Notes on Construction from a Beginner
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7 May 2019 at 1:15 pm #558254
I’ve recently finished making the plywood bench and I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks to Paul and team for providing both such a wonderful design and also such well thought out and executed video tutorials, all gratis. I’m very pleased indeed with the end result.
I’m a newbie woodworker; I’ve never cut a mortise in my life and, ahem, still haven’t but I did learn a tremendous amount building this bench. I’ll set out some of the ‘issues’ I had in building it below in the hope that they may be of some use to other beginners.
I elected to use my small bandsaw (a Record BS250) to firstly cut the strips for the bench top. I had the wood supplier cut my chosen ply (Baltic birch grade S/BB) to Paul’s helpfully provided cutting sheet dimensions. Even though I bought two outfeed rollers, as Paul suggested, I found the task extremely tricky. I’d never fed such a large piece of wood into the saw before – I mainly used it to cut small parts for model aeroplanes and the results, at least initially, were less than optimal. As I cut more strips I found that my cuts were getting better (less wavy) – whether this was because my skill level was improving with practice or that the stock size and weight was of course reducing with each cut I do not know – maybe it was a combination of both?
For the leg, apron and well board cuts I bought an Aldi track saw (£80) and a longer track (another £70 or so) and thought it was amazing, sorry Paul! Dead straight, clean and accurate cuts. I’d never used any type of circular saw beforehand and was a little nervous initially but I also bought rail clamps and used them for each cut and everything went swimmingly. As a further precaution, prior to first switching the thing on, I read the manual from cover to cover, well almost, and did a full Google/YouTube trawl of the results of search strings such as “circular saw kick back”, “plunge saw horrific accident”, “Do I need a riving knife” etc etc. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.
For flattening the now somewhat lumpy bench top I bought a cheap -but-powerful (ca. 1kW) electric planer. Never used one in my life before and in five minutes flat had managed to gouge and ruin one side of the laminated bench top. Ah well, I had a spare side and I set about it with my plastic handled (a slightly too small plastic handle for my average sized hand I might add) Record No.4 plane which I’ve had for about 20 years and used only once or twice previously. Progress seemed painfully slow so I ordered an Axminster ‘Rider’ 5 1/2 jack plane and all the necessary diamond sharpening kit. I love the solidity and heft of this plane and with it I quickly (relatively speaking) flattened the top, phew!
With Paul’s great tutorials, the bench was coming together really well until it was time to drill the 10mm diameter holes for the coach bolts which go through the aprons and legs. On every single one of these I hit screws – and I’d used hardened ‘Spax’ brand woodscrews in the legs to boot. I’d carefully (or so I thought) followed Paul’s leg screw positioning but hey-ho my carbon steel 10mm spur pointed drill bit was now pointless, in both senses. “Never mind” I thought “I’ll just use a 10mm high speed steel bit to get through the screw(s)”. That didn’t work either, neither did applying cutting fluid to the HSS bit. In desperation, I turned to my SDS drill and using a tungsten carbide tipped (and now chipped) 10mm masonry bit managed to get through on rotary alone (hammer turned off). A most unpleasant experience and one I’m not anxious to repeat. If I build the bench again I’ll try to source brass or at least mild steel woodscrews to use in these areas of potential conflict.
I bought a Record 9” quick release vice from Amazon uk for about £150. I chose Record because of brand recognition. When the pleasingly heavy box arrived I was rather perturbed to see that the label on it stated, and I quote exactly, “Made in China to Belgium”. Hmm. I was also perturbed to find out during post-purchase research (a silly habit I’m trying to break) that Paul recommends Eclipse brand vices. Not only does the 9” Eclipse brand QR vice appear identical to my Record one it’s available on Amazon UK for less than two thirds of the price – rats. I’m from Yorkshire so that was a heavy blow.
My final note (at last!) concerns the fact that I rushed ahead in eagerness and finished my bench before part 7 of the video tutorial was published. I found an older video of Paul’s detailing vice fitting to his ‘original’ bench and fitted mine the same way i.e. I left a gap between the vice packing pieces and the leg for future access, if required, to the top of the leg wedge. I actually increased this gap a little on my install so that I was also clear of the embedded bench top screws for drilling the 9mm pilot holes for the M12 coach screws I chose for vice mounting; I had no wish to repeat my leg bolt experiences.
When I watched the part 7 video I noted that Paul fitted his vice tight up against the leg and thus, I think, prevented access to the top of the wedge. Does anyone know why he did it this way? He doesn’t seem to explain why. Perhaps it’s advantageous to have the vice as close as possible to a leg? For workpiece rigidity?
Anyway, that’s enough of my rambling. I attach a few photos of my completed bench along with the first project made on it – my five year old daughter Lucy’s “Wibbly Wobbly Bird House”. She designed it wholly and we had great fun making it together. And that’s all down to Paul and team – thanks again.
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