Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust

Mother’s Day was this past weekend (I hope none of you forgot), and I’m on-call this week for my day job.  As a result, I haven’t gotten as much done on the workbench as I would like.  However, I did get a few things done.  I finished shaping the vise chop, and I roughed out the sliding dead-man.

I cut the vise chop to shape on the band saw and then jointed the edges.  Then, I attacked the bevels with my low-angle jack plane.  The bevels on the vise chop are a little tricky without some sort of guide.  You just need to watch your lines and adjust your angle of attack when necessary.  The Bench Crafted hardware is now permanently installed, it the action is sweet.  I really prefer the classic look to the more polished glide models.

With the chop complete, I started working on the sliding dead-man.  I picked the best looking board left, and milled it square.  I had trouble figuring out how I could cut the bevel on the bottom of the board.  I ended up cutting it very carefully on the band saw.  Then I cleaned it up with a chisel.  This worked surprisingly well.

With the bevel cut, I marked a line on the board where it met the top.  I measured down half the distance of the groove in the top, and struck a second line.  This will be the shoulder for my rabbet.  I cut the shoulder with a backsaw, and the cheek on the band saw.  From there, it was just a matter of tweaking the length of the tenon until I could get the bottom groove on the stretcher.  Next, I’ll clean up the curves and bore some peg holes.

The only thing I have left to do is build a shelf and bore my hold-fast holes.  I’ve already been using the bench.  In fact, I used it to mill up the dead-man.

Stay tuned…

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