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Mortise, mortise, mortise and… Mortise

Time to remove the legs and finish the base of the bench. It was really hard to disassemble it because I could actually use it as a bench even though it was not complete. I am pretty confident that this bench is going to stay together even if my joints are less than. This thing is going to be bomb proof. Since this is my first time making a project by hand, I have looked at just about every possible resource I could find. I’ve looked on the internet, read books, ask the cat, you name it I’ve done it. One thing I have learned though is the more you research the more questions I have and the more doubt I have before even starting the process. So it was just time to grab a chisel and start blasting away at the wood. I have eight mortises to cut in the legs for the stretchers. They will be an inch wide. Why an inch? I don’t know. It just looks right to me. I do not own a 1 inch mortising chisel. So to compensate for that, I used a 5/16 in. mortising chisel and cut two mortises. The theory for this, and this is not coming from experience, just arrogance, is that if I used a 1/2 in. chisel and made two passes the sides would not be square without the support of the wood on the sides of the mortise. This means that I will be cutting 16 mortises. I should get good after I am done.

Defining the mortises

Here I am making little cuts to define the shape of the mortise. You’ll notice that this raises the wood a little. If you take the chisel and lay it down on the workpiece, sideways, you can just scrap all these pieces off and you have a nice starting point to guide the chisel for the rest of the cut.

Cutting the rest of the mortise

Then I kept blasting away until I reached the desired depth of the mortise, which in this case was about 2 1/2 to 3 inches. Once again this is an arbitrary figure, it just seemed right.

Trust me, this gets pretty difficult, for me anyway, once you get this deep with such a little chisel. (The note on the wood that says “DO NOT” was so that I wouldn’t chisel that part because I messed up when I originally marked out my mortises. I make many mistakes)

Two Mortises

Here is what the two mortises look like when done.

Two become one

Chisel out the middle and then two become one.

Posted by  |  May 27, 2012 | Categories: Woodworking, Workbench | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Workbench Build. Standing on it’s own.

Now that the holiday dust is settling and things are getting back to a semi normal schedule, I recently had time to get the legs of the workbench “fitted” to the bench top. I use the term “fitted” loosely because as you can see by the picture, the tool used to “fit” is not the most delicate tool in the shop. Forget the previous sentence. I recently had time to “persuade” the legs to mate with the bench top.

 

 

After about an hour of pounding the remaining legs into place, I finally had all four installed into the top. One concern I had was being able to remove the legs later after fitting the stretchers. These are REALLY tight fitting. It was hard enough pounding these legs in one at a time. I am having a hard time imagining doing all four at the same time once the stretchers and legs are assembled as one piece.

 

 

Now that the legs are installed, it was time to flip it over and see how it sits on the ground. I enlisted the help from my loving wife and together we flipped it over and placed it on the floor.

First thing I noticed was that this bench, although small in size compared to most benches, is a beast. Even without the stretches installed it is very heavy.

Second thing I noticed was that the back left leg sits about 1/8 in. off the ground. So now the bench rocks and not in a good way. I double checked all my leg dimensions and they were all the same. Double checked the thickness of the bench on all four corners and found out that the back left corner is a little thinner than the rest. I was very careful in planing the surface of the bench to make sure that it was flat but thinking that the bottom wasn’t as important didn’t pay as much attention. I failed to realize how this would affect the legs.

 

 

I drove myself crazy thing about how to fix this. I can’t have a bench that wobbles. What’s the point in having a bench this heavy if it is gong to wobble.

I could re-plane the bottom of the benchtop to bring the legs to the same plane. Now I am going backwards, back to where I was about a year ago. Lots of work there.

I could cut the remaining legs down to match the shorter one. That would bring the bench down a little and there is the possibility of screwing up one of the other legs in the process.

Screw it. I just cut a shim and put it under the leg. No more wobble. Now it ROCKS. (in a good way)

Posted by  |  January 11, 2012 | Categories: Woodworking, Workbench | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »

Workbench Build. Mortise chopping and dovetail sliding.

Now that the tenons for the legs of my bench are cut, it’s time to get busy with the mortises and sliding dovetails. I have been really timid in approaching this because of my limited experience and my lack of tools. I really wanted everything to fit just so with no visible gaps like a piece of fine furniture. Then I got over it and just decided to put the !@#$ing thing together. It’s just a workbench that is going to have the crap beat out of it on a regular basis. (If i am lucky)

First I drilled out the bulk of the mortise with a people powered drill. I don’t have enough batteries for my drill to handle this type hard hittin’ wood removal. It was a good workout though.

Then it’s time to chop out the rest of the wood and try to make everything square. I started on one side of the benchtop then flipped the thing over to try and meet in the center of the mortise, which is not so easy being that weighs over 100lbs. (guessing)  This was an attempt at preventing one side of the mortise from being “blown out”. What I found, however, was despite my attempts at lining everything up so that my cuts would meet in the center and in line with each other, I somehow managed to get off coarse and now I had a “ledge” in the middle of the mortise. I cleaned it up with a bench chisel but now I am doubting the the legs are going to just slip into place.

Next I grabbed my Japanese style pull saw and cut the profile of the sliding dovetails and then used a bench chisel to cut out the waist. I did this the same as the mortises, starting on one side then finishing up on the other, trying to avoid blowing out one side.

Then I cleaned everything up with bench chisels, rasps, beer and lots of swearing.

This is where my lack of experience really rears it’s ugly head. After countless shaving, fitting, rasping, chiseling, rinse and repeats, this is where I am at. Legs that just don’t want to fit. Yes, I do have a 2lb hammer to help persuade this things to mate, but I still want to be able to take it apart to cut the mortises and install the stretchers.

Truly a labor of love. Lagscrews are starting to look attractive.

Posted by  |  December 4, 2011 | Categories: Woodworking, Workbench | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

Workbench Build. The Scary Part.

This is probably the part of the workbench build that I have been dreading the most.

Cutting the holes for the tenons and the sliding dovetails of the legs. As careful as I was in cutting the legs, the dimensions did not come out exactly as planed. They were close, but not exact. Instead of trying to make the dimensions perfect, I decided on transposing those measurements onto the benchtop. I used dial calipers to take measurements from the legs and then marked those onto the bench. Sounds good in theory. Will it work? Hmmm. I dunno.

I used a marking knife and a chisel to define the lines. I also used a Sharpie to indicate what part of the bench is going to be going to be chiseled, just like I did with the legs. Hey, I need all the help I can get. I don’t know about you guys but I like to drink beer when I am in the shop. That’s one reason why I don’t use power tools. Beer and horsepower just don’t mix. Hell, I have a Beer Tender siting on the shelf of my toolbox. (Thanks Meggin, Love you!)

Cheers!

Posted by  |  October 31, 2011 | Categories: Woodworking, Workbench | Leave A Comment »

Workbench Construction Finally Continues

Well it has only been 7 months since my last post on the workbench construction. After packing to move, going back to Japan for a couple of months, moving into new home, unpacking and getting life back to normal again, I finally started working on the bench again. It was a little daunting at first as I haven’t touched a handtool in several months and I am not that proficient with them to begin with.

So anyway…

I really like the look of the “Roubo” style bench. I don’t think that my bench will meet the requirements of Roubo but I do want to incorporate some of the features. One of these features is the thru tenons and sliding dovetails into the bench top.


I start by marking the legs where I want to cut and where I DONT want to cut. This process of using a Sharpie to make a bunch of X’s is very helpfull.

Next, I begin by cutting away all of the X’s.

To handle the center waste, I just bore a hole near where the shoulder of the tenon is.

And then chop, split, whatever it takes to get that stuff out of there.

And this is what I finally end up with.

I still need to clean up some of the cuts before I go any further. I may get the nerve to cut the mating holes in my workbench top in a couple more months. After all that work, especially without the use of power tools, I am a little nervous.

Posted by  |  October 26, 2011 | Categories: Woodworking, Workbench | 4 Comments »

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