Sticking together

Today I drilled the larger part of the dog holes. This took a while, and I found that a flat 19mm wood bit will flex slightly when going through 8cm of wood. As a result, although the holes on the outer or top surface of the bench are nicely in line, they emerge rather more crookedly than I would have liked.

In any event, I was able to start gluing the first strips of wood together.



It's a miscellaneous collection of cramps holding it all together, and I'll find out tomorrow what sort of a job they (and I) have done. I've only stuck these three strips together as I want to run them through the thicknesser afterwards, and with two more (the next two strips will have to be done together, because of the direction they warp) they would have been too wide for it.

I won't be doing what I'd originally planned - gluing up three separate sections, then gluing these together. Although that would have let me put each section through the thicknesser, I was concerned that I wouldn't have straight enough edges to glue together, and probably very little in the way of flex with such a thick laminate, however much I tightened the sash cramps.

Instead, these three strips will form the front of the bench - the bit that I'll be working on most - and the other strips will be added a couple at a time and just planed down level by hand.



I've done the gluing with the boards upside down, in the hope of getting the top surface, currently resting on nice straight sash cramps, reasonably level. The underside is less important.

In the both pictures some of the dog holes in the surface of the bench are visible. The gap in the boards closest to the camera is where I plan to put a wagon vice - or at least, my own home-made version of one. There's a sliding piece in progress with a couple of dog-holes, which will eventually engage into the slots inside the gap in the boards. It will be used to clamp work onto the surface, using a fixed dog in one or the other of the surface holes. There is also a row of holes in the front of the bench, for supporting long planks etc.

I've left the ends at varying lengths (partly depending on where the knots are) so I can do a nice clean cut all the way across with a hand-held circular saw when the whole bench-top is glued up.

The temporary bench underneath is made from a couple of the thinner planks (34mm) that I will be using to make the legs from. When I start doing the legs I should have the new bench top to work on (supported on the same workmates).