In order to clamp the guide rail on the narrow side of the slab to complete the kerf cuts I used my guide rail vacuum clamping pod:

My first thought seeing these pictures was how you clamped the rail. Very smart idea! I had no idea guide rail vacuum clamping pods were a thing.

I finally figured out why they call them benchtop drill presses. You're supposed to use it to build a benchtop!!





Real reason for this: I originally hand drilled the barrel nut holes and didn't get it quite right on the location for one of the end cap bolts that wandered off centerline. The rasp I have wasn't doing diddly. I decided the best cure was the drill press to slightly move the hole over.

I know it looks perfect in the picture but there's a slight gap at the top shoulder line that's bothering me. I'll see what can be done about that.



Matt

@Richard/RMW I hear you. I've considered one off and on but the desire to learn a new tool just isn't there right now. I'm trying to go the other way on the technology front and use more tools that don't require electricity.

Yea my hand tools are woefully underutilized, and my skills are on par. I'm still in a shop and jig phase, it's been a while since I actually built anything else. The boss just shakes her head every time I spend an entire weekend rearranging tools and there's  nothing to really show for it on Monday.

That workbench will give you a great foundation for hand work.

RMW

I can't say I'm ahead of you. I used a jigsaw to help cut waste on the big tenon because I don't own a hand saw unless you count my very dull hack saw. I'm trying though. I'll probably make one of those wall mounted hand tool storage things after this.



I made this jig yesterday to do the square bench dog strip that gets laminated to the bench top section I've been working on.

Matt

Quote from: DynaGlide on September 21, 2022, 07:25 AM

In order to clamp the guide rail on the narrow side of the slab to complete the kerf cuts I used my guide rail vacuum clamping pod:

My first thought seeing these pictures was how you clamped the rail. Very smart idea! I had no idea guide rail vacuum clamping pods were a thing.

Wait, what? Who makes this thing? Looks like a must-have.

Gearing up for the dog hole strip next. I resawed an 8/4 board into 1 5/8 and 7/16 pieces. I'm hoping to get these down to 1 3/8 and 3/8 for the necessary dog hole strip pieces.



I made mirrored templates for routing of the dog holes:



The reason for the mirrored templates is the moving dog block is opposing the dog hole strip. If you just use the same template on it then the 3/8 cover cap won't line up with the rest of the dog hole strip. That will make more sense when it's done.

I ordered a Katz Moses dovetail jig and japanese pull saw to do the condor tails on the final front laminate piece. Bandsaw would be preferable but I don't have one. With any luck the front slab and tail vise will be done next week.

Matt

Wow this is turning out great. Thanks for posting your progress.

It looks like your bench is coming along just nicely.    You are wise not to get too worked up about imperfections. No one will probably even notice, but you (that's the bane of all woodworkers/perfectionists  ). Besides, after a few months of use, the wear will camouflage much of those anyway. In the end it is a bench for woodworking, not for show.

P.S. Great to see that new plane being put through its paces. Nice feeling isn't it? Making wood curls. 

Where are you sourcing your square dogs from? I built a bench 30+ years ago with square dog holes and didn't get enough dogs. I've been thinking I'll need to make them from some hard wood, maybe on my CNC.

BTW, 30 years ago the round dog hole thing was just getting underway. Conventional wisdom at the time was that the round holes would wear (elongate) more quickly. As it was, some couple hundred year old benches with square holes had a lot of wear. But I guess the fashion today is MDF tops that get replaced relatively frequently since people even cut into them!

This will be the hackery edition of the thread. Typically the condor tails are cut on a bandsaw. Problem is I don't own one. So I stood the board up on end and went to town with a crosscut saw on a ladder:







To get that waste out between the tails you'd normally use a fret saw. I don't own a fret saw. But I do own a drill press and a Dewalt special edition dovetail saw:







I'm pleased with how everything turned out. There's some slight tearout at the far left of the shoulder line on that last picture. I'll find a way to fill that once it's joined to the end cap. Not bad for my first dovetails.

Matt

OK, so I laughed. Sue me.

Great job, looks like the sorta thing I'd do if I weren't too lazy. I especially liked the hacksaw, did you pick that up fron a back issue of Fine Woodworking?

RMW

It's actually a reader tip from their sister magazine Not So Fine Woodworking

Pretty good progress over the weekend working around kids and household obligations. It's not the picture perfect dovetail joint you see from people who do this sort of thing on the regular (looking at you Frank Strazza) but for my first go of it I'm really pleased. I took my sweet time finessing the fit of the tails to the pins on the end cap such that it is nice and snug, not loose, not so tight that I have to pound it in. I can get it seated 90% just by pressing down on it with my upper body weight and driving it home with a few light taps of a rubber hammer.

I didn't invent this idea of doing the pins. It's from Jameel Abraham (of Benchcrafted). He wrote up an article about a decade ago in Popular Woodworking detailing it. It's also featured on TWW build video. Once you have your tails square and are happy with everything you transfer the knife lines to the pin board and very, very carefully chisel and rout out the first 1/4" so you can rout the remaining depth with a pattern bit and a router. I hogged out the majority of the waste with my 1400 and a guide bushing and a 1/2" spiral upcut and proceeded to do the final passes with my little dewalt cordless trim router with the pattern bit. After that was done I had to do some investigating with a pencil to find what was holding it up. Just mark up the tail sides all over and look for rub marks and address the proud areas of the pins with a sharp chisel.

End cap trimmed proud so I can plane it flush after glue up:



I scribed the tails directly to the walnut endcap, then placed tape away from the knife lines and found them again with my fingernail. Reason for this is the first 1/4" gets routed out free hand close to the lines before the chisel. Having the tape was a great visual indicator of when I was getting close enough to stop.













There's about a 1mm gap at the top of the bench between that tail board and the end cap where my knife line didn't meet up perfectly when I wrapped it around. I've already worked out how I'll cut a piece off on the table saw to glue in there after I finish flattening the bench. Otherwise very happy with everything so far. The tails were cut entirely by hand and are my first dovetails of any kind.

Matt

Very nice job, Matt!!!   

Thank you Willy

You said these were your first dovetails of any kind. Well, let me assure you that many woodworkers would be envious to have such nice dovetails as a first!  Just like Richard/RMW says, after a while you won't notice such small defects anymore. And other people will most likely not notice at all. Well done!