing major structural failure.

You also don't get Record type vice carcasses over here so I'd either have to buy new or get one from eBay.co.uk and have it posted, which will probably cost a fortune.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Si600

[Si600]

5 minutes ago, Si600 said:

@Richard R

Edited May 27, 2020 by Si600

[Richard R]

Now that is an impressive vice 👍

Apart from gaining additional elbow room, I can see you could put a huge force through the clamp, and spread it over a long piece. Would it be even enough for laminated neck blanks?

[Si600]

Mine won't look nearly so nice!

If the chop was wide enough to get the blank past the screw then possibly. But I really don't know.

[SpondonBassed]

16 hours ago, Richard R said:

What is a leg vice BTW?

 

9 hours ago, Si600 said:

@Richard R a leg vice is one of these:

 

As well as the one Si has illustrated there is a leg vice, used by blacksmiths in forges, that has its leg anchored in the floor.  It can be fixed to a static bench or used with a purpose made stand.  The stand version is not as solid in use as the type where the leg is secured in the concrete of the floor

Neither of these are good for wood but...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're GREAT for metal.

[Si600]

Not Skiffle?

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, Si600 said:

Not Skiffle?

You want one of these mate.

[Si600]

I've stared at it long enough, and although the screw hasn't arrived yet, and being a twerp I forgot to order the handle with it  I've committed to the design and started cutting one edge of what will become a mortice when it's all clued together.

I feel I'm making heavy weather of it, and wondering whether there's a better way than how I'm doing it. No machine tools are available before you suggest that 

[Si600]

Stopped for coffee. I'm in danger of making a mistake at the moment, I can't seem to get the chisel sharp, or to stay sharp. Maybe I'm expecting too much but the first couple of taps seem to bite nice and deeply, but after that it just seems to be a struggle. I'm about to just whack the thing, which means I'll probably split the baulk, so I've stopped for a bit.

[Si600]

It's also spruce, fir, pine, whatever. Is that a particularly brutal wood for cutting edges?