Resawing with a circular saw

The original boards were ~10' cut to ~8' leaving 2' sections. Being both coincidence and planning, this gave me sections the width of the bench for the bottom shelf, the parallel bars, and the wheel supports.

Currently I have no access to a band saw, so I used my circular saw to re-saw the pieces. Was a little rough, but actually better and safer than I thought it would be.

I've left the pieces un-dressed; to allow the wood to continue to dry, and because the planner blades need a sharpen.

The Top

The glue progress went rather smoothly. I started in sections of 3 or 4, then re-machined those, and joined larger sections. So far I've used over 2L of tite-bond 3 and every vice in the shop.

Because of the weight of the top I've left it in two sections. Two men, could move these sections, without a trip to hospital. (How to join them will be subject of later post.)

The next task is to flatten the top and bottom. Now all I need to compliment my stanely no 7 is an apprentice to work it... but until then I'll keep plotting away.

Metal

The sliding tail vices I've seen blogged (see previous posts) all have re-enforced the front section of thier bench with steel angle. The reason for this is that the force of the vise screw has the un-desired effect of bowing out the front of the bench.

To simplify construction I pre-installed the angle prior to glue up - which is of course easier then trenching out the required space. The top angle is 40x40mm steel angle. 5 x ~40mm x~4mm lag screws to join it.

One of the innovations of my design is placing the parallel bar under the shelf. I re-enforced the bottom front stretcher with two 30x30mm angle. I'm still uncertain of how the forces will play out, but even with me sitting on it, it has minimal flex.

Although, quite comfortable with wood, metal is a bit of mystery to me. I found a local supplier which was happy to deal in small quantities. As I want this to last, and didn't want rust around my workbench, I cose the more expensive gal. I purchased 1.6m x 3 pieces of onesteel duragal angle and cost me around $60. I was quite happy with the service.

Benchcrafted Vices Arrived

If you haven't seen Benchcrafted Vices you need to check them out. Chris Schwarz, Chris Vesper and Shannon Rogers have all blogged to thier praise.

Took 3 weeks to arrived. Cost a small fortune in customs and postage. (Probably doubling the price.) For anyone tempted to import them to Australia I suggest you buy them one at a time to fly under customs GST radar.

I'll detail the installation as we go. I'm intentionally delaying installing the wagon vise to allow for wood movement prior to the installation of the precision parts.

Legs

Simple build: machine three pieces, glue (tite-bond 3), shellac.
The legs are 5 1/8" x 5 5/8" x 31" (arghhh i'm becoming amercian... )

Solid. Originally I thought the legs were overkill, but in view of the 4" top, perfect.

Initial Cuts

There are several ways to make your initial cuts into the wood. These are rough cuts to get the pieces ready for milling. My workhorse for this is my Makita circ. In my opinion the circ is the most dangerous tool in the shop so needs to be treated with some respect. Mark S from the woodwhisperer used a jigsaw for this role as it is safter. The danger lays in difficulty securing rough timber which can move once it's cut resulting in binding, kick back, and bad cuts.

To keep it straight I used a chaulk line for the long cuts and a straight jig for short cuts... and some pieces eyeball only.

A more efficient and safe way is to use a track saw... but you do the best you can with what you have...