Today I had time to put the finishing touches on the Small Benchtop Bench.  The replacement hand wheels came in early this week, and it was hard not having time earlier this week to work on the bench.  I’ve had a couple stalled projects lately and I really wanted to complete something.
The first order of business was to enlarge the bore through the hand wheels.  I have a machinist vise for my drill press, it’s not used that much but came in handy today.

The vise allowed me to align the wheel somewhat precisely, to enlarge the center bore.  It was quick work to drill out both hand wheels.

Next I needed to drill the through hole, for the pin that will run through the hand wheel and screw shaft.

This is where things went wrong on the first set of wheels.  This time I drilled through the hand wheels, then marked and drilled through the shaft of the screw.  No chance of snapping off the drill bit this time!

After attaching the hand wheels, it was time to test the smoothness of my new design.  It was exactly what I was hoping for!  The wheels spun freely and smooth.  I was so excited I let out a whoop.  My wife opened the door and asked what that noise was!  She saw the smile on my face, then she laughed, closed the door and allowed my to savor my victory.

Now that I finished that last major step, it was time to drill some dog holes.  I wanted a way to keep the dogs in the face vise out of the way, but still be able to retrieve them when they were needed.

I drilled the dog holes in the face vise, about an inch deeper than the length of the dogs.  I then cut a window in the vise that intersected with the dog hole.  I cut the window on the inside of the vise, so would be hidden.  I thought about having the window on the outside, but decided the inside would work just as well.

I drilled a few dogs on the top and did a light sanding to remove pencil marks and to ease the edges.  I’m quite please how it came out.

The clamping force I get with the vise is quite strong.  I lightly pinch the bench in my wagon vise, and add a clamp to the bench.  It’s quite secure and doesn’t move.

I designed the bench, so that if I line up the front of the feet of the small bench with the edge of main bench, the inside face of the small bench is inline with the main bench.  If I’m working on a large piece, I can take advantage of the clamping surfaces of my main bench.

The bench dogs allow me to secure larger pieces to the top of the bench.

The primary reason for making this bench was to raise the work piece to a more comfortable height, when doing tasks like cutting dovetails.  It will also be useful when I use power tools.  I can see when cutting mortise with a router, the added height will make this task easier too.  Over all, I think this will be a nice addition to the shop.

This weekend I will start a new project.  My brother has asked me to build him a cabinet for his bathroom, which he is remodeling.  It will be a somewhat large cabinet, so I plan to use plywood on this project and a lot of power tools.  It will also need to blend in with a vanity he has purchased.  The vanity is “modern” in style and black.  So, I will give ebonizing a try.

I had plans to finish the Small Benchtop Bench this weekend, but I must have angered the woodworking gods somehow.  Because the last couple of times I’ve worked on it, things haven’t gone well.

When I last worked on the bench I was attaching the face vise.  I cut a couple garters out of some 16 gauge steel I picked up at a local “big box” stores.  They are good for somethings, but not much these days.  I recessed the garters into the main chop using my router plane.

I first screwed the garters to the vise and scribed the outline of the garters with a marking knife.  Then I just went to town with the router plane.  It worked really well, and it didn’t take that much time.

After attaching both screws and hand wheels it was time to give it test run.

The action was anything but smooth.  The screws were rubbing on the garters, even though I made the holes oversized.  Also when I attach the hand wheels, I wasn’t very careful.  The wheels weren’t square to the surface of the chop, so they rubbed in places as you turned them.  I kicked myself for not being more careful.

Knowing I would have to reattach the hand wheels, I started to rethink what I made the garters out of.  I was concerned about metal on metal contact with the screws, garters and possibly the wheels.  I then thought I could use some Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWP).  So, I went by my local Woodcraft store and picked some up.

I made some new garters out of UHMWP and set out to reattach the hand wheels (square this time).  This is where things really started to go wrong.  I was drilling the first new hole and about halfway through, the bit snapped off!  I was drilling through the hand wheel and the screw at the sometime.  Now my wheel was essentially pinned to the screw, and for the life of me I couldn’t get the bit out.

I decided to drill through the bored hole in the hand wheel.  My plan was to drill down through the top of the screw until I met up with the snapped off bit.  I thought from there I could work it loose.  That didn’t happen.  I knew I would have issues try to drill through the snapped off bit, because they are made of very hard steel.  As a last resort, I tried to drill through the bit.  That sucker wasn’t going to give up!  Then I went just a little too long.  The metal sleeve inside the plastic wheel heated up and the plastic wheel came loose!

I eventually got the wheel off, but it was toast.  Luckily it wasn’t that expensive.
Knowing I would have to buy a new one, I decided to go with all steel this time.  I also went just a little bigger, about 5” in diameter.  When I was using the 4” wheels, they seemed a little small to get the rotation I thought was needed.  I still want the wheels to be below the surface of the bench, and 5″ is as big as I can go.

Because I had drilled down through one of the screws, I needed to mill the screw down again.  Last time I went over to my brothers to do this, because he has a small milling machine.  I didn’t want to run over there again, so I rigged up a simple jig on my grinder.

It worked pretty well.  I drilled a ¾” hole through a piece of oak I had lying around.  The screw fit snugly through the hole.  I just slowly move the screw in and out, while turning it, and kept lowing the tool rest.  Once I got to about a ½” I was done.  Lots of sparks were flying during the grinding.  Not something you see very often in a woodworking shop!

After that I just need to fit the new garters to the chop.  I had to recess them a little deeper, because the UHMWP was thicker than the steel I was using.

I do have a new plan for attaching the new hand wheels when they come in.  I think I can avoid snapping off another bit halfway through again.  I hope they come in before next weekend, I really want to put this project to rest!

I needed a break from all of the dovetailing I’ve been doing and practicing.  I thought I would start on the Baby Bench I talked about a little while ago.

Over the past couple of weekends I started to work on the bench.  I’m using whatever wood I had in my woodpile.  The top is Douglas Fir.  The legs of the base are Hard Maple.  The cross piece along the back is Oak and the vise is Mahogany.  It is a very diverse bench ☺.

I didn’t take step-by-step pictures this time.  I just want to be in the shop without any distractions.  The bench is almost done, but I thought I would show how the vise will come together.

In the first picture you will see a threaded rod and a couple of nuts, sitting on the bench.  I ordered these from McMaster-Carr.  The threaded rod is 3/4”-6 ACME threads.  I order square nuts, so they would be easy to recess into the vise.

I also ordered 2 hand wheels for the vise, but they haven’t come in yet.  I plan to go over to my brother’s this next weekend, to work on the screws and attaching the hand wheels.  My brother has the metal working tools I don’t have.  I need him to cut the threaded rod to size.  We then need to mill threads off the ends, so the hand wheels can be attached.  We will also need a couple garters (large washers) to attach to the chop.  I will document this process, once I have had a chance to visit my brother.

The joinery for this little project gave me a few issues.  I used mortise and tenons for the legs.  Cutting the mortise and tenons in the Hard Maple was a real challenge.  They don’t call it “hard” maple for the fun it ☺.  Trying to chop the mortises by hand was beyond my skill level at this time.  It was like chopping into granite!  So it did the bulk of the work with my router and table saw.  I did cleaned up the cuts with hand tools.

I was planning to use a through tenon for the back stretcher, but seeing how much trouble I had cutting the ones on the legs, I decided to rethink that joint.

I settled on a large half-lap dovetail on the ends.  These I did cut my hand.  The Hard Maple still caused me some issues.  The Maple and the Oak won’t give at all.  The joints weren’t as tight as I would have liked.

Even though they aren’t the neatest and tightest joints, these guys aren’t going anywhere!

I think I will leave the bench unfinished.  I don’t plan to do any gluing or finishing on it, so I don’t need any protection from that.  Once I get the screws cut and the hand wheels attached, I’ll give the bench a test run.

I have seen several magazine articles about benchtop benches over the years.  These little benches go on top of your workbench, to raise your work to a more comfortable height.  When I first read about these benches, I really had no interest in them.  They seemed unnecessary.  Now that I have been cutting more dovetails, I find that my back is getting tired from bending over.  Maybe I’m just getting old, I’m also having problems seeing my line too ☺.  I thought if there were a solution I would give it a try.
I looked at a few designs I found out on the Internet and in magazines and came up with my version.

It’s about 24” wide and about 14” deep.  I haven’t decided on the height yet.  I will have do a mockup to see what height will work best for me.  I suspect it will be around 10” or 11” high.  The large round things on the front of the vise represent the hand wheels I will use.  When I designed the bench, I wanted the top these hand wheels to be below the top of the bench.  I didn’t what them getting in the way while I was sawing.

The bench will be camped to the benchtop when in use.  You will see some short “stubs” on the base that sticks out the front.  This small stubs can be used to clamp it to the benchtop, along with clamping between the legs.  The front of these stubs are inline with inside face of the vise.  I wanted to be able align the beach easily with the front of my bench.  If I’m working on a long board, I wanted to be able to take advantage of the clamping surface on the rest of my main bench.

I designed in a few mortise and tenon joints in this little bench.  I could have designed a slightly simpler bench that bolted and screwed together, but I wanted to practice on my mortise and tenons.  I will hand cut and chop these joints, when I build this little bench.

I plan to order my hardware from McMaster-Carr or Carr Lane.  They both carry the Acme threaded rod I will use.  Along with the nuts and hand wheels I need too.  I priced them out and it’s not really that bad.

This will most likely be a Spring project.  I still have to work on those Silverware Trays and the small hall table I started.