[mpatman]

Bench Almost Complete

More bench progress…

Here is the "tail" vice mortised into the end of the bench. You can also see how the underside of the bench looks with all the different widths I used:



Clamping on the wider "apron" pieces front and back:



And adding the end aprons with dowels:









As you can see I painted the 4×6 fir base black:



I leveled the table with shims under the feet and then bolted the legs to the floor:

And then the fun part began…





I routed the edges of my vice jaws on the router table:





The vices came out really nicely. I made the tail vice so it would span across the entire width of the bench. That way I could have bench dogs along both edges of the bench for wide clamping.





Nearly complete… now all I have to do is add the dog holes, and a little sanding/finishing. I actually made it to the Sacramento Woodworking Show on Sunday and picked up some brass Veritas bench dogs.



I think it looks really good with the black base.



(See all the shavings on the floor!)

UPDATE:

Here are the links to the finished bench and cabinet in my projects:

Great looking bench blake…the black stand makes the benchtop really stand out. Now you have more of a reason to use hand tools!

 

[mpatman]

First Hand-Cut Dovetails

I finally got a chance to practice hand-cutting dovetails. This is the first time I've made a cut with my new Japanese dovetail saw and use my new bench too.

I started out with a couple scrap pieces of pine:



I drew the tails:



First cut… didn't follow the line so well. It will take some getting used to.



Here are all the cuts. Some are pretty good and some are pretty far off the line.



This photo is AWESOME. Because as you can see, I did a beautiful job at chopping away my tails (instead of the waste). Notice the X's that should not be intact…



Ok, take TWO…

Not even close:



A lot better:



Chop, Chop, Chop:



Not bad for 2nd try:



Cutting the pins went well. It is easier to saw straight down vertically then at an angle like the tails. Here are the pins being chopped:



It did take a little chisel work to get them to fit but not too much.

And here it is (first completed hand-cut dovetails)

Hey Blake,

They ended up looking not too bad…I am just about to attempt my first dovetails as well on my first project that I will be posting soon.

Mark