Benchcrafted

Holey Cow

2012-01-26T13:44:00.003-06:00

Here's a little blog post (tongue-in-cheek warning) about some of the suede we include with vises.

Suede leather was once the protective covering of that double-bacon-cheeseburger you had for lunch last week. Americans eat a lot of hamburger. A lot. That means there's a lot of cow skin out there (that doesn't make it cheap, though, curiously. Not nearly as cheap as say, a Jr. Whopper–which has about as much protein as a Moxon vise.) And we make that cow skin into lots of useful things. Peel it off and run it through a big sander and you get suede – that wonderfully grippy stuff that we like to line our vises with. But there's a problem with it, especially with the larger pieces that our Moxon vise requires.

And the problem is: cows have holes.

We all know the typical holes. The one where food gets it, and the one where food gets out. The two where the eyes go. Those are big holes, and easy to cut around.

But when we we're ready to eat what's inside the sack-o-suede, then humans start to really mess things up. Like these clowns in the picture above. That's a perfectly good area of unblemished suedeness that this guy is going to put a hole in with his arrow. Thanks for that, Ndugu.

Here's another perfectly awesome expanse of potential Moxon gripiness violated by some kid's practice arrow. Does that say "Hasbro" on it?

Then there are completely natural holes, like the cluster of holes between this cows legs. That's where the YooHoo comes from. Love that stuff. By the way, why doesn't the milk in the utter turn into butter when the cow waddles back to the barn? Weird.

Speaking of weird, here's a gorgeous piece of rich brown suede still attached to the meat, but some brainless human has actually installed an access hole of some sort right in the side of this cow. That must be where you squirt the chocolate syrup.

Once in a while we get some pieces with a little fuzzy edge. Those pieces must have come from this bruiser.

In all seriousness, some of the suede pieces we cut up for Moxon vises have an occasional small hole, usually no larger than a coin. We are not tree-huggers, but to waste a piece that large seems quite wasteful, and expensive. We could cut them up into smaller bits, but with the dies we use, this is not practical. You'll be cutting two holes in the suede anyway for the screws to pass through. So if you get a Moxon with holey suede, glue it to your jaw and get on with making furniture. A little hole ain't going to matter a whip, unless of course you've just finished a triple enchilada burrito chimichanga with habanero chipotle buffalo sauce and you're feeling a bit duodenally challenged.

Video: Tapping Massive Tail Vise Nuts

2012-01-21T10:55:00.000-06:00

The first version of the Benchcrafted Tail Vise used a hex nut bolted to steel angle. While this was functionally good, the design was later refined to allow more vise capacity and easier installation.

Thus was born the massive 1" thick nut that we currently use. This nut starts out as a solid chunk of free-machining steel. Each block is sawn to rough length, then the milling begins. Each end of the nut is milled to precise length. Although this serves no functional purpose in the finished vise, it allows accurate positioning for the other operations that the nut must go through. Plus, it makes for a nicely finished part when you take it out of the box. The pilot hole for the acme tap is drilled and then a large chamfer is cut around each side of the pilot hole. Finally, the two holes in the bottom edge are drilled and tapped for the cap screws that hold the sliding plate to the nut.

Then the blanks are tapped with a 1 1/4" x 4tpi left-hand acme tap. And that's where the interesting part happens. Acme tapping removes huge amounts of material, so acme taps are usually two-stage. The first section of the tap is for roughing in the profile, and the teeth reach to near full depth, but they are narrower than the finished thread. A short "no cut" section is followed by the finishing portion of the tap which takes the threads to final dimension. If you've ever tapped steel before you know that it takes some force to turn the tap (even with a small 1/4-20 tap) and there is always the risk of breakage. Taps are easy to break. So when tapping by hand you reverse the tap every turn or so to break the chips.This is impossible when tapping acme thread. The thread needs to be cut in one shot. So to help clear chips the tap is flooded with cutting fluid. If a chip gets jammed, the tap can break. And a couple weeks ago, that happened. We had a tap break even at the slow speeds that we tap at, and the tool launched itself across the shop. Acme taps are huge, and when they break they make a nice sharp end that wants to lodge in soft flesh. Thank God, no one was injured. This part is probably the most "touchy" part of our vises to make. It's always a tense day when Tail Vise nuts gets tapped.

Here's a video of the process.

Winter Smoother - Friday

2012-01-20T13:20:00.001-06:00

Friday was a day to get as much done as possible. I had to leave for the airport at 4pm, and I was still running the mill at 3:30. With Ron's help I managed to get the body of the plane entirely assembled by the time I left. The wood components got roughed out, and still need to be finished. Ron had made the lever cap the week before I arrived, and ground the iron as well. He perfectly anticipated what I could accomplish during my time at Brese Plane, including loosing half a day from the first pair of botched sides. Thank you Ron!

I hope to get some free time in the coming weeks to finish shaping the tote and knob, and I plan to take some video of that as well.

Winter Smoother - Thursday

2012-01-19T13:06:00.003-06:00

After hump day, (and three 14 hour days) I was in the mood for something other than plane making.

Luckily, Ron had thought ahead.

Winter Smoother - Wednesday

2012-01-18T13:54:00.002-06:00

After Tuesday's highs and lows I woke up Wednesday morning enormously motivated to make good progress. Monday and Tuesday had both been 14 hour work days, with about an hour break for lunch and dinner. Ron and I would scrounge leftovers from the fridge, sit down for 20 minutes and head back out. Wednesday would be another 14 hour day. Wednesday night (Thursday morning actually) I went to bed, and when I awoke I realized I hadn't moved an inch all night. We were both exhausted. Thursday was a very important day, but more on that tomorrow.

Winter Smoother - Tuesday

2012-01-17T13:29:00.001-06:00

Tuesday was a momentous day at Brese Plane. I managed to almost completely negate what I had accomplished from Monday up until noon on Tuesday. In one bonehead moment I completely destroyed my chances of making this tool, and in the next moment I was back on top.

For any of you who have read David Pye, just because machines are involved does not mean there is no workmanship of risk. With digital readouts, strings of decimals, and the tendency to invert figures (3.167 can easily become 3.176) the workmanship of risk mostly takes place in the mind, and not in the hand. Coming from a hands-on background, I would much rather rely on my eyes and hands to create, than on the mind to control a machine in a numerically controlled manner. I flunked Algebra in high school and college.

The video tells more of the story.

Note: These videos are in 720 HD. Make sure you enlarge the video for best viewing.

Winter Smoother - Monday

2012-01-16T13:22:00.002-06:00

For the last three years I've taken some time off in the early part of the year to visit my friend Ron Brese at his shop in Thomaston Georgia. This year I asked Ron if he would assist me in making a plane as a gift for a good friend of Benchcrafted. He happily obliged. So last week I spent several long days in Ron's shop building this plane.

But here's the interesting part. This is a prototype of a new line of planes that Ron has been developing for the past year. Before I arrived, Ron had begun his own prototype, in order to test out some of the details of the plane so my build could have a better chance of succeeding. As Ron finished up his plane, I built mine, and they both came together as a sort of fraternal twins by week's end. My plane did not get completed of course in only five days. But more on that later in the week.

Ron did not have a name for this new line of tools. So after looking over Ron's prints last week, and seeing that he had written "winter smoother" on one of them, the name stuck. I'm not sure if Ron will keep the name, but for me this tool will always be the "winter smoother."

~ Monday ~

The first day of the build I roughed out the plane sides from precision ground 1018 steel using a bandsaw. After a quick course in basic mill operation Ron set me loose on his Bridgeport-style mill and I proceeded to mill up the sides of the plane, as well as the sole pieces and bedding plate. My constant fear was crashing the bit into one of the vises, the table, or the workpiece. None of that happened, but I did end up encountering some rather tense moments. At one point I was feeling pretty proud of what I had accomplished, and the next I felt like I was back in junior high industrial arts. Needless to say, I learned an enormous amount on Monday. Ron was an extremely patient teacher, and gave me a wide latitude in figuring things out for myself. That ended up teaching me a great lesson, but it also made for some frustrating moments. I guess the best way to learn is to make mistakes. I won't argue with that. As Monday drew to a close I set my plane parts in a safe place and breathed a sigh of relief that I had made it through the first day without completely ruining Ron's mill, or my plane parts. If I had known what Tuesday had in store, I may have just booked an early flight home....

Heading To Brese Plane

2012-01-05T21:45:00.001-06:00

Next week I'll be heading south to rural Georgia to visit my good friend and planemaker Ron Brese and his wife Julie. Ron and I will spend some late nights in his shop working on the prototype for a new plane design. We get a lot accomplished in just three or four days, and ideas for new tools flow into our minds like the salmon of Capistrano.

It's enormously beneficial to be able to bounce ideas off a fellow tool maker. Chances are we might also get a little slap happy from working too many hours without interruption. Last time we ended up pulling dryer sheets from the mouths of planes and thought it was the funniest thing since Foster Brooks.

But before we head down to the Brese Plane shop, Ron and I will be stopping off to visit our friend Steve Quehl at his Woodcraft of Atlanta store. Steve carries Benchcrafted vises and has just received a shipment of Moxon vises. Ron and I will be in the store from about 1-3pm. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello. We'll have a Moxon set up on Steve's Benchcrafted Roubo bench for you to try out.

Watch for a series of blog posts in the coming weeks about my visit. I am taking along my video camera this time.

Left-Hand Tail Vises For Sale

2012-01-02T16:37:00.000-06:00

As 2011 came to an end we did a little housekeeping at the Benchcrafted warehouse.

Here's what we found.

1. A left-handed V.2 Tail Vise with Chrome handwheel. This vise was used in a demo bench and saw little use. It's for all intents and purposes, new. This has our current V.2 square nut block, but it's not the universal plate, so its a true lefty. $299 plus shipping. SOLD

2. A left-handed V.2 Tail Vise with our current satin iron hand wheel. This is a brand new vise. It's the last of our left-hand only Tail Vises. So if you're in the market for a left-hand Tail Vise, here's your chance to get one and save a few bucks. $330, plus shipping.

3. Taco Bell Talking Chihuahua. Press his belly and he says "Feliz Navidad Amigos". According to carbon dating, we've had this plush toy since at least 1998. And it still works. According to this website, its an antique. After stumbling on this, we remembered how much we love tacos. Good+ Make offer.

If you would like any of these items, drop an email to info@benchcrafted.com and we'll send you an invoice. Make sure you include your full name and address for an accurate shipping quote.

Unsolicited

2011-12-26T13:00:00.002-06:00

Dear Benchcrafted,

Just thought I would drop you a note to let you know that I have completed my Shaker style bench All of the bencrafted items were outstanding in their finish and operation. From the great set of plans and 3D drawings, to the awesome Leg and Tail vise assemblies, everything was first class.

It took me about 5 months from the time I started work on my bench until completion, and the process was quite a learning experience.

Thanks again for all your help along the way....Here are some pictures of the finished product..

Joe Black

Big Wood Vise Back At It

2011-12-23T08:50:00.001-06:00

I received a nice email last night from Joe Comunale, of Big Wood Vise. I used Big Wood Vise screws on my first Roubo bench build. This was before we were manufacturing vises here at Benchcrafted. If you like wood screws (and who doesn't for the classic look alone, plus they are extremely fast and hold like a Bull Terrier's maw) I recommend you look at Joe's new website. Just a few years ago it was near impossible to find good quality wood screws.

Joe's new screws are turned from rock hard maple, and are larger diameter and length than before. We don't do product reviews here at Benchcrafted, but Joe is a friend, and his connection with my first Roubo is a fond memory. Glad you're back, Joe.

Tail Vise Instructions Update

2011-12-21T20:38:00.003-06:00

A customer caught a bug in our Tail Vise instructions. We mistakenly deleted the sizes of the holes needed in the end cap for the Tail Vise.

So we not only updated the instructions to provide the hole sizes, we also added the holes sizes to the templates themselves, which should make it easy to drill those holes without leafing back through the instructions.

As always, all of our technical documents are available on our downloads page.

Here is a direct link to the updated instructions.

Unsolicited

2011-12-17T15:49:00.000-06:00

Dear Benchcrafted,

Since you guys helped me so much along the way I thought you might want to see the finished product. Very happy I decided to take this on. Thanks for all your help. I've learned (started, anyway) an incredible amount of skills just doing this bench. I am hooked.

Don Bursch

Didn't quite make it

2011-12-10T22:11:00.001-06:00

We do all our own photography and videography here at Benchcrafted. Sometimes we get some good images, sometimes not. Once in a while we get images that we like but aren't terribly useful. The problem lies with steel.............steel and machined parts are very photogenic. Here's a few just for fun.

Retrofit a European Style Bench With A Benchcrafted Tail Vise

2011-12-09T22:01:00.001-06:00

What do you do if you have a European style workbench with a moving-block style tail vise and you want a Benchcrafted Tail Vise instead?

You do what customer John Dixon did. Bust our your woodworking tools and make it happen. You are, after all, a woodworker.

Follow along with John's pictorial step-by-step if you'd like to try this. We like his method. It's strong, and looks good.

Romanian Moxon Bench-on-bench

2011-12-07T19:43:00.001-06:00

Last week we received a nice email from one of our customers in Romania, Camil Milincu.

Camil is an avid follower of the American hand tool woodworking tradition. He's a hobbyist woodworker, and is a professional architect. He holds a master's degree in urban planning. His great-grandfather worked for the Ford motor company here in America during its formative years, and he credits him for passing along the interest in things hand-crafted. Coach work at Ford in the early days likely included lots of wood. But Romania also has a strong woodworking tradition, especially in carving. Camil is working on his architectural doctorate on the field of wooden architectural elements, which Romania is replete with.

Camil's Moxon bench-on-bench (in beech) is filled with nice details both aesthetic and functional. But aside from the large chamfer (with gorgeous bold lamb's tongues) for cutting half-blind dovetails (Camil claims "The Schwarz" beat him to the punch!) our favorite detail stems from a shipping mishap.

Earlier this year Camil ordered a Tail Vise for his Roubo bench project and it arrived with a broken hand wheel (it got replaced.) So in the interest of guaranteeing his Moxon wheels stay put, Camil added a snap ring to the end of each of his screws. They are practically invisible (see below, click to enlarge)

We've never had a problem with renegade hand wheels, but we think Camil's idea is a good one. If you have a concrete floor, and like to spin your wheels, you may want to implement this idea as well. Thanks Camil for the email and great idea.

For Sale: L'Art Du Menuisier

2011-12-03T22:19:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago I located and purchased a copy of L'Art du Menuisier. This was a purchase that took a lot of thought, consideration, and frankly, money.

I've been itching to lay my hands on a copy of this work since I first saw Roubo's Plate 11 in Scott Landis' "The Workbench Book." But it's not exactly the type of book they have at Barnes and Noble. And my public library could not get a copy by inter-library loan. One event nailed the lid in the coffin for me to search out a copy of this book: Don William's presentation at this year's meeting of the "Roubo Society" at Woodworking In America.

But I have to back up a little bit more to complete the story. A couple nights before Don's presentation I was at a gathering at a friend's house with Louis Bois (the expert draftsman who does all of our bench plans), who had acquired a set of the modern, small format, softbound Roubo volumes. As we were struggling with carrying the books (and some others Louis had in tow) I mentioned to Louis that we needed to get together and peruse the books before the end of the weekend and all of us parted ways.

The next night Louis and I met in his hotel room, cracked open some Creemore Springs Premium Lager that Louis had brought from Canada, and proceeded to plunder the pages of Roubo into the wee hours of the night.

Louis is a native French speaker, so sitting down with Roubo was a unique experience for a monoglot like me.

I took volume four (L'Art du Menuisier Ebeniste) and opened a random page, plate 289 appeared. I had never seen this plate before. But something about it clicked. I started looking at the different processes presented in the engravings, the various workpieces, the jigs and tools. And it hit me. They were making furniture-scale parquetry. Something I am quite into. In fact, just last year I wrote an article for Popular Woodoworking Magazine on the subject.

As I turned the page and examined plate 290, my interest peaked. There in the engraving was a parquetry pattern quite reminiscent of a design I made about six years ago (above.) I turned to Louis, who was looking through his own volume, and asked him to translate the text for both plates. What a fascinating moment.

I returned to my room and thought about getting myself a copy of L'Art du Menuisier. But what really clinched the deal happened two days later at Don's presentation at the "Roubo dinner." As the meal was finishing up I was leaning back listening to Roy Underhill go over his speech (in French) with Louis, who were both sitting directly to my left. Don Williams, who was my host for the evening, (thanks again Don) began to speak softly and more seriously. I could tell he had switched gears and was mentally preparing for his presentation. I decided to make myself as invisible as possible and let Don concentrate on his presentation while I concentrated on my dessert.

Don began his presentation on the latest progress of the Lost Art Press Roubo translation, and as he moved further into the detailed (and funny) presentation he brought up a plate from Roubo on the slide projector. It was plate 289! It was at that very moment that I knew I had to have a copy of L'Art du Menuisier. After Don's presentation I mentioned to him what an amazing coincidence had taken place. It was an evening to remember.

So after returning home from WIA I spent the next couple weeks searching out a copy of the three huge volumes of L'Art du Menuisier. Some of you may know that a more modern version of these volumes is currently available in five separate softbound books. These are the volumes that Louis and I had read from at WIA. But these are a far cry from the original large format reprint that I found in a Paris bookstore in October. The large format volumes are rare (I was fortunate when I found mine), plus, they are positively Roubo-esque in size: 17" x 12" and over 10" thick over the three volumes, which together weigh almost 40 pounds. The large format volumes also feature numerous gatefolds: pages which fold out to two or three times normal size to reveal large, beautiful full-page engravings. They are simply magical to look at. I am inspired every time I open these volumes.

So here's the amazing part. When I found my set, I found another one too, in great condition. In the interest of making this set available to other Roubo fans here in America, I took a risk and bought it. Who knows how long these will be available? It shipped from France and arrived at my doorstep just a few days after my set. This is the original Paris reprint from 1976 (as is my copy), and not an original 1775 first edition. The latter goes for upwards of five figures. The 1976 version is decidedly less expensive. If you are interested in owning not only a piece of history, but a source of unending creative inspiration, please drop me an email (jameel at benchcrafted dot com) and we can discuss the particulars.

These books are sold.

Immobilize Your Bench With Suede

2011-12-03T16:39:00.001-06:00

This week FJ and I worked a bit on the Jefferson bookcases. The lower cases have been glued up, and we both took to trimming the many end grain tails and pins flush with the case sides. This is demanding work. We placed the cases on sawbenches, then shoved those up against the front of our two Roubo benches, planing in towards the front of the bench, directly across the ends of the cases. A bench has to either be very heavy (around 400 pounds) to resist this action without moving across the shop floor, or up against a wall or other immovable object. The second Roubo we have in the shop is a short bench, only 18" wide. It's made of massive elements, and is heavy. But not heavy enough for this type of work. The bench was inching its way across our wood floor (which is not slick) on every stroke.

So FJ suggested placing a rectangle of suede under each leg. In about 3 minutes I grabbed some suede offcuts and cut four 3x5 rectangles, then slipped them under each leg. I leaned into the bench from both the front and the end. Nothing. No movement. And I wasn't just leaning my 250-pound fat layered body into the bench, I was pushing with my legs too. The thing was rock solid.

One trick I've used in the shop before was to tack a beefy nail behind the legs of the bench to keep it still, but that's a pain, especially when you move the bench and forget the nail sticking up out of the floor. Ouch.

But now that we've learned the suede trick I won't be using the nails anymore. I debated about gluing the suede to the bottom of the legs, but sometimes you want the bench to slide across the floor. The suede would get torn up pretty rapidly if it was glued on. So I'm leaving the suede unattached.

If you have a problem of a slippery bench, you should really try this.

If you need some suede, we will be offering rather goodly-sized offcuts in the coming weeks on the Benchcrafted website.

Make A Parallel Guide Pin Handle

2011-11-30T09:40:00.001-06:00

We've been wanting to do this video for a long time.

Once in a while we'll get a customer request for a handle for their parallel guide pin, to match the Glide's rosewood knob. There's a reason we don't supply a finished pin with the Glide. People leg's are different widths (and not just at Wal-Mart) and their parallel guides are positioned differently. So it would be impossible for us to supply a finished pin-and-handle that would fit everyone's bench properly. So we supply a raw steel pin for you to make a finished pin from. It's a quick and fun project that will greatly improve simply using a naked steel pin, which is difficult to grab.

The first handles we made for our own benches, and for custom benches we built were turned from rosewood to match our vise handles. But since then we've changed our opinion of the best handle style for the pin. Turned rosewood looks pretty sweet, with that little brass ferrule and a nice finish, but it doesn't perform as well as it could. Here's why. When you do need to move the pin you want to move it quickly and get back to work. A slick, round handle does not provide for the best grip. What you want is a handle that's easy to grab, easy to pull out and replace with a minimum of effort. A handle you don't really have to grip all that much. And for us that handle is octagonal and tapered narrower towards the pin. Rosewood handles are too slick.

So yesterday I took a few minutes and made a pin for the small Roubo bench we took to WIA this year. It was fun because I actually used the bench itself to make the handle. I wasn't too finicky on this one. Just knocked it out quick. It works great.

Foot Longs Discontinued

2011-11-29T13:56:00.001-06:00

Shortly after we released our Moxon vise we began to get requests for a longer pair of acme screws to increase the capacity of the vise. At first, we hesitated. Why? Because you don't need them. We designed the vise with sufficient capacity (and then some) to accomplish its intended use. If you'd like to read more behind the reasoning, see this.

But we're suckers for sweet talk. We had a few requests for longer screws, so we decided to offer them. But the special requests have gotten out of hand. Even though we've stated pretty plainly on our ordering page (sold as an accessory only), we're answering numerous emails everyday asking for Moxon vises with 12" screws only, with both 12" and 8" and requests for an extra set of hex nuts to get some extra use out of the original 8" screw.

So here's the deal. We're discontinuing the 12" screws. Yes, its partly the crazy requests thing (call it a pet peeve), but much more importantly its because offering the 12" screws is misleading. We know that seeing the 12" screws on the ordering page makes one think "gee, they must offer those for a reason, I should have those too". But its not true. You don't need them. Period. They bring nothing to the party that the stock screws don't already bring. We want everyone to be as excited about getting their Moxon vise as we are (and I personally have used the heck out of mine this week, cutting almost 100 dovetails in 3/4" beech--I would have been in pain without it.) The Moxon vise will be 100% completely awesome and wonderful as-is. Promise. If you don't believe me, listen to Chris Schwarz, who recently built his Benchcrafted Moxon (and Chris didn't order the 12" screws).

"This tiny company in Iowa makes the best wagon/tail vise I’ve ever used and the best leg vise I’ve ever used. Now they make the best double-screw vise I’ve ever used. They make three vises, and all of them are 100 percent crazy over-the-top winners." - The Chris Schwarz Blog

We have a few pairs in stock if you must have them. But after those are gone, they are gone.

For Matt Bickford

2011-11-24T15:21:00.001-06:00

I am doing it, Matt. Anyone else?

Happy Thanksgiving!

At Long Last: Updated Tail Vise Instructions

2011-11-22T15:48:00.001-06:00

Providing our customers with accurate, easy to follow installation instructions has been extremely important to us. We want you all to get the absolute best performance from our vises.

Over a year ago we made some significant improvements to the Benchcrafted Tail Vise. Making these improvements and adding to our existing instructions (which covered both our original vise and subsequent improvements) they became a bit cobbled. We didn't like them, and neither did a few customers. So this week we've been spending time correcting this shortfall.

We've prepared some 3-d drawings for the new version of our Tail Vise installation instructions. Photographs of the installation procedure are quite useful, but the clarity of a good 3-d drawing (and we hope they are good) can be extremely efficient at transmitting information. The updated plans also include numerous photos (in black and white, which in our opinion is a clearer presentation) to illustrate the process. We've also rewritten a large portion of the text to be more clear and concise. As a result the instructions are not only cleaner in appearance, but also shorter. We trimmed seven pages, but also added some new techniques, as counter intuitive as that sounds!

Hopefully the new version will make the process of installing this vise a better experience.

You can download the new instructions directly from our Downloads page.
(the new file may not be immediately available as we upload it, make sure you refresh your browser)

As always, we're happy to answer technical questions by email, which allows us to be more exact in our responses, and it also means you don't have to remember the details of a phone conversation.

Shoot From The Hip

2011-11-20T22:36:00.001-06:00

In the past decade I've done a lot of selfish woodworking. When I was in my late 20's I received an oud as a birthday present from my entire family, and when I found out how much they paid (and they overpaid) I set out immediately to do what any woodworker would do: make one myself, sell the gift, and use the money to buy lutherie tools.

And that's exactly what I did. Trouble is, I got bit by the lutherie bug. And it totally consumed every bit of my freelance woodworking. So much so that I even started taking commissions for instruments and working many late nights in the shop trying to get these instruments done, so I could get to bed in order to get enough sleep to do my real job during the day. It finally caught up with me. In 2008 I built my last oud. I also burned out a little bit. Making delicate instruments is demanding work. The same way that building benches is demanding, only at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I did build a few other projects during this time. But on the whole the stuff that should have been built was postponed to satisfy the lutherie urge. So now its payback time. I'm building furniture for my home and my family's homes, and I'm rather enjoying it. When I started building instruments I had never done anything remotely as fine as lutherie. I just build basic furniture. The closest I got was carving, but that's a different skill, and one that's rather forgiving compared to planing a soundboard that can be ruined with one extra pass of the plane. Especially when the soundboard contains lots of sub-1mm thick inlay that has taken days to make. So to move from such work back to rudimentary, workaday stuff like cutting through dovetails carries with it a very unique feeling. Once one has the skills to make things, the mind tends to relax and enjoy the process, focusing more on the anticipation of completion (one of my favorite aspects of making things) rather than on the minutiae of the project itself.

Last week I started one of these long-overdue projects: a large bookcase. My parents have used a bookcase built by my brother (back in our college days) that has long ago grown too small. I had sketched out a set of drawings some months ago, but when Chris Schwarz wrote an article earlier this year about Thomas Jefferson's bookcases, the design caught my eye. So I picked up some beech and started the project last week. Yes, I'm using beech. Chris' cases are pine. And after having cut the first round of dovetails for the base in 1" thick beech, I'm admiring Chris' decision to use pine. But not entirely. I have grown quite fond of beech, and its lack of chatoyance, character and figure. It's a great wood for exhibiting form with a clear finish, as opposed to exhibiting form by means of a painted finish. That's probably why the lines of so many classic beech-made woodworking tools are so appealing. This set of cases is actually for my office, but when I finish them I'll see how the folks like them. I may be building another set of these right away in cherry.

Earlier this evening I was fitting the mitered frame to the inside of the plinth when I discovered a new (to me) technique for shooting. This 1" beech is demanding work for a shooting board and plane (I'm using a Lie-Nielsen #7) Normally I would use my miter jack for this sort of work, since I can clamp the entire piece and use both hands to control the plane, but when you have an extra bench around with a shooting board setup, its hard to get the miter jack out. So moving the plane through 1" of beech takes some effort, even with a sharp iron and light cut. So as I was shooting the miter on the ends of the short pieces I discovered that the heel of the plane landed squarely on my belt, just over my hip bone. So all I had to do was keep the plane in the cut, plant the heel of the #7 on my belt and more or less lean forward. No foot movement required. It felt a lot like planing a long board by simply walking along the bench, arms held rigid. I had complete control of the plane and it allowed me to take a thicker shaving than usual. Another way of using body mass (I have plenty) to your advantage. Below is a short video to illustrate.

HANDS: not to be missed

2011-11-15T06:23:00.001-06:00

While hand tools and hand work in general have taken an enormous back seat since the Industrial Revolution, there has and probably always will be a strong and dedicated cadre of craftsmen and artisans that will exist both out of necessity and desire, mostly out of necessity. Hopefully more out of necessity, because while desire, fervor and zeal can be good things, nothing produces results like necessity, the mother of invention. While we've not always been tool makers, we are deeply steeped in this spirit of necessity.

It's a shame that so many things are lost. A lot of what we lose is because of youth. As we age we gain an appreciation for the mundane, which in turn turns to an appreciation for simpler things. Mundanity is under appreciated. It's also eschewed by the young. They don't know theyr'e doing it, much as we didn't or don't, but it's being done all the same. The funny thing is that a lot of the world lives day to day in the mundane, perfectly happy, because they aren't wrapped up in distraction. In fact most of the world doesn't have the luxury of distraction. Necessity again.

In the light of what is lost, going to be lost or maybe can be saved, we are very happy to announce the addition of this set of videos to our website. As many of you know, we don't typically sell anything we don't produce, but these were too hard to ignore. We simply cannot overemphasize the importance of these videos. I only wish there were more. The videos are perfectly produced with very little embellishment, even the narration is reserved and well placed, not distracting. Anyone who has even a passing interest in hand crafts, will not be disappointed in this treasure.

Take 10 minutes and watch the preview video we've put together. These simple videos are enthralling, so much so that they were requested in our household by our 6 & 8 year olds every evening until we had watched all 37 videos! The real mastery of these videos is that they are presented so well that they make some subjects that we're not typically as interested in just as enticing as those we are. We found ourselves enthralled as much or more by the silk, book binding and pottery segments, as we did by the woodworking segments..........if not more so!

David and Sally Shaw-Smith made HANDS, a unique, multi-award winning series of thirty-seven documentaries on Irish crafts for Irish television (RTÉ, Raidió Teilifís Éireann [Radio && Television of Ireland]). Capturing the final years of traditional rural and urban life in Ireland, during the seventies and eighties. They travelled the length and breadth of the country recording these personal and revealing films. As much about the life of the individuals, as the crafts they practised.

We're offering this unique set at a special price until December 25th, after that it's goes back to it's normal price. See more details here.

Mod Your Moxon For Half Laps

2011-11-14T20:12:00.001-06:00

Schwarz's Tongue

If you have a Moxon vise, whether it be with Benchcrafted hardware, or the wood screw version, or the F-clamp version, or the pipe-clamp version, or the T-nut and donut version, etc. you'll want to follow Chris Schwarz's lead and cut a big fat chamfer on the front of your chop. This gives you clearance for tilting your saw down (or is it up?) for cutting half-lap dovetails. The vise will work without it, but in our opinion the chamfer looks nice, especially with the lamb's tongue, and thats reason enough to add it. In case you were wondering, it does not weaken the vise, or make you crank down on the wheels to hold your work.

If you're like me, when you see a lamb's tongue and wonder how to do it, you think about how to cut that flowing curve smoothly. Well, that's really the easy part. It's the chamfer you don't think about, since it seems straightforward. But since its stopped it creates some problems. You cant simply tilt your plane and have at it. Chris has his own method, which he illustrates in this Lee Valley Newsletter. But its for a smaller chamfer. Cutting one of this size calls for some heavier work.

Here's how I did it. When I tested the idea last week I cut the chamfer by sawing a series of saw kerfs about 5/8" apart, across the corner of the chop, stopping just short of my layout lines. I then broke these pieces off with a chisel to get rid of most the waste. I followed up with a drawknife to clean up the remnants of the saw kerfs and to smooth the chamfer. In dry, hard maple this is tough work. Then I refined the chamfer with a rabbeting block plane, working across the grain (up the hill) to get the chamfer flat. Finally I drawfiled the flat and finished up with a card scraper. The lambs tongue (mine is slightly different, below) I shaped with drawknife and scraper, followed by a few swipes of 220 going downhill.

Those boards in the vise are part of my Jefferson Bookcases in beech that I started last week. The Moxon vise has been indispensable for this project.

12" Screw For Moxon Vises Now Available

2011-11-09T21:15:00.000-06:00

Shortly after we released our Moxon Vise we received numerous requests for longer screws for the vise. If you plane drawer sides after assembly, or boxes, you'll appreciate these longer screws. Using these screws you can clamp up to 6 1/4 (and a smidgen more) between jaws/chops. And when you're through using them for the wide stuff, back off the rear nut and advance the screws so the extra length falls behind the fixed chop.

The pair of screws is $39, including domestic shipping. They are listed only on our ordering page, right under the Moxon Vise.

Awesome Video

2011-11-08T18:29:00.002-06:00

I don't like to reblog, but this time I have to.

If you want to see what many aspects of Roubo would look like in a real shop, watch this video.

Thanks Doug Berch for the link.

Shaker Bench Review

2011-11-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

"You know it is kinda funny. I own a woodworking business. We build millions of dollars worth of cabinetry, millwork, stairways……every year. When we finish a project, I don’t really have much interest in looking back on this work. If it is done right, the customer is happy, and I got paid, then I am happy and we just move on. But having this bench in my personal hobby shop is different. I really don’t want to take my eyes off it. In the end, this bench inspires. I think that is the highest compliment I can give. It’s like a musician listening to another musician’s work and saying WOW. "

-T. Remster, owner of the Benchcrafted Prototype Shaker Bench

If you'd like to build our Shaker bench, which Chris Schwarz stamps with his seal of approval, visit our website.

I Cooked My Vises

2011-10-31T18:13:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago I was traveling for a few days. And for once I had the foresight to get some things ready a couple days before my departure. One of the things on my list was to finish the wheels on my vises with baked flax oil.

So I stripped my bench at home of its two satin iron handwheels, dropped them off at my brother's home and left a note: "beautify my wheels."

By the time I got home a few days later, two baked-flax-oil handwheels were waiting for me.

And boy did they look fantastic. I couldn't wait to get them reinstalled on my bench. And last week I did just that.

The wheels look and feel fantastic, and are now highly rust resistant to boot. I don't know how your monitor is calibrated, so I'll try to give you an idea of how these look. I'd call the color "chocolate-bronze". But the chatoyance of the steel underneath is still visible. It almost looks like a cat's eye stone. Almost.

I'm not much for fancy benches, or flashy hardware. I like a more subdued, patina-esque look. These fit the bill perfectly.

We ship all vises now with handwheels detached, so you can bake your's too. Here's the details.

The Three Essential Vises

2011-10-29T10:33:00.000-05:00

Since we released our popular Benchcrafted Moxon Vise this summer, we've received many emails about using the Moxon hardware as a main face vise for workbenches. We think there are three reasons for this:

1. The vise hardware is less expensive than our other vises.
2. We don't make a twin-screw vise for bench use (face vise position).
3. The Moxon vise works sweetly.

Before I get into the topic at hand, let me say the following. This is my personal opinion regarding workholding. It applies to how I work, and the furniture I build, which I think is typical of what most people build for their homes. Rectilinear forms that are suited to typical bench holding capabilities. If you make Maloof rockers, you have very special requirements. I'm not going to attempt to cover that here. Also, I am not a businessman. I'm a woodworker who happens to run a woodworking-related business. So my opinions here will not be offered to simply bolster a product or sales. That goes against our personal ethics here. We don't make anything that we ourselves do not use enthusiastically. I'm the most active woodworker here, and I use all of our products virtually every day.

I've been working wood seriously since my first (and only) year in college. I'm not exactly old (I'll be 38 in a couple months), but I do have about 20 years of working wood under my belt (along with the results of many rounds of southern fried chicken). My first bench was a cast off beauty-salon styling station (my two uncles were hair stylists and toupee makers, and no, I was never a client.) I removed the sink and plumbing, added a particle board top and vise, and stashed my grandfather's junk tools into the drawers on each side. I kept the giant mirror for a while, until I grew tired of glancing up after a mistake and seeing the humiliation on my face. It was a good way to keep me humble. This was also about the time my physique changed from resembling Clark Gable to not resembling Clark Gable. I walked the same path most do. Trashing or re-purposing a previous ultimate bench, and building another ultimate bench. This is how I got to where I am today. I have reached the point where I am completely satisfied with my bench, for how I work, and can say confidently that I will never wonder about building an even better bench in the future. If I do build another bench for myself, it will be nearly identical to the one I'm using now, including its three essential vises.

The Wagon Vise

I eliminated my moving-block tail vise some years ago in favor of a traditional wagon vise. I have not looked back. The simplicity of the wagon vise far outweighs the frustration that typical tail vises generate. And I can work on that end of the bench, just like any other area of the bench. I don't have to worry about sagging, I don't have move a large, heavy block of wood just to move a dog, and I don't have to treat that area of the bench like a scientific instrument. Wagon vises allow robust tops. Yes, I don't have an open jaw on that vise, but I haven't found the need for one yet. There are other ways to accomplish that rare task. Would you trade short term inconvenience for long-term frustration? For planing the faces of boards (and that's what this area gets used for 99% of the time) the wagon vise is the best, period. I should clarify this paragraph by adding that when I gave up on moving-block tail vises, nobody worth their salt was making decent hardware. Lie-Nielsen does now. I stand firm though in my opinion. Wagon vises are my preference.

The Leg Vise

I've used every type of face vise out there on a bench at one time or another. The leg vise is the best. Hands down. Why? Its grabs stock tenaciously with little effort or thought. Extremely frustrating is a vise that gives zero feedback on pressure--when you crank down (and you shouldn't need to "crank down"), do you know where your effort is directed? Is it overcoming the build-in resistance of the vise mechanism? Is the screw getting tighter on its split-nut, only to pop out at the last turn? Or is it going directly into holding your board against the front edge of the bench? Leg vises provide the latter. You are moving very little weight or mechanism when adjusting a leg vise, especially if you have a weight-support system like the Glide. You know exactly when the vise starts to grip your workpiece. The geometry of the vise also provides extreme, but controlled force. In other words, you don't have to think about operating the vise. I won't discuss having to adjust a pin. It's not an issue for me or our customers. Simply put, having to reposition the pin allows great simplicity of design for the rest of the vise components, guaranteeing consistent performance. Again, would you exchange short term inconvenience for long term frustration?

The Moxon Vise

Here's where the argument for the leg vise really comes into play. With the repopularization of the Moxon vise, the twin-screw face vise becomes obsolete. Why? Twin-screw face vises excel at one task: holding boards between screws for working ends. They do not hold boards well above the screws for working edges, because the vise has no fulcrum or pivot point below the screws to balance the thickness of the stock. The vise racks every time. It can't hold work positively and securely with minimal effort. It's like using two leg vises, only you've eliminated the length advantage of the chop, and the fulcrum of the parallel guide and pin. Only when you place a board between screws, where the chop can clamp down on material equally both above and below the screws, do you get excellent workholding. So in building typical, rectilinear furniture when do we need to vertically work the ends of boards? Primarily when dovetailing or tenoning. And both of these sawing tasks are best accomplished with the workpiece in a raised position, above your planing bench height by about 6" or so. The Moxon vise raises your workpiece to this height. A twin-screw vise as a face vise forces you to bend over to dovetail or tenon, and it falls short for typical face vise tasks like planing edges of boards. In my opinion, the Moxon vise completely eliminates the need for a twin-screw face vise.

So back to the original question: will you be offering a twin-screw face vise? or can I use your Moxon hardware as a face vise in my bench?

In my opinion the utility of the twin-screw rests entirely in holding work between screws, not above, and all of that work is best accomplished 6" above bench height. So mounting a Moxon on the front of a bench is inefficient, and counterproductive. You've eliminated the best aspect of the Moxon: raising work to a proper working height and holding it there securely. Plus, the vise capacity is only 2-1/4", more than enough for end work, but perhaps not enough for face vise work. Yes, we offer longer screws, but this is in the context of using the Moxon on top of a bench for a specific, infrequent use. You would not want to keep longer screws on this vise permanently in a face vise position. The only time I would mount a Moxon permanently would be in a dedicated bench, at "Moxon height". If you have room for this dedicated "joinery" bench, by all means mount a Moxon permanently on this bench.

In the end, yes you could use our Moxon hardware to build a limited capacity face vise. I just don't think its a choice you'll ultimately be happy with. If you're looking for an economical face vise, build a leg vise with a bench screw (Lie-Nielsen makes a nice one for $85) and use our Moxon vise in its best context on top of your bench.

Andy Brownell's Moxon Vise

2011-10-25T17:03:00.002-05:00

One of the people that we always look forward to seeing at WIA is Andy Brownell, known to many as the "Gorilla Glue Guy". And that, in our opinion, is an unfortunate moniker, since Andy is not simply a rep for Gorilla Glue. Every show we've been to, including a couple L-N events in Ohio, we expect to see Andy behind his bench most likely cutting dovetails by hand or fitting dozens of mortise and tenon joints. Andy brings his projects to shows, to the benefit of anyone who happens to visit the Gorilla Glue booth.

Andy is a great craftsman, with a technician's taste in joinery and a surgeon's skill with tools. He's spent time under the tutelage of another good friend of Benchcrafted, Jeff Miller. So its no wonder that Andy's work is eye-catching. He's also a gentleman, and enthusiastic about the craft, two qualities that we like.

Ironically enough, at WIA a few weeks ago we displayed a sign on our Moxon demo bench that stated "clamps to any surface, great for guerrilla joinery". One person the entire weekend picked up on that, and it was none other than Andy, the "Gorilla Glue" guy!

Andy bought a Moxon kit at the show, and sent us these pictures of his benchtop bench with Moxon hardware. The wood is Niangon, a west African species. The pic above is before finish was applied to the wood, or the hand wheels. Below shows the vise after a Danish oil finish, and baked tungoil on the hand wheels.

If you'd like to see more of Andy's work, please visit his page at Lumberjocks.

Roubo On My Porch

2011-10-22T13:36:00.000-05:00


Roubo bench for site work.

I will never complain about moving my Roubo bench again.

Mag-Bloks For Tool Storage

2011-10-21T09:13:00.000-05:00

Luthier Richard Wile has shared a blog post with us about how he used Mag-Bloks to store fine tools on the back edge of his bench. Using a standoff, he's created a slot behind the Mag-Blok to further increase storage space. Check out his entry here. Oh, if you scroll down that page, keep the drool of the blog please. Thanks.

On a related note, Christmas will be here before we all know it. We get backed up this time of year, despite our efforts to prepare. If you are looking for an excellent Christmas gift, you won't do better than a Mag-Blok. Everyone loves them.

You Snooze You Loose

2011-10-20T08:51:00.001-05:00

I'm a tad late on this post, so I do apologize. Next September I'll be teaching a class at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking in Berea, KY. We'll be building the Roubo bench. The class was just announced last week, and I had planned to post about it, but due to some travel I was unable to. Well, make a long story short, the class is already sold out. You can still join the wait list in case someone cancels, which does happen.

New Changes To Benchcrafted Vises

2011-10-10T16:08:00.000-05:00

We've recently made a couple changes to both our Tail Vise and Glide Leg Vise.

Both vises now ship unassembled, in more compact boxes. Assembly is quick and easy. It will take maybe one minute to assemble your vise. Leaving the handwheels off the screws has allowed us to package the vises more securely, using less packing material. We're also wrapping almost everything in VCI paper to prevent corrosion. Customers will have less waste to dispose of. Some customers, depending on what they order, may also save on shipping, since we can now use some flat rate containers for certain orders.

The other advantage of shipping the vises unassembled is that you can apply treatments, such as baked flax oil to the handwheels before assembly. Stay tuned for a blog post on this in a couple weeks. I'm treating the hand wheels on my personal bench with baked flax oil.

The other changes we've made are to the Tail Vise's sliding plate assembly. The sliding plate is now universal. We've reconfigured the holes to allow the plate to be flipped over for right or left-hand use. So any Tail Vise can be assembled each way in just a few seconds. This has the distinct advantage of making ordering a piece of cake. It also means we don't need to stock both vises, which greatly decreases lead times. Speaking of which, these changes are all based on our short term goal of eliminating our lead times entirely. We're getting close.

The other change we've made to the plate is with the dog clearance hole. It's now square instead of round. We moved to a round hole a while back in order to accommodate a wider range of configurations, but after some scientific analysis we've decided that the square hole has a much cleaner look, and removes less material from the plate. It will of course accommodate round dogs, up to 1" dia. if you wish.

Here's a short video we prepared to show the assembly of the handwheel and the Tail Vise's sliding plate. The Glide isn't included in the video, but it assembles the exact same way.

We've updated our installation instructions for both vises to reflect the new changes, and included assembly instructions as well. Those instructions are available separately on our downloads page.

On The Horizon

2011-10-06T19:41:00.000-05:00

So what is next on Benchcrafted's drawing board?

We get this question frequently.

We're usually pretty secretive about what we're planning, and that's not to protect our ideas so much as it's a defense mechanism to prevent embarrassing failures. Like these.

But last week at WIA we were pretty open about what's on the horizon. We placed the prototype right on our demo bench between our Glide Leg Vise and Tail Vise. And not a few attendees took notice. Ben from Ben's Brooklyn Build-It Blog at Tools for Working Wood (that's Ben's pic above, from his blog) wrote a short entry about the vise. By the way, if you haven't already, make sure to bookmark Ben's blog. It's worth following just for Ben's clever animated gif's.

The Royal Forge Carver's Vise is owned by Louis Bois (yes, that Louis Bois) who was with us this year in the Benchcrafted booth. Louis was kind enough to bring the vise from Canada just for the show. I should say also that Louis is of French heritage and speaks French fluently (his name is pronounced without the "s", and Bois is pronounced "Bwah".) A couple nights last week during WIA Louis and I stayed up late as I picked through his volumes of L'art Du Menuisier. I wonder how many people are lucky enough to have their own, personal Roubo translator? Thanks Louis.

The vise is a gorgeous piece of hardware, reminiscent of the classic tools you'd find in old engravings, like Roubo or Diderot. But the thing is, this vise isn't necessarily that old.

The vise was manufactured by the Royal Forge company in Paris sometime in the late 19th to early 20th century. The catalog page above is from a 1920's era version. We can't be exact on that number, but there is a telephone number in the front, so that's narrows it down somewhat. We've done a fair amount of late night Google Image searching, as well as perusing lots of on-line library photo records in search of a picture of the vise. Below is the only image we found.

Louis' vise jaws are lined with cork. It looks like the lady carver above is using a piece of leather to provide a fantastic grip on her delicate carving.

Aside from sculptural work, the vise would be useful for working parts with a spokeshave or drawknife, such as working chair parts. Not everyone has room for a shaving horse, and this vise could serve well for holding a variety of chair parts. Clamped to a bench, the vise would hold work at a convenient chest height. The late, great John Brown used a metal machinist's vise for a good portion of his workholding needs in building Welsh stick chairs. The wooden jaws of the Royal Forge vise would be much more friendly to an errant tool movement.

Right now we're in the prototyping and design phase. If we end up producing this vise we will be doing a small, one-time run. If there is enough interest after the first run, we may produce more. The plates, which strengthen the wooden components and provide for smooth tracking as the vise is opened or closed are fairly detailed, with several inside chamfered corners. Not a detail that rotary cutters do easily. In other words, there is going to be some fine hand work involved in producing these. We also think hand-worked details will better capture the classic look of the original.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Specials at WIA

2011-09-27T21:23:00.001-05:00

Couple last things before we push off for Kentucky and WIA 2011.

1. Due to a lazy worker (me), we won't be bringing Tail Vises, or Glide Leg Vises to WIA. We had hoped to. But here's the good news. If you had planned on picking up a vise(s) at WIA, no worries. We will offer free shipping for Tail Vises and Glide Leg Vises if you order at the show. And wait times should be much shorter after the show.

2. We will have Moxon vises at the show. Lots of them. So if you're thinking about getting one of these, now would be the time. They weigh 8 pounds, and will fit in luggage easily. The six complete Moxon vises we're using as demo vises are also for sale at the show. These are a bargain at $299, completely assembled and finished, including two Gramercy holdfasts. Pick one up Saturday afternoon.

3. We have lots of suede scraps that we're bringing to the show. If you've wondered why we include suede leather with our vises its because it makes gripping work completely effortless and positive. I personally have suede lining every jaw of every vise in my shop. I absolutely love it. So we'll have a big box of suede scraps and a pile of bags to fill. Grab a generous fistful of suede (go easy Frank Bessette) stuff the sack, and slip us a five. That's all we ask. There are a few smallish pieces in there (good for clamp heads), but there are also lots of big pieces, like square-feet size. Seriously. So don't be shy, but also don't be a greedy b*%$#!d, or we'll call you on it.

4. For those with big chops (twin screws) and other demanding surfaces that require massive sueadage, we'll have an overflowing bushel basket of half-hides for sale. $25 per half hide. That's a good price. And it's probably more suede than an average shop would need forever.

5. I have an inside source that tells me there will be free, crispy bacon at the Bridge City booth. Economaki is from Iowa, after all.

Stop Trying To Improve

2011-09-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

The 18th century was a magical time. One gets the impression that although everything was mostly accomplished without the use of post-industrial-revolution machines, people still cranked out work at an impressive rate. Engravings from Roubo show vast lumber yards with great stacks of sawn timber, large workshops where men are making furniture at a steady pace.

Yes, the world was a small place then, but this work was common enough that Roubo and Diderot (both Frenchmen) set out to compose gargantuan volumes lavishly illustrated on broad subjects, not just woodworking related.

If you follow the Lost Art Press blog you know that the publishing house is translating Roubo. We are big supporters of this immense project. For us, Roubo's work is the pinnacle of woodworking texts. It may never be surpassed for its richness, detail, presentation and content. In our opinion, the techniques and tools in Roubo have not been improved on.

Modern machinery has drastically changed the way wood is taken from tree to board. The grunt work provided by these machines is an advancement in our opinion. But technique and joinery has decidedly gone the opposite direction. As woodworkers we've become trained by the modern world to accept so-called improved joinery techniques. Trees haven't changed. So why should joinery? The modern toolmakers would have you build chairs with biscuits and pocket screws, or dowels. These are factory methods designed for hobbyists. Are you interested in making real furniture, or recreating the Sauder factory in your garage? As Roy Underhill says, "stop trying to improve the 18th century".

To get inspired by these more enlightened times, where people's motivations had not yet centered entirely on the superficial and materialistic (and while LAP's Roubo translation is in the works), we like to browse through the pages of Diderot's Encyclopedia. And lots of it is available online.

The University of Michigan Library is in the process of translating Diderot's Encyclopedia. It's a huge task, maybe even larger than Roubo since it covers so many fields. You can access the webpage for the translation project here: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/

The Library has translated many of the plate captions and some text.

The Library is using the Diderot texts provided by the University of Chicago's ARTFL Encyclopèdie Project which catalogs the Encyclopedia in digital form, available for free online here: http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/

Browsing the Encyclopedia at the ARTFL website is a bit more user friendly than the Library's interface. Use the search page to get going. It helps to know some of the French terms you're interested in.

Here are a couple to get you started. I accessed these through "Browse Plates Alphabetically"

ÉBÉNISTERIE
This is the section on marquetry, which also covers the special tools used therein.

MENUISIER EN BATIMENS
This section covers the work of what nowadays we'd call a trim carpenter.

If you have Google Translate installed on your Google bar, a single click will translate the entire page, albeit roughly.

In Cincinnati Next Week

2011-09-21T20:32:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't heard, we'll be in Cincinnati (actually at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, a stone's throw from downtown Cincinnati) the weekend of September 30-October 1.

Barring any flat tires, 24-hour donut shops, or a rash of excellent buffets along I-74 we'll be pulling into Cincinnati with a trailer full of Benchcrafted goodies. Yes, we plan to bring actual product this time. So if you're in the market for one of our vises (or several!) bring money, which we like. You will save a bunch on shipping by picking up vises at the show.

We'll also be bringing a bunch of suede with us. Half hides and grab bags of scraps. We only have a limited number of these, so get there first if you want some.

Matt Builds A Moxon

2011-09-17T14:29:00.000-05:00

Watch Matt Vanderlist of Matt's Basement Workshop build his Moxon vise.

Omega-3 Fatty Acid For Your Cast Iron!

2011-09-15T09:04:00.003-05:00

We've been toying around with some finishes for our hand wheels here lately and thought we'd post some of our results for those of you who'd like to give it a try.

We first read about "seasoning" cast iron here and thought it might work nicely for the hand wheels. Unfortunately flax oil is pricey so we started out by going the more rustic route and rubbing the iron down with a slab of salmon. That was messy, we ran into a few bones and it made the fish taste funny later. A small bottle of flax oil can be had for about $10 and will last a LONG time for these purposes. Raw linseed oil (the non-edible version of flax oil) can be used also but it's a bit harder to find, the boiled variant being more prevalent.

After a couple days we're pretty happy with the results. We ended up with a patina that's akin to years of use resulting in a warm look that's reminiscent of an old well used piece of iron. It also has the added benefit of adding a rather robust layer of corrosion resistance. The resulting finish is an extremely hard polymer that we assume will be very hard wearing. Those small enameled splatters on the outside of an old frying pan are a testament to this durability.

We also tried a cold gun bluing followed by Minwax Antique Oil Finish that resulted in a similarly nice finish, though noticeably darker and more akin to a powder coat. We're partial to the flax finish not only because of the look, but also since its natural (you can literally eat the flax oil) --the chemicals in the cold bluing are caustic and smelly. You can also apply the flax oil in your kitchen oven without spousal repercussion.

The flax oil process is simple but takes a while:

1. Clean the iron. You want all oil and finish removed. Depending on the item, plain soap and water will work, but you may need to wipe it down with mineral spirits if you've got some residual finsh on there.

2. Put it in a 200 degree oven for 10 mintes to make sure it's bone dry.

3. Lay on a coat of flax oil with a brush.

4. Rub it all off! The key here is to get an extremely thin coat, very even. Any thick or uneven areas will cook differently resulting in pooling and possibly a blotchy result. Watch areas where liquid tends to pool like corners.

Don't be afraid to get a thin coat on the threads. We were initially worried that a build up of oil on the threads would cause binding. Much to our surprise after a few spins on the screws, the polymerized oil actually made the already smooth Moxon wheels spin like greased lightinin'. We'd probably keep the thread coating light though, 2 coats or so.

5. Crank the oven to 500 and bake the iron for 1 hour.

6. Turn off the oven and leave the iron sit until cooled, about 2 hours.

7. Repeat five or more times (steps 3-6). These wheels have 5 treatments. I've done 6 on a skillet with great results. The more you do the darker it will get. The machined wheels seem to stop darkening after the 3rd treatment or so but it probably improves the durability.

Well there you have it. We're very pleased with the results. We won't be offering this as an option on our hardware (don't even ask!) but we think there are probably a few of you who'd like to give it a try. It makes for a more vintage look with the added bonus of protection.

If you'd like to see these wheels in person, come to WIA where our Moxon demo bench will have one Moxon vise with the cold-blued-and-oiled wheels, and one vise with the baked flax oil wheels. These vises are for sale at a special price at the show ($299), including the specially finished wheels at no extra charge. If you'd like a vise with one of the specially finished wheel sets, include that in your email ("flax oil finish" or "cold blued finish" when you order. )

Moxon Vises In Stock

2011-09-09T16:14:00.000-05:00

More Wood Whisperer Bench Build Info

2011-09-08T15:39:00.001-05:00

We've been getting lots of emails from folks who are confused about what to order for the Wood Whisperer Guild Build, featuring the Benchcrafted Split-Top Roubo. Hopefully this will clarify matters.

1. Marc is building our Split Top Roubo bench exactly as it appears in our plans. Follow this link for more info on the bench: http://www.benchcrafted.com/Benchbuilding.html

Or watch a video about the bench : http://www.benchcrafted.com/Gallery.html

2. Marc purchased a Split Top Roubo Benchmaker's Package to build his bench. If you want to build your bench just like Marc, you should buy a Benchmaker's Package as well.

3. Moxon vise. This is NOT part of the Split Top Roubo Benchmaker's Package, and you don't need it to build the bench. We're simply offering it at a discount for Guild members, and because Marc is the coolest Italian woodworker we know, except for that Italian guy who built that wooden boat that looks like a Ferrari.

4. If you are not building your bench just like Marc, but still want to buy one of our vises (not a Benchmaker's Package), we are offering each of those also at a discount. So buy as many as you like.

5. Finally, as much as we'd like to send everyone a complete woodworking shop, when we say "everything you need to build.....except for wood" we mean exactly that. If you buy a Benchmaker's Package all you need to get on your own is some wood. Well, you'll need some glue too.

6. If you're attending Woodworking In America this year you can get free glue at the Gorilla Glue booth. See, we ARE looking out for you.

Build the Split Top Roubo with The Wood Whisperer

2011-09-07T09:56:00.000-05:00

If you've ever thought of building our Split Top Roubo bench and hesitated for a moment because of your skill level, now's your chance to allay your fears and build your lifetime bench.

Not that building a bench is particularly skill-intensive. But building something that must play nicely with large metal components takes some level of precision that may intimidate a beginner. A teacher or class would be the answer, but not everyone has the time or means to take a class.

Here's where the The Wood Whisperer Guild comes in.

Marc Spagnuolo, aka The Wood Whisperer, is the founder of the Guild, which is basically an online woodworking school with the distinct advantage over typical schools of being able to take "classes" at your convenience and at your pace, with tons of added content like forums and live chats. We're excited that Marc has announced the next "Guild Build" will be our Split Top Roubo.

Here's how the build works. Marc builds the project, and records the entire process in beautiful HD video, sharing construction details, techniques and methods. He covers every aspect of the project in great detail and glosses over nothing. Everything is covered from wood selection to final finish. The Guild provides detailed plans and other digital content to guide you through the build, again, at your own pace. We've seen the videos of the past Guild Builds and are impressed. The production quality is outstanding. Some of the best woodworking video production value we've seen online or otherwise.

Once the build starts (January 2012), Marc posts a new video every week and offers live chats, videos, interviews and other extras. He covers all the bases. By the time the build is complete, you'll be able to view the entire bench making process in HD video (including both our Tail Vise and Glide Leg Vise Vise installation), at your convenience. Plus, you'll have the support of other Guild Build participants and Marc to help you with any questions (we'll be here too of course as we always are) by way of email and the Guild forums.

Benchcrafted and the Guild are both offering some incentives for this project:

1. Join the Guild here. Use the code BENCHCRAFTED and you'll get 10% off your guild membership.

2. If you're already a Guild member and you purchase vises from us, you'll receive an additional three months of Guild membership.

3. Get a discount on any of our vises or a Benchmaker's Package if you're a Guild member. More info here.

All told, if you join the Guild and purchase vises, that's 15 months of Guild membership for a little more than $100. A great value.

Moxon's Torture Device

2011-09-01T20:04:00.001-05:00

"What on earth is that thing?"

"It's a bench for demoing our Moxon Vises at WIA"

"It looks like a medieval torture device"

"It depends on how you use it"

Our demo bench for Benchcrafted Moxon Vises is officially done.

And pardon me, but it's wicked cool.

Four woodworkers can use the bench at once, all sawing away with pleasure and comfort while looking at their neighbors' efforts for inspiration, or an ego boost.

The entire bench knocks down into seven pieces (the top is in two halves for ease of transport). The sawbuck-style base assembles with massive through tusk tenons which draw the base up rock solid. Dang this was fun to build.

We will have six fully-assembled hard maple Moxon vises at WIA, plus one Moxon-style benchtop bench (on display only--its already spoken for.) All six vises are for sale now. Here's how it works. Each vise is completely assembled and finished (we use a couple coats of oil-varnish mix), hardware installed and ready to roll. The price is $299. Yes, that's the regular price of a complete Moxon vise, but this one is completely assembled and finished. And here's the best part. The two Gramercy holdfasts are included. That's a $34+ value, more if you include shipping. Plus, they will all be preloaded with 2011 WIA mojo when you take them home. We will also have a couple vises with specially finished handwheels. One vise has cold blued and oiled wheels that give the vise a real nostalgic look (and prevents rust). The other will have a polymerized flax oil finish that were trying out. No reservations on these special vises though. You'll have to claim them at our booth (they won't cost extra.)

You may order one of the six vises at any time. Drop us an email stating you'd like a complete vise at WIA. We'll send you a Paypal bill for $299. (you don't need an account to pay). You can take the vise with you at the end of the marketplace on Saturday. We'll also have hardware-only Moxon vises for sale at the show in case you want to build your own vise.

The Moxon Vise Aftermarket

2011-08-23T09:55:00.000-05:00

Customer and blogger Paul-Marcel has built his Benchcrafted Moxon vise with some slick options. Nice job Paul-Marcel! And thanks for the laughs.

Tapping Moxon Handwheels Video

2011-08-20T10:49:00.000-05:00

Our first run of Moxon Vises sold out in short order, and we've been busy getting the next run finished up. They are almost done and should be shipping in less than two weeks.

Earlier this week we were tapping hand wheels and thought it would be interesting to show how this is done.

For those of you without machine experience, running acme taps in this size is demanding work. Unlike machine screw threads, where there is relatively little material to remove from the largest diameter of the thread, acme threads feature a flat bottom and almost square-shouldered threads, requiring lots of material removal. Acme taps either come in pairs (roughing and finishing), or in tandem form (a single tap with two stages, roughing and finishing). The tap in the video is a tandem. The first half of the tap gets rid of most of the material, while the second, finishing section refines the profile and leaves a smooth finish.

Email, Postage, Packing and Paper

2011-08-16T09:39:00.000-05:00

While we spend a lot of time developing and producing some great products here at Benchcrafted, believe it or not, we also spend an enormous amount of time practicing the mundane. So to clarify a few points and explain a bit about how we go about getting those products to our customers:

Email: We're huge fans of email. In fact we don't even publish a phone number. We realize this is a bit unusual but it saves us lots of time and energy, both of which we'd rather be putting back into development and actual production. Unless we're out of town (rare), we typically respond to emails within a hour or two during work hours. It's not uncommon to get a response from us in those wee hours, we're not always conventional.

With that said, our responses aren't always exhaustive or sugar coated. While we often make a lengthy reply when called for, short and sweet (maybe not always so sweet, but pickles are good too, right?) is the de rigueur. We're not saying that you'll never get a snide response from us, but we do put the customer first, always, and any missteps by us are just that.

Postage: We ship everything as economically as possible. Small packages typically go out USPS, large go UPS. We never charge for "handling", though to be blunt we probably should. Most people would be surprised to find out how long so called handling actually takes. It's not uncommon to spend hours per day packing and shipping. We also never charge more than it costs us. We know that shipping charges can be pretty thrilling (you know, like a car accident), but we don't take a cut. In fact, we're not always the sharpest tools and oftener than we'd like to admit, we take a loss.

Packing: Though we've not received any comments, we're guessing some of our customers have been left scratching their heads at some of our packing material. We're pretty professional about most our image but there's no place for fancy schmancy in the packing material world. We always use new boxes for stability but our packing, in it's many forms is strictly hand-me-downs. In fact we do one better than most of the "recycled" packing those green companies use, our packing is 100% re-purposed. We source all our packing from a local company that deals in large amounts of electronics materials where we get all our myriad supplies. What's this mean? Well as many of you already know, it means unpacking a box from us doesn't bring to mind "corporate" or "professional", but it gets the job done AND again, it saves money. I guess we're also happy it didn't require a second round of petroleum product manipulation either, though Uncle Ted probably wouldn't care one way or the other.

Paper: Similar to that drivel directly above about packing, many people probably notice we never include invoices or packing lists in our shipments. In this internet age, where DARPA has made all of us so happy, we don't really see the need of using more ink and paper just to confirm what you already know via the email receipt you received. You probably also don't need a packing list to confirm what you are holding in your hands, only the sweetest piece of hardware you'll ever be able to hand down to your grandchildren!

A Roubo in Two Days and WIA 2011

2011-08-06T21:26:00.001-05:00

This week I worked solo in the Benchcrafted test shop getting some things ready for WIA in September, where we'll be exhibiting everything Benchcrafted at the year's best woodworking show.

This year we're debuting our new Benchcrafted Moxon vise at the conference. And in order for as many people to try it out as possible, we're building a special bench. But in order to have enough room for it in our booth, I knocked out this small Roubo bench this week (its only 18" x 60"). What you see above was built in only two days, including installing a Benchcrafted Tail Vise. If it weren't for the angled stretchers (the rear of the base is built on a wider footprint for stability) I would have finished the Glide install on the second day. That's the beauty of using 12/4 lumber. You can knock out a massive bench lickety split.This bench will make the journey to Cincinnati so folks can try out our Tail and Glide Leg Vise in real time, on a monolithic bench.

We're also building a massive 40" x 40" sawbuck-style bench to hold four complete Moxon vises, so four woodworkers can have a go with them without bumping shoulders with anybody. Each Moxon vise will be outfitted with a test board and a brand new Bad Axe "Doc Holliday" Dovetail Saw. All four complete Moxon vises will be for sale at a special price, and customers can take them home Saturday evening or Sunday, as will the Dovetail saws from Bad Axe.

If you bring a set of dice, we may set this up as a craps table. But only if someone shows up dressed like Wyatt Earp.

Dovetailed Chest in Birdseye Maple

2011-07-31T15:51:00.001-05:00

I finally finished the chest from this post and had a chance to get some pictures taken last week.

The Bridge City Jointmaker Pro performed flawlessly for cutting the dovetails in this chest. After assembly the joints planed up flawlessly.

The one thing I'm not happy about is the selection of the front boards. Viewed from one end, the joint blends, but from the other end the upper board appears lighter and the joint between upper and lower boards becomes too distinct. And I spent a lot of time choosing these boards. I guess I needed to spend some more.

The chest is finished with several coats of Minwax Antique Oil, hand rubbed with 600 grit paper after the first couple coats. It's silky to the touch. I didn't build the finish to perfect uniformity. I didn't want to chest to look pristine. Hardware from Horton Brasses and Whitechapel Ltd.

The Benchcrafted Moxon Vise

2011-07-26T16:46:00.003-05:00

Last year Christopher Schwarz resurrected Joseph Moxon’s double-screw vise described in Moxon's 17th c. book “The Art of Joinery.” He covered it at his blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine and later published an article in the magazine itself. The vise took off and woodworkers started building Moxon vises left and right.

But not long after the article came out we began hearing from people moaning about wood threading kits, their tricky setup and the tendency for wood screws to swell tight in their holes, and asking what we were going to do about it.

Then our wheels started turning, so to speak.

After a bunch of prototypes (I won't share the first version, it was a mutt of a vise) we hit on something that works great, looks cool, and is fun to use, whether you're clamping wood or not. And its fast.

Here's what makes our Moxon unique. We like vises to focus all their potential power and precision on actually holding your work. That makes workholding easy. So like our Glide and Tail Vise, which are not weighed down by their own mass, the Benchcrafted Moxon works on a similar principle. The screws on the Moxon do not move. Instead, the precision rolled acme screws are bolted to the fixed jaw and we've tapped the cast iron handwheels for the 3/4" diameter acme screws (a time-consuming and labor intensive process.) Since the screws do not rotate inside the movable jaw, there is no friction to slow the operation of the vise. If you like how our Glide Leg Vise works, you're going to love the Moxon. Spin the wheel and start working. You don't need to adjust both wheels to hold work. Set one, then use the other to open and close the vise. The suede-lined jaw completes the tenacious grip.

The Moxon vise can be attached to your bench with two F-clamps, between dogs (your dogs need to be spaced close to the front for this to work), or with two Gramercy (or other) holdfasts.

We're offering Moxon vises both as complete vises (a little assembly required) or hardware only--everything but wood. With the latter, you can build several sizes, or different vise configurations, like a benchtop bench. We're so excited about this new vise that we're offering our first run immediately, which we expect to go quick. The first run vises will start shipping August 15. After the first run is out, we'll immediately begin another run. You can place an order anytime.

For more info, visit the Benchcrafted Moxon Vise page.

You can also download complete Moxon Vise plans and instructions, for free, from our downloads page.

Why Build The Shaker Bench?

2011-07-23T10:11:00.001-05:00

Last week we released our Shaker Bench Plans at the Lie-Nielsen 30th anniversary open house. We received lots of questions about the plans, but mostly "which bench should I build".

That's a fair question. Here goes.

Unlike some huge corporations that have a whole set of people to come up with new ways to make money, just for profit's sake, we work in the opposite way. That is, most of our products are the direct result of customer requests, or products that grew from other products we produce.

We're not about to offer bench plans for every conceivable bench configuration, just so we can sell you a set of vises. The bench design must work, and fulfill the principles set our by our favorite bench scientist, Christopher Schwarz. The kitchen door test must pass muster here (If you're unfamiliar with this concept, read this book) and our Shaker bench does it well.

We're also not going to argue the merits of the Shaker bench design. All those Shaker craftsman who build the great communities can speak for themselves. Although dead, their words are loud.

So why choose the Shaker over the Split Top Roubo?

The Roubo is a massive bench. Just moving the tops and leg sections, once joined, is an act of physical exertion. It's a demanding build. The Shaker bench on the other hand is built up from lighter parts to make a final monolithic structure. It's easier to build since you're working initially with lighter components.Once you're done, the Shaker bench is like working on a giant wooden cube. Filled with tools (or empty) its solid as a rock.

The Roubo has no storage, aside from the single shelf in the base structure. The Shaker has storage (dust free) in spades.

You can use holdfasts with the Roubo. You can use use holdfasts with our Shaker bench too. You'll need to lop off some of the shank, but you'll still get a few inches of capacity. More than enough for almost all work.

The Shaker bench has a beautiful aesthetic. Yes, we've all heard the arguments about great craftsmen building incredible furniture on a hollow core door and a couple sawhorses. But if you were interested in that "bench" you wouldn't be reading this. I've been building furniture professionally for most of my adult life, and I am still inspired by a beautiful workbench. Would you rather work in a dark concrete sweat shop, or a spacious timber-frame filled with natural light?

You need to add storage to your shop. Yes, you could build a bank of floor cabinets, but why not build them with a robust top and vises? You'll have your storage, and a second bench to boot. See the picture at the top of the post? That's the 14-foot Shaker bench at Mt. Lebanon, (zoom in and check out the dog holes and tail vise) loaded with storage and sporting two vises (the face vise has been removed, it fits in that square mortise at the left). See what I mean? Awesome.

So what's the final conclusion? It mostly boils down to aesthetics. There are some functionality differences, but nothing that makes one bench light-years better than the other. I have a Roubo in my personal shop. When I have the space and time, I'll be adding this Shaker bench to my shop for it's looks and storage potential.

Rosewood Handwheel Knobs

2011-07-19T17:33:00.002-05:00

When we moved from chrome-plated hand wheels to our satin iron wheels, we changed the thread for attaching the rosewood knobs we supply with vises. This left us with some orphan knobs.

I've tried my hardest to replace all the handwheels knobs on my machinery with rosewood (yes, people think I'm nuts when they see these in my shop) but I've used up as many as I can. So as we make room for our new Moxon vise, we're clearing out some shelf space.

The 1 3/8" dia. knobs have a 3/8-16 stud. Once you install them, the rosewood will spin free. The fastener is chrome-plated.

We have a limited number of these knobs, so first come, first serve.

Price is $22 per knob, including priority mail shipping. To purchase, drop us an email and we'll tell you how to pay. When we sell out, we'll post an update here. If you don't hear back from us by email, it means we've sold out.

UPDATE:

We also have some of these knobs WITHOUT fasteners. Same specs. They use a 1 3/4" shoulder bolt with 1/2" shank, available at most hardware stores. Price is $18 per knob, including priority mail shipping. To purchase, drop us an email and we'll tell you how to pay. When we sell out, we'll post an update here. If you don't hear back from us by email, it means we've sold out.

More New Stuff, Skraper Update

2011-07-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

After many requests over the past couple years we're finally offering the hardware to make the roller brackets from our Glide Leg Vise.

Paired with a T-handle metal bench screw, or a wooden bench screw, a pair of roller brackets will make your leg vise spin freely. It's a nice upgrade that makes any leg vise move effortlessly.

The kit includes everything you need to make two brackets, except wood.

Download the templates for making the bracket HERE.

The bracket hardware costs $39, and all the components are made in the USA. The rollers are top-quality industrial-grade casters with ball-bearing hubs. The metal parts have a black finish and look very traditional in context.

If your chop goes all the way to the floor, you'll need to do some slicing and dicing to allow enough room for the roller bracket to mount below the parallel guide. If you love wood screws, this is a perfect way to improve their function for just a few bucks.

You can order the kit on our Order page.

We'll start shipping these next week, after we return from the Lie-Nielsen Open House this weekend.

Skrapers

Chris Schwarz recently blogged about our Skraper. Naturally this put a severe dent in our inventory. Actually, it put more like a hole in our inventory.

We sold out within an hour.

We're about half way through the next run, and expect to ship about middle of next week for those of you who are waiting.Thanks for your patience.

Tomorrow we head east to Warren, ME. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by L-N Toolworks and say hello.

Shaker Bench Plans--Now Available

2011-07-11T15:40:00.001-05:00

After almost a year, our Shaker bench plans are finally ready.

Last week, draftsman extraordinaire Louis Bois and I pored over the umpteenth iteration of the prints to make sure everything was accurate and clearly understandable. I think we're darn close on both counts. Louis is a perfectionist. If a certain line weight is off, he can't let it slide. Not even a little. So these plans have taken longer than we anticipated. But they have been worth the wait. We're extremely pleased with Louis' work.

This set of plans posed some challenges. How do you illustrate the carcase construction in a clear, easy to follow manner? Louis and I went back and forth over this for a couple weeks before our ideas met. While writing the instructional text for the plans I included pictures of the carcase construction at each major step. And that's when Louis' mind clicked.

Legos.

Louis and I are about the same age, and both grew up immersed in Lego building. So our minds, thousands of miles apart, were on the same page.

Show each step of the carcase, with each consecutive step adding parts to the previous step. This way the builder would see exactly in what order to build, and where every part goes.

We grayed out the previous steps' parts, leaving the parts to be added in black. Easy peasy.

For these plans we're adding a page at the end in full color, printed on a spiffy new Océ Colorwave 600 large-format printer. Our printer just installed this machine last week. It uses wax-based toner pearls (think crayons) that leave a lovely sheen in the color. In fact, as I write this these pages are being printed off.

The last page of the plans will feature some gorgeous 3-d renderings from Louis that not only look incredible, but also help explain how the bench goes together. Right now I'm wondering what some of the old Shakers would think of this? I think they would embrace it. It's efficient, simple, and beautiful.

The Shaker Bench Plans are $36, including shipping anywhere in the USA and Canada. You'll receive the construction notes PDF (35 pages) which includes written instructions and building techniques, along with the 3d E-drawing file within 24 hours of ordering, by email. The E-drawing is a CAD file that lets you see the bench on your computer in full 3-d (you need software, but its a free and easy download. Less than five minutes, tops.) You can move the bench, take it apart, make parts transparent or hidden, even measure each part. It's a nice way to explore the bench away from the large prints. Then later in the mail you'll receive six pages of 20x30 prints rolled in a cardboard tube. Plans will start shipping July 19.

We're also offering Benchmaker's Packages for the Shaker bench. You get both vises, complete plans, and hardware to build the Shaker Bench. Everything you need except wood (and some common fasteners.) You save $42 if you buy the package. Lead times for Benchmaker's Packages are dependant on vise lead times. Right now that's about 4 weeks.

To preview the construction notes, download the first six pages HERE.

And since I know some of you will wonder, the background on the construction notes cover page was taken from this 1920's photograph of a Shaker workshop at Mt. Lebanon, New York. The beautifully-crafted lathe is particularly nice.

Unsolicited

2011-07-07T23:17:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Doug. And congratulations. The bench looks fantastic.

---------------------

Jameel,
I received the Benchmakers package late 2010 and started construction mid
January this year. The bench was finished on June 19, 2011. It is
constructed of Hard Maple except for the shelving which is Douglas fir. Two
coats of 50/50 mix linseed oil and mineral spirits for the finish.
My compliments to you on the quality of the hardware, plans , notes etc.
Your blog is a tremendous resource which facilitates the build. Also gleaned
quite a bit of info from the Festool forum. The functionality and
workholding characteristics of this bench have exceeded my expectations.
This is the bench I have been looking and waiting for, thanks for helping to
make that happen.
Happy Fourth of July.
Cheers
Doug T.
Calgary, Ab
Canada

MOXON

2011-07-04T21:52:00.002-05:00

Machines: Fail

2011-07-04T12:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I stopped by an antique show and this caught my eye.

This is an English apothecary chest in mahogany from the early 1800's. I knew immediately that it was something special.

When I opened the 3" tail drawer a fine set of skinny-pin half blind dovetails were presented. Quite obviously this was not made by mechanized process. It was made by a man-machine.

I reached in and extracted the tray, made from 1/8" solid mahogany, and joined with diminutive delicate dovetails. Then the craftmanship of the man machine filled the space where I was standing.

At the front of the tray the sides are joined with through and mitered dovetails. The entire joint is mitered such that only the end grain of the pins shows. As such:

The back of the tray is joined with another variation of a mitered dovetail. This time the full tail is kept whole, the half tails being mitered.

People enjoyed less before mass production. Or did they?

Cutting Huge Bench-Size Dovetails

2011-06-26T21:02:00.001-05:00

Last year while building a series of Roubo benches I discovered a quick and straightforward method for cutting the large half-lap dovetail that joins the end cap to the front laminate.

Soon after I dropped a line to Megan Fitzpatrick, managing editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine to see if she was interested in the article. My intention was to publish the info right here, but I thought it would be nice if the technique reached a wider audience, so I pitched the idea to Megan first. She agreed to the article and I got busy writing and sawing.

The article appears in this month's Popular Woodworking Magazine. If you're about to build a bench, or something else with big dovetails, I think its worth reading. The method eliminates, without any compromises, any tedious or skill-demanding chisel work. I've used this technique several times since I first discovered it, and it's worked great every time.

Woodworking Machinery Renaissance

2011-06-20T09:35:00.002-05:00

It's been said before, we are living in a woodworking machinery Renaissance (insert sound of a turntable needle scratching a record here).

Okay, that's mostly untrue. Manufacture of fine, cast iron woodworking machinery in America has all but died. There were once thousands (yes, that many--have doubts? see this) of companies manufacturing heavy, cast-iron machines all over the country. The choices were astounding. Today I think I could count on one hand those companies who are still at it. Northfield Machinery Builders, is one that is still alive and well, for example. Two of my old machines are 50+-year old Northfields that I bought from a high-school auction in Minneapolis.

Why did I say mostly untrue? Dozens of cabinet and furniture making companies are closing their doors, either closing completely or selling off the assets and setting up shop on the other side of the planet. And herein lies the machinery Renaissance. Many of these companies have been in business for decades, and some going on a century or more. The machines they outfitted their shops with back then are in most cases, still running strong. They are widely available and generally inexpensive through auctions and sales.

Over the past year I have been slowly replacing my modern, Asian-made machines with older, American-made machines. In most cases, I've been able to obtain these machines for much less than a comparable modern machine. And they are better machines in every way. I say this without hesitation.

Back when Americans were making machinery with pride, the folks at the drafting table knew what they were doing. They actually designed machines to work properly, keep settings, and last. They didn't simply use an established blueprint, start up the assembly line, and bank on good sales and repeat business as a predetermined given. The bottom line wasn't the at the top of the list. Making quality machines was.

Sound familiar? It's the same philosophy that's driving the current American hand-tool manufacturers and the very real hand tool Renaissance. Tom Lie-Nielsen, Konrad Sauer, Dave Jeske, Joel Moskowitz (and many more) have dedicated themselves to the notion of making things here, and making them with lasting function and beauty as the driving force.

Since last September I've replaced my jointer, multiple drill presses, and I have an 18" planer, 24" cast-iron scroll saw, small shaper, and a 1916 auto-reciprocating Greenlee mortiser waiting in the wings. For every one of these machines I paid less (and not just a little) than the smaller, cheaper, inferior machines they replace or will replace, and when I sell off my "old" machines, I'll have money in my pocket.

All of these machines were found within a half-day drive of my shop, and most of them less than an hour away.

We may not be able to purchase new, high-quality, American-made machines anymore (I wish it wasn't so), but from my perspective as a blended woodworker, we are living in a sort of machinery renaissance. And I can't think of a better place for these machines to end up than the shops of passionate amateur woodworkers who will carry on the craft and make real, lasting furniture with these machines instead of purchasing curb fodder that is modern factory furniture. After reading Christopher Schwarz's latest tome, The Anarchist's Tool Chest I'm convinced that I'm right in searching out these old, American-made gems and putting them to good use in my shop. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, read the book. It's his best to date.

John's Apprentice Bench Slideshow

2011-06-16T23:15:00.001-05:00

John's bench was officially done about two months ago. Last night we finally got a few moments to make up this slideshow.

John's been woodworking since he was about 8 years old, when he built his first workbench, completely on his own, with scrap wood and an old clamp-on Stanley vise. His first project was a box to hold a cross, complete with a french-fitted cutout made from cardboard.

John, age 8, using my Lie-Nielsen 164 on my bench (he's standing on a stepstool).

John's first bench.

Making the French-fitted box insert with a chip-carving knife.

So last fall, after WIA, when John told me he wanted to make something "serious" and suggested a workbench with our vises, I was thrilled.

As John's teacher, I was extremely satisfied with the outcome of his bench. Some of you may be wondering how much he actually did on his own (he'll be 17 next week). The answer is, a lot.

Instead of giving him a crash course in woodworking, I walked him through each step of making the bench as if I were making it. Need to cross cut wood to length? I'd grab a handsaw and do the first cut. Now you imitate. I would make corrections and explain the "why's" along the way, with some safety lessons mixed in. John jointed and planed (with both hand work and machines) all the lumber for the bench, with me sometimes doing outfeed duties, feeding him the piece for another pass. This way he got a lesson and practical experience for every part of the build. In the end, I did almost nothing during the build other than show him what to do, and perform the first cut or operation.

I did cut the large dovetail that joins the front laminate to the end cap. I needed to illustrate the technique for an article I wrote for the August 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. It's a great technique I discovered by chance last year while installing a Benchcrafted Tail Vise. It makes cutting huge dovetails easy and fun, and it's crazy precise.

On the last day of the build I was working in a another building when John stepped in holding the pin for his parallel guide, with a nicely turned ebony handle attached. It had been about three years since I helped him do a couple turnings on the lathe. Then out of the blue, this. It was a great ending to the project, a moment I'll remember for a long time.

See Us At The Lie-Nielsen Open House July 15-16

2011-06-14T09:15:00.000-05:00

As we mentioned earlier we'll be traveling to Warren, ME for Lie-Nielsen Toolworks' 30th Anniversary Open House July 15-16.

More info HERE.

This will be our first trip to this part of the country. If you're interested in our products, please stop by to try out everything we offer. We'll have a complete bench outfitted with our vises so you can give the wheels a spin and see how they work. Lie-Nielsen is also an authorized Mag-Blok dealer.

We also hope to have our new Moxon vise in production by that weekend, and we'll have one there to test out. The Moxon vise is THE answer to comfortable backsaw work at the bench.

This event is shaping up to be one to remember. In addition to the numerous tool makers that will be present (and hats off to Lie-Nielsen for creating such a wonderfully convivial atmosphere among us toolmakers), several top furniture makers will be in attendance. Garrett Hack, Christian Becksvoort, Peter Follansbee and many more.

Oh, and don't forget the lobster bake. As native corn-country folk, this is something we don't want to miss.

See you there!

New Benchcrafted Website

2011-06-07T09:18:00.001-05:00

After some months of work the new website is up. It's largely cosmetic, so no real surprises. It is however updated in many ways and hopefully more user friendly. You probably noticed the blog has been redesigned as well. Hopefully its all easier to read, and easier to navigate.

The Gallery page has some new videos on it as well.

We've also added a dedicated Downloads page to make instructions and templates easy to find.

And don't forget to read our FAQ, where we thought it made sense to move the instructional videos.

A Smoothing Plane Trick and Some Amazing Dovetails

2011-06-04T08:57:00.000-05:00

Last week I glued the small chest using Old Brown Glue. It's my first time using the stuff and I have to say I like it. One thing I don't care for is the smell however. When I warmed the glue in warm water then cracked open the lid, I had the same feeling when you start rooting through last night's leftovers first thing in the morning and mistakenly open the Tupperware of broccoli. To me it smells very little like hot hide glue. Not that I enjoy that odor, but its not off putting. In fact, when I do mix up a batch of hot glue I'm immediately taken back in time to some of the more intense sessions of luthiery work. It's an interesting sensation.

Nevertheless, I'm probably going to move towards using this glue for all my furniture making. The main reasons are convenience and conservation. The longer open time of OBG is important for gluing certain long-assembly joints like the dovetails in this chest. Even yellow glue is too quick for my tastes in this case. Yellow glue does not stick to itself, making future repairs extremely difficult. Hide glue just needs to be rehydrated to reactivate it. One thing I noticed right away about OBG that I did not expect. Once it cools and starts to cure it gets super tacky just like hot hide. I love this feature, and it instills confidence. I never experienced this with Franklin's liquid hide glue, which I've used now and then.

After the glue cured (I let it sit overnight) I had the task of planing the joints flush. Planing large unsupported panels after assembly is always tricky. I did cut these dovetails so the joints were slightly proud, but I always find some long grain planing that needs to take place post-assembly. And that's where vibration comes into play. Not in the plane, but in the panel. There is also the issue of the panel flexing to concave under planing pressure and preventing the iron from engaging.

So I clamped the chest to the bench in the tail vise and inserted a wide board between the front and back of the chest. The board is just a tad longer than the inside width of the chest. The brace introduced a very slight convex bow to the outside of the panels, allowing my smoothing plane to ride the arch easily. No chance of the cut disengaging from the panel as it deflected away from the sole. The brace also prevented any vibration. It was as if I was working the panel directly on the bench top.

Sighting down the panel's edge the slight outward bow can be seen.

Once the corners were planed flush (the end panels were short enough not to need the brace trick) and the joints revealed, the accuracy of the Bridge City JMP became evident once again. I was simply blown away by the quality of the joints. Every one was dead on. No gaps. Simply put, the joints were as close to perfect as possible. If you're into that sort of thing (I like tight joints too, but I don't obsess about them), the JMP won't disappoint. All I did was make careful scribe lines (see that in the video in the previous "Personal Work" post) and then line up those scribe lines right the blade's edge on my zero-clearance tables on the JMP. That's it.

Rare Opportunity: Shaker-Style Bench For Sale

2011-05-28T21:09:00.001-05:00

When we started Benchcrafted we never intended to build workbenches. But funny things happen when people half-way across the continent become your friends and ask you to build for them. I have a soft spot for this, and it's hard for me to say no. It's safe to say I've made Burger-King wages on almost every bench I've built. It's the intangible payment I get from these relationships that I really value.

But this bench is different. I didn't build it for anyone. I built it for me, for my personal shop. When I first helped Ron Brese create his Shaker-style bench early last year I knew immediately I wanted one for myself. Evidently, lots of other people wanted one too. So much so that they asked Ron (and us) for plans within a few days of the bench's completion. No exaggeration.

After we decided to satisfy woodworkers clamoring for a Shaker bench with Benchcrafted workholding, I set to work on building my version of the bench, a version that I thought would appeal to a wide range of woodworkers and shop sizes.

The offspring of that idea came to fruition about 10 months ago. And I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome. I immediately fell in love with the piece and started daydreaming about how I could shoehorn it into my 600 sq. foot shop alongside an already enormous 100" long, 500 pound Roubo bench.

Winter dragged on and we had to deal with some product changes at Benchcrafted and the inevitable delays they cause, and progress on the Shaker Bench plans slowed. Finding room for the bench in my personal shop became a fading dream and was relegated, for fear of damage, to a safe corner in a storage area, hibernating until earlier this week when we moved the bench into my shop for a photo shoot.

And that's when I realized I had to sell this bench. The only option after the shoot was to put the bench back in storage. And that's something that I just couldn't do long term. This bench needs to get used and enjoyed by someone. And it doesn't look like that person is me.

I hope someday to build another Shaker style bench and use it alongside my Roubo. Workholding capabilities aside, there is something about a Shaker bench that just oozes inspiration, and that's something we all could use more of in our shops.

So this bench will make the long trip this summer to the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks 30th Anniversary Open House, July 15-16 in Warren, ME, where it will be for sale and available for pickup Saturday July 16th. If you are interested in acquiring this bench please contact me directly at jameel@benchcrafted.com for details or questions.

Update: The bench has sold.

The Economaki-Brese-Imai-Lie-Nielsen Melange

2011-05-23T09:44:00.002-05:00

This post marks the first for a new category at the Benchcrafted blog: Personal work.

In the past year I have been scaling back content at my other blog for no other reason than I haven't done much luthiery work for a couple years now. And much of my recent work has more to do with workholding than luthiery. So look for more personal work here in the future, interesting or not!

It's firmly established now. We are living in a woodworking hand-tool Renaissance. And yesterday I experienced it yet again.

I'm building a small chest for a friend using some of the hardest, densest, gnarliest maple I've ever come across. It's like working a tropical exotic. But yesterday everything clicked.

As many know, Andrew Lunn is no longer making saws. Like others I was on the list. So I'm still looking for ultimate performance. I've found that in John Economaki's Jointmaker Pro, which I now use to cut almost all of my dovetails, and especially the critical, joint-as-design-element dovetails. The JMP was simply awesome for cutting the joints in this chest. And they all fit together, without paring of any sort, right off the saw. And setting it up for the cuts was easy. If you can line up two marking knife lines, you can cut perfect air-tight dovetails with the JMP. I recommend using the cross-cut blade for this operation. I've found, oddly enough, that it tracks better than the ripping blade, especially in ornery woods.

Smoothing this wood was a physically demanding task. I have a Shelix head on my planer, but the traces are always removed and flatness always tweaked with hand planes. For me, machines are my shop's apprentice. I expect them to do the grunt work perfectly and without complaint, and leave the precision to me. I spend very little time in my shop setting up machines. To smooth this nasty wood I used a Lie-Nielsen #7 followed by a Brese 132-50P panel plane, both bedded at 50 degrees. The L-N got things flat, and the Brese polished the surfaces. But both planes needed honing after each side of the panels was smoothed.

But I was most impressed with my new Fujihiro chisel by Chutaro Imai. On the recommendation of Raney Nelson I purchased a 12mm Fujihiro bench chisel from Hida Tool a couple months ago. I chopped all the joints for this chest with this chisel. And I didn't go back to my stones once. That's right. The edge retention simply blew me away. That's about 5 running feet of continuous rock-hard, abrasive birdseye maple end grain work. And for fun I took some wispy thin end grain basswood shavings after I finished the last socket. Simply amazing. I think Raney has hooked me on Japanese chisels.

The chest is almost done. With all the difficulty of working this wood, I'll admit I have a soft spot for it. It's just too beautiful a material.

Meet Us (and a bunch of other toolmakers) In St. Louis May 13-14

2011-05-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks' traveling tool show will be stopping in St. Louis, MO on May 13-14.

If you like hand planes, especially hand-made hand planes, this is the show to be at this year. Period.

Here's the lineup of incredible planemakers (besides Lie-Nielsen obviously!):

Matt Bickford--Beech and Cherry moulding planes of the highest order

Konrad Sauer--Infill planes in the classic style

Ron Brese--Infill and precision stainless steel bench planes like no other

Bob Zajicek--Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Maybe not woodworking planes, but he does make some mean edge tools.

Time for a shameless plug. All of these planemakers use Benchcrafted vises. Well, except for Matt. Matt, we need to talk.

If you're not much for hand tools, come anyway and drool on host Kent Adkin's European machinery.

And its all free. The only other place I'd rather be in St. Louis for free is on a tour of Anheuser-Busch. Not that I like Budweiser, but the tour is cool (the Clydesdale pen is as clean as the brewery, and that's as clean as an operating room--no joke) and at the end they give you free beer. If Bob is absent from his bench, this is where he'll be.

We'll also be bringing John's Split-Top Roubo from The Benchmaker's Apprentice that he recently finished. Here's a sneak preview.

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: The End

2011-04-30T10:58:00.001-05:00

Today I started by putting some finishing touches on the leg vise chop.

I also finished up the tail vise sliding dog block.

Also, because the front apron drops down farther than the bench top, I cut this for a little modern flare, but it's just a 45*, so not too modern.

Now I started working on the cleats that hold the shelf.

The barrel nut meets the shelf cleat, preventing the cleat from fitting in its groove completely. We'll have to remedy that, won't we.

Perfect fit.

Now, after finishing the shelf pieces themselves, the two edge pieces must be cut to fit. The shelf boards are shiplapped on their long edges.

Another perfect fit! Man, this day is going great! Until...

At this point, this is what the dogs look like. To get the spring working, we need to make an angled cut at the bottom of the piece.

I made a quick jig to cut the angle on the dogs.

Now we need to make that springy piece thinner. Now, you might want to use a hand plane, but here at Benchcrafted, we don't believe in simplicity. It's sort of like magic. Every magic trick appears to be simple, but in actuality, it is quite complex(or is it the other way around?). Anyway, we developed a magic trick of our own while building this bench. Everything in your head will be saying that this was a mistake, but it was in every way intentional (and copyrighted).

Anyway, you might want to take a lighter cut when using this method.

Here is the jig we routed quickly to do this. It works, let's say, iffy. I wouldn't recommend doing this.

From there, I glued up the dogs.

And then added screws for added strength.

Then I drilled for the big Spax lags and attached the tops.

Now it's time to flatten the top.

I make a chamfer to minimize blowout because it's faster to plane across the grain on this.

I also file the dog holes.

It took a while, but I got it pretty flat.

Well, there you have it. That was the Benchmaker's Apprentice, and that is a Benchcrafted Split-Top Roubo Bench. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and details and my rambling about stuff I don't know anything about. Thanks for listening, and stay tuned, because in the near future (as in sometime in the next few weeks) we will be posting pictures of this thing because, as you may recall, she's getting painted. And if you want even more, you might get to see the Benchmaker's Apprentice Bench in St. Louis at the upcoming Lie Nielsen event. So stay tuned for news on that, also.

Thanks again!

Building Schwarz's 18th c. Roubo With Our Vises?

2011-04-28T23:32:00.000-05:00

A few months ago we began getting orders for vises from students enrolled at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking. Author Chris Schwarz is teaching a class in May on building his Roubo bench featured in the August 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. The benches will be built with massive timbers, and in order to help make the vise installation quick and efficient, we developed a sequence for installing our tail vise for the students who have just 6 days to build the bench.

The installation differs from the sequence outlined in our installation instructions in that there is no dog hole strip (the bench uses round holes drilled into the finished top) and no front laminate. This sequence can be applied to other top construction methods as well. Instead of building up the top around the vise (typical install), material is removed from the benchtop to receive the vise. Using massive 5x5 timbers the entire installation can virtually take place in the first laminate before assembling the rest of the top.

For those who are planning to build this excellent bench with the Benchcrafted Tail Vise, we're making these materials freely available. We have a Sketchup drawing (with animated scenes) showing the sequence as well as some 2d templates that help explain the install. These templates will be available for free download once our new website is updated (coming soon). In the meantime if you'd like to have them, send an email and you'll get a reply with the materials.

Lead Times Update

2011-04-25T10:35:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on lead times. We're still waiting on some deliveries from our supplier who is behind, but as of last Friday they are on schedule. We're producing other components while we wait, so filling orders once these overdue components arrive should be fairly quick. We greatly appreciate you bearing with it during this delay. We're not much for economic prognostication, but the silver lining here is that our supplier that's behind is getting lots of new work.

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: End Cap, Tail Vise, and Glueing

2011-04-09T11:04:00.014-05:00

Here we are again, and today we are covering ALOT of stuff. I'm starting with the end cap. Above, you can see that I milled this piece of ash to roughly the size of the final piece.

Now I simply routed out this groove in the bench top...

And then routed a similar one in the cap.

Then I made a spline to tie it all together.

This tongue and groove doesn't really have any structural advantages, it simply aligns the cap for gluing. The bolts are what really hold this thing on.

I decided to use barrel nuts for this since they are easier to install. Although you probably won't be taking the cap off once it is glued on, the convenience is still there and it looks nice too!

Now I'm ready to route for the tail vise. I am removing lots of material here so I'm going to take it slow, only taking less than a quarter inch of material for each pass.

This clamp conveniently serves as a stop so I don't route to far into the top.

A nice fit. Now, to finish installing the tail vise, we need to glue on our dog hole laminate.

I start by hammering small brad nails into the front edge of bench, then clipping them off right at the surface. This keeps the pieces from slipping around on the glue.

This is not product placement.

Nor is this a Nature Valley granola bar commercial.

Nice and clean after some [Skraper]ing.

After the laminate was installed, I simply routed down about 1/4" for the rails of the vise.

As you can see here, because the bench top is a little thinner than what is called for, I had to elevate the inside rail with a shim, but it wasn't a problem.

At this point, I decided to glue on the last front laminate for the front top. It's 4" thick, unlike the rest of the top, which is around 3". This required a little aligning to be done right so I finished the legs so that we could drop the tops on and do some awesome aligning.

I also attached the short cross beams to the legs these are permanent so I took my pegs and glued them in, never to be removed.

Well, the top seems to fit the base nicely.

Since the front laminate drops down farther than the tops themselves, I had to take the handy Festool and make that notch up there. Now the laminate has some personal space.

To finish up the day, I did some work on the leg vise chop. I cut an angle into the bottom half so it's not so "square".

And then I also attached the parallel guide to the chop with pegs.

Lead Times and a Shaker Bench Update

2011-04-05T09:28:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, we've had to increase our lead time on vises to 10-12 weeks. One of our materials suppliers has been swamped with orders the past few weeks and are frantically trying to keep up, to the point of adding machinery to their operation, which has the ironic effect of further delaying orders in the short term. During the past couple years many manufacturers have changed the way they do business. Instead of keeping lots of raw material on hand and warehousing finished parts, they wait until they have several orders to do a run. It's like having to do a group order with a bunch of people you don't know. It's something that's out of our hands, so we're trying to deal with it the best way as we can. Couple this with the immense popularity of our vises (demand is hotter than an iPad 2!), that means increasing lead times for the time being. The upside is, we're making some significant changes to the way we work, which should, after this hiccup runs its course, mean very short lead times. If you're in the market for vises, stay tuned here for updates. As soon as things change, we'll make a post.

Now on to some good news. The Benchcrafted Shaker Bench plans have been progressing nicely. We're getting quite close to completion, and are shooting for an early summer release date. No promises yet, as we still have some issues to work out. As usual, we've changed some construction details since building the prototype, improving the strength of the joinery, and simplifying the construction at the same time.

We've answered a lot of questions about this bench in the past few months. The most common seems to be, "is this bench strong?". The Roubo bench design has become so popular that its become the benchmark for other benches. So is this bench as strong as a Roubo? We're not about to send our benches to the testing lab at MIT to be crushed under a giant hydraulic ram. So short of that, I'd say yes. In fact, I may be leaning towards the opinion that the base of this bench might even be stronger. Why? Unlike traditional Shaker benches, made with solid timbers and frame and panel construction, we've engineered the base of our bench around the torsion box model, using plywood panels which won't move and don't require joinery like a frame and panel.

The front of the cabinet is made with a 1" thick hardwood face frame joined with numerous tight half-lap joints. Once glued, these joints are incredibly strong. The back of the case, instead of frame-and panel is one unified element of 3/4" ply. The interior of the case is divided with several more plywood panels further adding weight and rigidity. The advantage of this construction method will be that you can glue the entire case together without worrying about wood movement, and use the joinery method of your choice: biscuits, Dominoes, tongue and groove, spline, or simply butt joints and dovetailed screws. We also use traditional cut nails for structural reinforcement where aesthetics is important. Once the cabinet is together, it is functionally a solid cube. One single joint, standing alone, may be quite weak, but taken as a whole the case would be nearly impossible to destruct in normal use. Of course this all depends on tight joinery and proper gluing, which should be at the top of your list when building this bench. Even a massive Roubo would be useless with weak, wobbly joints.

New products announcement !!!

2011-04-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

We're extremely happy and excited and very pleased and thrilled to announce two new products to the Benchcrafted lineup. We've been working on these for several months and it's been very difficult to keep these under wraps. We never thought we'd be subject to such things but we've had to contact our lawyers on several occasions to bring charges of corporate espionage against parties that will remain unnamed as per the settlement agreements. Needless to say, we are relieved to finally announce these items which will in turn take some of the wind out of our competitors sails.

One product, is entirely made in the USA. The other product will be available in both a USA and a Mexico version. We're typically very conscientious about keeping everything in the Americas, but this item was only available via Mexico so we had no choice but to have it made on another continent. OK, so enough talk. We're VERY proud to announce the Benchcrafted G.P.T., Glide Paper Towel holder!

We've spared no expense. As with our award winning vises, the materials are top notch and will blend with any post-industrial kitchen decor. Whether your little homemaker is a machinist, woodworker, or simply a former Eastern Block designer, this will fit right in. The weight will immediately be appreciated. How many times have you gone to tear off a single sheet of paper towel, tucked it under your chin, walked down the hallway and into the living room, sat down with your full slab of ribs, only to find you pulled the whole roll off and now have to close up the recliner and go fix that mess? No more.

The NEW Benchcrafted G.P.T. !

Your Homemaker will LOVE it!

Our second announcement would have been impossible had we not been able to secure, under extreme expense we might add, the design advise and mentor-ship of world renowned Industrial Designer D. Puch. Alski. We approached Mr. Alski with a simple request; what can we offer that will seem complex but not be, inexpensive yet costly, deep but shallow, and accessible to only the few? His answer astounded us!

"What does everyone need, from Disappointment, Kentucky to Ngama, Chad? What are we all looking for all the time?"

"Food, water, shelter? The meaning of life?"

"No you idiots! Wallets. Wallets are the answer to everything. We keep everything that is most important in our wallets. But what is the matter with wallets? They are are ugly. I find them offensive with their folding and creasing."

Needless to say we were floored. And this, we are proud to announce is the final result of his design prowess.

The Benchcrafted Brakolai Bandolier

As we said earlier, it is available in two versions, the Limited Edition Tinamura & Antle iBrakolai (see it's white just like an Apple product) and the South of the border Bandito Blue Brakolai Bandolier. Both are finished is supple caoutchouc, durable, functional and above all, chic!

Availability late Fall 2010.

Limited Edition Tinamura & Antle iBrakolai on top, Bandito Blue Brakolai Bandolier on bottom.

Bandito Blue Brakolai Bandolier in action!

Production Update--Lead Times

2011-03-29T08:55:00.001-05:00

A couple months ago we received some favorable press and unfortunately our lead times have suffered as a result. So we're trying to streamline our production in order to not only catch up, but also dial back those lead times to a more realistic level. Nobody really wants to wait 6 weeks to get their vises, and we completely understand that. One of our machinists' father passed away last week, and another has suffered a broken ankle. These unforeseen delays are just as frustrating to us as they are to you. Those taking up the slack are working extra time in order to fulfill orders. For those of you at the 6-week mark now, we're hoping to get your vises out by Friday this week. After that, we should start to gain on our lead times. Thanks for being patient.

The Benchmakers Apprentice: Routing the Dog Holes

2011-03-27T13:32:00.001-05:00

Well, today I got out my bench top and decided to make some dog holes. I begin by planing this piece of Ash, which will be the front section of the split top, because our jointer couldn't accommodate the 11+ inches of solid Ash.

After planing the face flat, I jointed the edge and, using the planing machine, planed the piece to thickness.

Here is a left-over piece of ash that will serve the purpose of the dog hole laminate very nicely.

Here is a little layout of what the dog hole should look like after being routed. Below is a top view for your viewing pleasure.

Before just going in and routing out all of that material, I take a saw, or two, and cut down about an eighth away from the entire depth of the router cut and also about an eighth away from the dog hole wall. So, in actuality, the router is cutting very little material, but we're still getting a perfect looking hole.

I put tape on the saw to remind me not to cut too deep.

Now, just taking an old chisel, I break out all that material that we don't need.

Here is the jig I'll be using. Very complex, patented, and covered with A LOT of insurance.

As you can see, after clearing out most of the material, the router won't be doing too much work.

And there you go! A great looking dog hole. Next we just need some dogs to occupy the space.

See you next week!

Tail Vise Dims

2011-03-25T09:47:00.000-05:00

We've received this question countless times in the past. We thought it prudent to finally provide it (sorry for the delay). We're going to add this to the FAQ and instructions so you can plan your bench more effectively. The end dimensions for the rest of the vise are included in the templates/instructions, which you can download here.

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: Installing the Glide Hardware

2011-03-16T17:48:00.001-05:00

The Glide leg vise, a welcome addition to any bench. Not only welcome, but necessary. I begin by finding the apex of the circle on the left side of the hole in the front left leg of the bench. I mark a line from that around to the side.

It's hard to see, but after marking the line in the last picture, I transferred it to the inside of the hole. Then I pushed the chop in all the way, made sure it was parallel, and marked the same line on the chop itself, putting my pencil through the hole and transferring it over.

Now I just carry the line all the way to the other side of the chop and mark for the center.

And, by golly, it lines up!

At this point, I also made a couple long draw-bore pegs for the parallel guide so the chop wouldn't fall out while I tried to fit everything.

On the outside of the chop, I drill a clearance hole about 1/4” deep. There is a washer behind the flange for the vise that will fit in this hole. Then I use a 1-3/8" bit to drill completely through for the screw itself.

You are now witnessing a lack of pictures. I have to apologize, I must have fallen asleep while doing this part. I will just explain it, in English (Sorry, I'll upload an alternative audio track later). Below is just a photo from the Glide Instructions PDF.

After drilling the large center hole, I took the vise wheel and put the screw in the hole, trying to center it as perfectly as possible. Then making sure the flange was completely horizontal, I take a center hole punch and mark for the two holes I'll drill to hold the vise in place.

Now I am drilling for the nut that goes on the reverse side of the leg. I am very serious about my drilling.
It is important to make sure this nut lines up with the center of the hole. If the nut is off center, the screw will be off center, and it will rub and you won't be "Glide"ing the way you want.

On the face of the leg, I routed out this area for the bushing that guides the screw. Here, I am squaring up the corners with a chisel.

Then I simply lined up the bushing in the center of the space, center punched the holes and drilled them.

And... you will have to wait to see the Glide done! See you next week!

The Benchmakers Apprentice: Roller Guides

2011-03-06T22:12:00.001-06:00

So here we are, making a couple roller brackets for the Glide Leg Vise I will be installing. I took a piece of ash I had left over and cut the ends on the band saw as you can see in the picture above.

I should have drilled this hole before cutting into the wood, so to minimize blow-out and/or breakage of the Fraxinus americana I put a small piece in between.

And that isn't looking too bad! After drilling both ends like the one above, I cut the piece in half so I could work on each bracket individually.

A nice fit.

Now these brackets need some slots so that they can be mounted to the bench leg and have some adjustability.

I use a forstner bit for drilling out these slots because forstners won't slip and they usually go where you point them. If only everything was like a forstner bit...

This is the hole for the fastener that holds the wheel shaft in.

Tapping the hole.

La magnifique!

Now those brackets need somewhere to go.

After marking for the holes for the brackets(two for each), I went ahead and counter sunk the holes a bit.

Then I tapped the holes a little bit. Well, actually a lot.

The backbone of the Glide is now done!

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: Preparing the Parallel Guide

2011-02-23T07:59:00.001-06:00

Here we are again, The Benchmaker's Apprentice. This time, I have my parallel guide ready to be drilled. I found the best way to do this is with a divider. Once I had drawn a nice square line across the board in the appropriate place, I simply take my divider and walk down the board, marking each interval for a place to drill. Then I just repeat the process on each 3 layers of holes. It's a flawless technique, and I can't claim it's my idea, unfortunately.

And here we have a complete set of marks for drilling. Now off to the drill press.

I'm not going to drill through on these because I don't want any blow-out on the other side.

I set my depth stop so that the brad-point bit just pokes through the other side. From here I can flip the board over and finish the drilling with blow-out being minimal.

Now I counter-sink the holes so that the guide will look nicer, but this also helps the pin insert easier; so when you're really tired and have to finish a project really fast, you won't have to deal with all that aiming to get the pin in the hole.

Now I am lining up the parallel for the mortise and tenon.

And routing...

After I clean that up, we'll have a nice mortise.

Now just to get that tenon done.

A nice fit is always...nice.

Just finishing up the end of the guide.

Finish.

Benchcrafted Barrel Nuts---You Won't Beleive This

2011-02-15T21:10:00.000-06:00

When we first introduced our Barrel Nuts, we had some hesitation about offering such a fastener at the price point of $40 per set. We've sold a lot of Barrel Nuts-aside from those packaged in our Benchmaker's packages-but we've always wanted to make these great knock-down fasteners more affordable, so you can use them to build all sorts of shop projects, not just bench bases. They are quite versatile, if you let your mind expand beyond the leg-and-rail joint.

Just this week we've discovered a new use for our Barrel Nuts. John is using them to join his end cap to the front top section of his Split-Top Roubo. Normally this wouldn't work with the Barrel Nuts, as they aren't long enough to reach the middle of a 4" thick top. But this top is only 3" thick, so they work perfectly. And it's really easy to install them. Just drill a couple 1" holes. Watch for more details about this in an upcoming The Benchmaker's Apprentice.

Another way we're using Barrel Nuts is to assemble and strengthen a large press we're building. It will basically join a leg to a rail in this configuration. It's just another example of a different way to use this quick fastener.

So now's your chance to come up with an interesting use for Barrel Nuts, or just pick up a set or two for some good old-fashioned knock-down leg-and-rail joints.

That's because we're lowering the price from $40 per set to, get ready, $29! This is not a sale. $29 is the new regular price.

In case you're wondering if we're having these made overseas, the answer is no. And will always be no. They are the same steel nuts, zinc-plated and threaded for 8" long 1/2-13 bolts (included!). And still made right here in the Midwest, U.S. of A.

To order, visit our ordering page.

Daed Toolworks--Big Updates

2011-02-10T18:23:00.000-06:00

We've mentioned Daed Toolworks before. But just today Raney Nelson has posted a big update to his website. Click on the tabs at the top of the page to get lots of info on his offerings, including prices.

I'm a big fan of Raney's work. His planes at WIA last fall were simply amazing performers. Normally I'd say I'd love to have one, but as it turns out, I actually do! And I love it. If fact, I used my Daed Miter to build a backgammon board recently as part of an article I wrote for Popular Woodworking Magazine. The article is about geometric parquetry and inlay, and it should make for at least some good bathroom reading. Here's the outside of the backgammon board with my Daed Miter perched on top. No inlay you say? Well, its on the inside. You'll have to pony up for the magazine to see more. It comes out in the next issue, April.

Tail Vise vs. Planing Stop Redux

2011-02-07T21:28:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I was building a couple small totes for our dining room table. I picked up some really nice vertical grain Douglas fir and thought it would be a nice change from the typical hardwoods I use. As usual I prepped the boards with machinery, then refined them with hand planes. I find this to be the most efficient and accurate way of working.

The wood was planing nicely, so I didn't bother with holding the work in the tail vise. I just used a planing stop for speed and efficiency. Here's another reason you should plane faces of, especially smaller boards using a tail vise and not just a planing stop. As I reached dead flat on the board face, the flatness of my plane's sole, along with the flatness of the wood surface created a vacuum. When I picked up the plane for the return stroke, the workpiece stuck to the plane's sole, held on for a moment, then fell off with the pull of gravity. It bounced off the edge of the bench and onto the floor, making a nice dent in the face of the relatively soft fir.

Score one for the tail vise.

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: Vise Prep & Harware Installation

2011-01-30T13:00:00.002-06:00

Now we are getting into the real important stuff, vises! I marked out the through mortise for my parallel guide on Glide Leg Vise.

Then, I just went over to the mortiser and cut it out.

With the mortiser already set up with some guides and tape marks, I simply flipped the piece over and finished the mortise from the other side.

Then I simply marked out a hole for the bench screw to go. If you can see in the top left corner of this photo, I marked out where my tenon on the leg would go before measuring and drilling this hole. You can also see the repercussions of not marking and measuring first from the odd looking top part of the mortise there... some filling had to be done...maybe?

Now I moved on to get ready to install some bench hardware.

Now I take a square and transfer the center of the bolt all the way to the surface of the board.
Marking the hole for the barrel nut can be tricky. If the hole was just a little bit off, the barrel nut hole can be off by a lot.

I line up my ruler and eyed it so that the ruler was as close to parallel as possible. Looking at the light between the ruler and the bolt, I try to move it so the light is distributed perfectly, that tells me that it is perfectly parallel. Then just mark all the way down the ruler.

Then I marked where the end of my bolt would be.

And, finally, the center of the nut.

Now just to drill that hole.

And we have a perfect fit!

Jeff Miller's New Chairmaking Blog

2011-01-25T13:43:00.001-06:00

For those who follow the Benchcrafted blog, you know that usually attend the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Jeff Miller's shop in Chicago. Sadly, due to some scheduling conflicts we won't be able to make it this year.

Jeff has become a good friend over that past few years, and each time we visit we look forward to trying out Jeff's latest creation.

I personally have been thinking about building some chairs since I finished a large dining table last year. So checking Jeff's new blog (http://furnituremaking.com/wordpress/) will be right at the top of my routine.

Thanks, Jeff for going to the effort in providing this great resource.

If you've never been to Jeff's shop, here's a little video we shot last year.

Garage sale time!

2011-01-18T21:20:00.009-06:00

Well, this isn't exactly the purpose of this blog.....but watcha gonna does?

We've got a couple tech items that need to go and we know some of you are chompin' at the bit to get them :-)

Selling our minty HFS100 Video camera. Complete in the original box. $899+ new.

Extras: includes additional extended genuine Canon BP-827 battery. This is about double the capacity of the stock battery. Easily gets 3 hrs, and often close to 4 hrs of additional record time. These are a ridiculous $116+ new. This one has had very little use.

So that's a total retail $1015.00 on the low end

Will take $725.00 shipped free in CONUS via PayPal personal/gift. Add 3% for regular PayPal.

This is the same camera we've used for all our most recent videos.

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: Drawbore Pins!

2011-01-16T12:56:00.000-06:00

Well, here we are again, drilling more holes in wood. Right here I was marking the holes for where the pins go, the drawbore pins that hold the tenons in and reinforce the hold...A LOT.

Of course, the long rails use knock-down vice hardware, so I marked a hole here for the hole where the bolt inserts.

When drilling these holes, it is a good idea to throw a piece of wood in the mortise space to reduce the chance of blow-out.

So, all of our holes are done. Now all we need are some pins to fill those holes with.

Now here's something really fun! Making pins. I took a piece of ash with the straightest grain I could find and cut it up into pieces that are about 3" long and just over 3/8" square.

Using this simple jig, I took 4-5 passes with a plane on each side.

When done, the result is this octagon shape. If it a hexagon, something's wrong.

Then it's just over to the sander to get one end sanded down to a blunt point.

I just pound it straight through the pin making tool. This is a Lie-Nielsen dowel plate.

I use the next pin to push the other pin through as to not pound the hammer into the dowel plate and ruin it.

After pounding through the plate.

The final count should be sixteen for this bench. I made one or two extra for good measure, and to be politically correct.

The Benchcrafted FAQ-Now Online

2011-01-05T12:01:00.000-06:00

We've spent the last few weeks preparing an extensive FAQ for Benchcrafted products. We get lots of questions about our products that are either not readily available, or are buried in the website or blog.

And sometimes we're a bit backed up on email. Hopefully the new FAQ will get you the info you need more efficiently.

The FAQ link is at the top of list at the right side of the blog.

And in the interest of making this post something other than "totally boring", here are a couple pics (courtesy Jeff Burks) from the Toolmaker's Dinner at last year's WIA Conference. That's me, Ellis Walentine and Frank Klausz talking over Benchcrafted vises. I'll never forget Frank's words about the Glide, "I love this vise!"

Make Your Leg Vise Even Better

2011-01-04T22:13:00.000-06:00

No vise is perfect. There, I said it. Hard as it is to admit, even our vises don't excel in every area, just 99.999% of areas. If someone knows of a vise that does it all, please call me and we'll both patent it, count our $100's in one of those casino-style machines and shove off for the Bahamas in our new yacht.

Until then, here's a great way to make your Glide even more effortless.

A few weeks ago I was working with stock of several various thicknesses. This is where a leg vise isn't so quick. But it's a rare occurrence, one that happens infrequently, and thus, rare. So to make life easier I rooted through my shop junk drawer and remembered that right-to-left self-adhesive flexible rule that I mis-ordered a few years ago. It wasn't worth the shipping to return it, so into the boneyard it went.

I almost always know the thickness of the stock I'm working, so I thought, "why not make life easier by getting some of those numbers onto the parallel guide?"

So I placed the metal ruler onto the top edge of the parallel guide. Now I could position the chop right at the thickness of my stock, and insert the pin in the hole closest to the leg. Perfect! No thinking involved, no trial and error. Dial in the chop, position the pin, spin the wheel and away you go.

The metal ruler wasn't in place for long before I realized I had to do this right. The thing looked cheesy. Plus, it was right-to-left so the numbers were upside down. Dang, even after rescuing the thing its still worthless.

Out came Grandpa's number punch set and the edge of a card scraper. I set in the graduations with a light tap on the scraper after laying out the scale with a pencil. I didn't go nuts here, some of the graduations are a little off. We're not shooting for Starrett tolerances here. The nearest 1/4" is plenty good enough. Darken the incised lines and numbers with a fine-tip Sharpie.

To set the pin, advance the vise until the number corresponding to the thickness of your stock meets the front of the leg. In this case, 1".

Now place your pin in the hole nearest the leg, or the hole just inside the mortise. Both will work, but you'll find what works best with your vise. That's it. No trial-and-error required. Quick, and effortless.

To figure out where to begin laying out the scale on the parallel guide, get a board of a known thickness (1" is a good size, but any thickness will work) and place the pin in the parallel guide for that thickness. Clamp it up to confirm your pin position. If its good, reach down with a pencil and draw a line across the top edge of the parallel guide where it enters the leg. This will be your 1" line on your scale (or 2", or whatever thickness piece you clamped). Now you can layout the rest of the scale from this 1" mark.

Try it. It took me less time to do this than to write this blog post.

Just for the Halibut!

2011-01-04T09:10:00.004-06:00

A bit off topic here but certainly interesting. One of our Mag-Blok dealers (Hocho - covers all of Scandinavia) also happens to be an avid woodworker and spear fisherman. Asger Andersen, pictured here, makes hand built spearguns.

His last mahogany project speared a 10 kg cod and a 27 kg Halibut in Norway this summer. Wow!

The Benchmaker's Apprentice: Cutting Tenons

2011-01-01T00:00:00.001-06:00

Nothing better to start the new year with that cutting tenons!

When you use the table saw to cut your tenons, it is only necessary to mark one piece, of course, because your fence will already be set.

Once all the edges are sawed, I go over to the band saw and cut off the rest of the material. Who the heck is that dufus in the picture?

After a little planing, we have ourselves a fine group of tenons for our bench.

Video: Excavating the V.2 Tail Vise Cavity

2010-12-26T17:03:00.002-06:00

We've just uploaded a new video about excavating the cavity for the V.2 Tail Vise. You might want to have the instructions handy as you watch this. Especially pages 5-6.

Our blog layout doesn't fit widescreen video. Click on the screen shot to view it full-size.

Which Vise First?

2010-12-26T16:51:00.000-06:00

We get this question frequently. You want both vises, but only have the funds for one right now, and you're itching to get started building your bench.

This topic came up recently at the Woodnet Woodworking Hand Tools Forum. A few customers chimed in with some excellent responses, which we're sharing below.

We recommend you purchase the Tail Vise first, and go ahead and prep your leg for a Glide when you build. Adding the Glide later will be much easier than adding the Tail Vise. And if you never end up with a Glide, the holes in the leg can be used for a basic leg vise, or just left alone if you end up with an iron face vise or a twin screw.

Question: "Would you pick the leg vise or tail vise if you could only get one? I have two vintage end vises and could put one where the leg vise would go or one with a built in dog on the end where the tail vise would go. I'm going to make a new bench top and want to incorporate one of them but can't decide. It seems like the tail wise would be harder to install at a later date so that's the way I'm leaning, but would like some input from those that have both. Which could you live without?"

Answers:

"Hmmm....that's a tough one. Suppose it would mainly hinge on what kind of work you do, and what you would use if you didn't have the benchcrafted vises. I like your logic in regard to difficulty of installation at a later date, that makes sense. If you have a good substitute for the leg vise, then I would agree with your choice. "

"I'd go with the tail vise...a basic leg vise is pretty easy to make. You'll get more mileage out of the quality tail vise given only one or the other, I think."

"If you're only buying one at a time, I'd also vote Tail Vise first. I find in use I probably utilize a tail vise 75% of the time, and the face vise 25%, so I'd put the money where it will see more use."

"I have both and I would recommend the tail vise first as well. The installation is more complicated and the tail vise gets used more. A very very small amount of force generates a lot of torque in the screw. If you do go with the tail vise you will need a 4" top or something very close to it to give the handle clearance. By the way, I made square dog holes. I talked to Jameel about this at the time cause I didn't know the pros/cons of square/round dogs. I was used to round holes but I really like the square holes better. Square dogs require a bit more forethought when doing the top but I think they are worth it."

"I use my Benchcrafted tail vise just about constantly. I plane long grain, trim tenons, hold the shooting board, hold the honing station, hold the miter box, and a dozen other things. It's so fast and positive. I just used it to press in awl blades and press on ferrules, too."