It is Sunday morning and I am a bit beat from my evening/night job but here I am trying to make some sense. The bulky parts are laid out about ready for assembly. All the edges were softened by way of block and smooth plane. It took a bit of time but it was a welcome break from machining. I thought about skipping the surface prep because it's a workbench but knew it would bug me in the end to see the washboard of the jointer and planer UGH! heh. SO. I took my lyptus smoother to the surfaces and block plane to the end grain.
Fast forward and Tah Dah! The base is pretty much done. The legs will get little removable riser blocks so that I can adjust the height as I see fit. The benchtop without them will be about 34 1/2" high. I typically think of workbenches being about 35". I am not tall and it is easier to raise the bench than lower it hence the blocks!
The trestle legs are glued up and cross pinned. The stretchers are dry fit as to make the base more portable. The stretchers have 1" deep tenons that are fit a little bit loose along the legnth of the mortise to allow for any movement... the lag screws are fed through oversized holes in the legs for the same reason.
This thing is really sturdy! little to no movement with me monkeying around on it.
I took another little break with the cross pins. Counter-sunk and pillowed Oak doweling. I hadn't been any kind of fan of oak mainly because of it's gratuitous use... and the ways it's been used. However seeing Ian's work and working with these dowels I have a new view on it. It works well and it is a calm looking wood. Rift-sawn oak is a welcome sight. I don't think it lives very well as flat-sawn and I have been over exposed to the quarter-sawn with it's pronounced ray flecks. The rift however is a bit softer, more friendly. Working the dowels I noticed how interesting The structure is on a close scale. From afar even from a couple feet it looks pretty mellow (which is good) but close up... I don't know, it reminded me of a clean shallow creek running over smoothed rocks in colors of wheat, oats, and earth. HA pretty "far out" description, don't worry I wont be cropping dirty dreds any time soon.
I have also been working on the dog strip separate from the rest of the benchtop (as I was using the rest of it) Next I'm looking at cutting the existing top to size and starting the quest for flatness YIKES!
5 comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyly3JtXoy4
i think you meant this?
Nice bench there Nick. It will be perhaps the nicest bench on the planet earth, though Daisuke's is pretty nice too.
What job are you working?
And you are right, anything other than riff sawm oak is ugly.
And I spelled rift riff.
Because I am high.
HA it will NOT be the best bench at all, but it will work. The top I'm using has extra holes in it... dog holes I put in it last summer. Also all the laminated parts in the base and such. Anywho it is more utilitarian.
Where am I working? Well it's a bit embarrassing. I'm back working at the "bubble tea" shop that I had worked at before. If it were a coffee shop or a normal tea house that would be fine but it's bubble tea... crazy amounts of sugar and over the top flavors. Although I'm not quite selling my soul there I do feel I'm getting poisoned. It isn't were I want to be, the people aren't who I would like to meet, it's super busy and fast paced with little to no care of craft etc.
The thing was all I had to do was call the store and ask them to put me on the schedule and I had a job that I needed no training for. The little income I get from that is better than nothing but I can't say that working there is at all good for my woodwork.
Hey you could be pouring concrete like me today! Hang in there, our time is going to come. We'll be on the cover of GQ you'll see.
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