Travel Bench Part 5

After gluing the two top sections I proceeded to layout and mill the pieces that would comprise the dog hole strip and final front laminate. This requires some careful layout since the position of the dog hole strip is determined by how much capacity the Benchcrafted tail vise will have. I'm installing the two tail vises on this bench for maximum capacity. The overhang at the vise end of the bench will be 17", not including the end cap.



I carefully layed out the location of the dog hole strip (at the right) and the dog block (at left). I did this directly on the top of the bench to avoid any errors. I then transferred the locations directly to the dog hole strip.



I use a notched spreader, the type used for spreading adhesive on the back of vinyl base moulding, for spreading glue. It's a cheap stamped plastic thing, but I've been using it for months and it's still going strong. I also mill my laminates to within 3/32" of final thickness (4") and use three biscuits (see the mark above, there's a biscuit in there) to keep the laminate aligned during gluing. The biscuits makes for a stress free, slide free glue-ups, and the spreader gives me the perfect amount of glue. This is the ideal amount of squeeze-out. After about an hour in the clamps I can pop these little beads off with a scraper and the surface is flat. The more accurate I build the top, the less flattening I have to do later.







The two top sections glued up, minus the front laminates and end caps. The slot for the tail vise is 17" long. The two lines at the near end of the top represent the tenon for the end cap.