More of the bench

It's getting towards the point when I can start to assemble the bench.

Before putting the stretchers onto the legs, one of those at the front had to have two roles of dog-holes drilled into it (for supporting long planks in the vice). The holdfasts also fit into the same size holes.

It needed the pillar drill as the holes needed to be nicely done at right angles to the surface - that's quite difficult with one of those flat wood-drills. But the pillar drill is inconveniently sited for drilling a two-metre-long plank. But it was possible:



The cleverly constructed input table fastened (clamp and screws) to the shelves solves the problem of trying to hold a long plank steady when drilling holes right at one end. Regrettably it will have to be removed as it is dreadfully in the way. When the new bench is installed I plan to re-site the drill.

After this, it was possible to put the legs and stretchers etc together. This did require the use of a reasonably heavy mallet - some of the joints are a good tight fit. One of them, however, isn't. Despite marking both halves of each joint, in one case I fitted non-matching halves together (twice, actually). As a result, a dovetail - luckily one at the back that doesn't show - is a bit loose, and has now been packed out with a thin sliver of offcut, which in time I may glue in place. Apart from that it all fits very well:



On the other hand, it is now much too heavy for me to lift unaided, and I need to get it off the worksurface it's on at present, then turn that worksurface upside down, and put the legs back on, but the other way up. This will let me work on cutting the mortices, in the underside of the worksurface, that the tenons on the legs will locate into.

Luckily I have a strong friend of my daughter's visiting for a couple of days.

I think I'll cut the ends of the stretchers back to a little closer the legs, while trying to decide whether they'd be better cut completely flush with the legs - though doing that without scarring the legs is at the limit of my carpentry skills.

The hidden wedged dovetails in the lower stretchers need to be cut a little shorter, too, and they also need better wedges: those in the joints at present are definitely temporary. But it's real progress to see it put together (and fitting well and solidly).

This picture shows the top inside of the leg nearest the camera in the picture above:



The housing (currently empty) will take a heavy iron threaded collar - with an outside square shape - for the leg vice. This created some problems, as the threaded rod is an unusual size: about 23mm. I have a 25mm drill, but not a 24mm one. So I drilled the hole at 22mm instead, making a very tight fit, then wound the rod in from the back of the collar (before assembly) to allow it to act as a tap cutting its own thread in the wood as it went through - this required a good deal of effort. Putting it in from the back ensured that the thread in the leg was continuous with the thread in the collar.