beginners corner, the work bench
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Tagged: beginner, wood choice, work bench
- This topic has 49 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by Ecky H.
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17 February 2018 at 6:27 pm #475733
Teak and Ipe are notoriously difficult woods to work with hand tools. I don’t have experience with them but I believe teak has a high silica content and dulls tools very quickly.
17 February 2018 at 7:11 pm #475764I don’t know if anybody has mentioned this yet, but Teak is one of the woods that is notoriously hard to glue due to the oils naturally present in the wood. It can be done, but you need to take special steps.
Try to avoid water based glues, though some people report success. Everyone seems to agree cleaning the surfaces with a solvent is the key to success.
I used to build boats, and got the best result with West system epoxy immediately preceeded by cleaning the glue surfaces with acetone because it dries quickly.. As SOON as the acetone dries, do the glue up. Oils will return to the surface almost immediately.
A good discussion is here:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/gluing-oily-tropical-hardwoods/I have seen an epoxy especially formulated called oak and Teak glue, but I haven’t used it.
https://www.makewoodgood.com/glue-oily-wood-oak-teak-maple-cocobolo/
17 February 2018 at 7:13 pm #475766Just think how easy it will be when I do something with nice clear wood.
17 February 2018 at 7:20 pm #475773So many things to remember. I was getting ready to plane the last leg. I clamped it between 2 pieces I had planed to use for a guide. Then it hit me. I had seen Paul use a hand saw to cut groves into a piece of wood and then use a chisel to knock them out like dominos. I have about 1/4″ or over to remove. So, I got my Stanly Tool Box saw out and started notching the wood. Worked like a champ.
Didn’t matter about the grain changes and removed a lot of waste fast. I thought it would take a long time to notch 30 inches of wood, but it actually went quite fast. So now I’m down to a acceptable amount of waste to remove.
As the man says, “persevere!” Those legs look like you got them nice and square. Are you going to use teak for the benchtop as well?
Back to the home-centers you mentioned–will they at least cut the lengths down for you? Who has the means to transport a 20′ board? Maybe 2 x 10′ boards and I assume your bench won’t even be 10′?
When I think back, I think I ended up using about 25-30 8′ 2x4s to complete mine (I definitely sacrificed a few due to error).
18 February 2018 at 8:23 pm #476667Ok, The legs are done, squared and the same size. I’m glad I didn’t just let go the perfection issue and just finish the table. If I did that, heck I’d have few projects done. I kept all my trial boxes, some dog ugly, the later ones very nice. This will fall into line somewhere with other projects in the future, good or bad, I didn’t give up.
Cutting slots in the leg and then removing the waste with a chisel saved a ton of time. Wish I had thought of it sooner. I guess that is why I like the fact Paul repeats so much of his work in different videos. besides, might not have see one with something earth moving.
Anyway, the legs are squared and ready for the next part. The table is ready too. I can’t believe how perfectly square I got the table. Corner to corner measure exact, when I lay my long level across it it shows perfectly flat. That part did take some time.
So now on to the next part. Attached are a couple pictures of progress. By the way, what do you call those slots I cut into the wood? I know I won’t forget that trick again.
I mentioned earlier the teak wasn’t a hard wood here. Wrong. I must have just hit a spot that made me think that. It is a hard wood similar to Oak or so.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by 5ivestring.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.22 February 2018 at 1:18 am #479361Ok, got my table mostly ready, every so often I run a plane over the top to clean it up more. I will be doing that for some time to come.
Got the aprons ready, not finished yet but ready.
Need to do the Well board yet, but later for that.
Got the rails cut to size and ready for the tenon.
So, started on the mortises today. On purpose I picked one of the worst ones to start with, one huge knot going everywhere. But not a tight looking knot. I took way too long laying out my lines, but didn’t want to make a mistake. I marked them, left, came back later a couple times to see if it was still the same or if I had made a mistake. All was good.
Just by chance I have a marking tool like the one Paul used. Really, I bought it a while back only because it looked like a nice piece of history art to me. It is a new copy though. Little did I know I would really use it.
So I made my cut lines and started in on the first mortise. That teak is indeed hard wood. It went so slow at first I thought it would take a week just for one mortise. But as I got the hole a little further along, it started giving in to me. Paul guessed a half hour, took him a lot less. I got about 2 hours in the first mortise, and am half way through on one side. Measured. So far it’s looking real good. However, they are going to take me a few days. Some days I have a full 8 hours to play with wood, other days like today, I had only a couple hours. Funny, being retired I thought I was supposed to have all the time I wanted for my hobby. Hmmmmm. Wife has other ideas.
22 February 2018 at 6:47 pm #479885You might give this method a try and see if it suits you.
https://paulsellers.com/2011/05/how-to-cut-large-mortise-holes-by-hand/
22 February 2018 at 7:01 pm #479893Dang, those mortises look great. Probably a whole lot faster too.
22 February 2018 at 7:06 pm #479895I guess we can’t all be Paul Sellers, with 50 years experience. Got my first mortise done, took 2 hours on each side. Had to sharpen the chisel 3 times. But one is done. Having this one done, I now have the confidence I can do all the rest of them.
I have done a few mortises before, much smaller not near so deep. I am quite happy with this one. Still needs cleaning, but that will happen.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.24 February 2018 at 4:05 am #482819Wish I had read this before I glued up the top. Well, it seems to be holding. Good advise though and I will remember it.
24 February 2018 at 4:16 am #482831I’m really getting to like this Teak wood now that I have a better idea of how to work with it.
One leg done, the second started. Cutting the mortises is very rewarding. I am using 3 chisels, 3/4″. That way I am able to switch when one is not as sharp as should be. I just switch off. I think Paul recommended that, not sure though, might have been in a forum reply somewhere.
So I started the second leg, and it is going much easier. I have picked up the tempo quite a bit, only taking just over an hour per mortise now. I’m more into being careful than hurrying. And besides, it is really fun.
I had cut some mortises before, but nothing as large and deep as these. You can’t imagine my feelings when on the break through, both sides met as one. I was kind of sweating that one. Now I am feeling quite comfortable cutting the mortises.
Probably be a week before my next update.
Thanks for all the support and advise.
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