Progress on the Wheel Brackets

I've made headway on the wheel brackets, the most complicated piece of joinery so far. Shaping was by drill press, rasp, router and sand paper. The pieces are attached using 3 small 10x10mm mortises with wedges. Glued with titebond 3 provide a very strong joint. Tenons were cut using a small dozuki hand saw.

By why do I need a wheel bracket? When Jameel at Khalaf Oud Luthiery (who developed the bench crafted vices) first made his roubo he used rollar blade wheels to reduce friction on the parallel guide.

The bench crafted design (see above) using two bolts in line with the parallel vice to allow fine tuning. As I wanted the entire mechanism below the shelf I moved the bolts to the side. The pro's and con's (namely justed inline strength and complexity of build) of this have been discussed. I have to fill a few small gaps with epoxy, a little bit of sanding, and the brackets are ready to roll. (Pun intended.)

Looking for a Handle Maker

My skills and equipment don't (as of yet) extend to turning. When my current project reached a stage where it requires turning, I'm going to have to outsource. I'm looking for someone to make me two handles to hold the steel rod used as the sliding vice parallel guide stop.

I've made a quick sketch of various options trying to incorporate the design details of the bench such as it's concave and convex curves, as well as traditional chisel design (eg. g).

I have enough timber to make it in blackwood, blackbutt or redgum.

Which do you like?

Discussion @ Australian Woodwork Forums.

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.