Travel Bench Part 3

After cutting the mortises in the legs I cut the tenons on the ends of the rails and fit them all. I like to use a tenoning jig on the table saw for milling large tenons. But I always cut them a tad thick then fit them by hand with a shoulder plane. This gives me the exact fit I want without having to fuss with precise settings on power equipment. It takes about the same amount of time, but I'd much rather spend that time working at the bench than feeding workpieces through a machine. This bench is 24" shorter than my Roubo. The final length will be 72". The base is also trimmed down a bit to save on weight. The legs are 3" x 5-1/8". The legs on my Roubo are 5-3/8" square.

Travel Bench Part 2

Mortising the legs on my Jet benchtop mortiser requires some slight modifications to get the 5-1/8" wide legs under the chisel. The maximum capacity with the head raised to it's limit is somewhere around 4-3/4" with a 1/2" chisel installed. The first thing I did was remove the mdf table that's screwed to the mortiser's base. I've already removed it in this picture--the bench leg is resting directly on the casting.



I also removed the roll pin at the top of the column. This allows the head to raise up enough to get the workpiece under the chisel. I also disengaged the hydraulic shock which keeps the head in a raised position. It was also limiting the upward movement of the head. I did have to be aware of the weight of the head while doing this operation, since the head would not stay in the raised position after finishing a mortise, but rather bottom out at the depth rod setting.



Finally, the leg was too thick to allow the hold-down to engage its rod. Flipping the hold down over solved the problem.

Travel Bench Part 1

It doesn't take a bench to build a bench, but building a bench on a nice bench is nice.

My Roubo bench is coming in quite handy for building Benchcrafted's travel bench. Having a massive, flat surface with huge clamping capabilities and lots of real estate makes for almost effortless work.

This bench will be made from soft maple. I wouldn't necessarily choose this wood for a longish Roubo top, where the stiffness of the top is of great importance (due to the lack of upper rails). But for smaller Roubo-style tops which don't need to bridge such a large span, this wood is ideal. It's plenty stiff enough actually for most benches. According to Chris Schwarz's book on workbenches, it's stiffer than European Beech, a common bench wood. It's a creamy white color if you select out some of the browner boards (I didn't bother), and it's about as hard as cherry. It also works very easily, a bit easier than mild-grained cherry. It's nothing like it's rock-hard cousin Hard Maple. It's an excellent wood for bench building. And the price (I paid less than $2 a board foot for skip-planed and straight-lined 8/4 s&b) in my area is right.

Sneak Preview! and Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events

No, we're not building miniature woodworking vises.

That's actually our Tail Vise on the left. And on the right? Well, you'll just have to check back in a few weeks to find out!

You can also stop by Jeff Miller Handcrafted Furniture in Chicago on May 1 and 2 if you're in the area. We'll be participating in a Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Miller's shop that weekend.

For more info, bookmark this page: Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events

We'll post more specific info as the date gets closer.

One more thing. We'll have a brand new bench on site outfitted with our vises.

Unboxing

Matt Vanderlist, of Matt's Basement Workshop Podcast and Woodtalk Online sent us this link for Shannon Roger's video podcast of him unboxing his Benchcrafted Tail Vise. We think it's worth a look. Thanks Matt and Shannon!

Unboxing the Benchcrafted Tail Vise

Wagon Vises At Work

Last fall we debuted the Benchcrafted Tail Vise.

Since then we've shipped vises to everyone from beginning woodworkers building their first bench, to woodworking schools and seasoned professionals. We received glowing reviews from the likes of Chris Schwarz of Popular Woodworking (check out his review here) who put one in his own Roubo bench (the very bench that started a huge rebirth of this bench style), and infill plane maker Ron Brese of Brese Plane.

After a few months, the Benchcrafted Tail Vise is starting to pop up in benches across the country and around the world (yes, our tail vise has gone as far as Japan!).

One such place to see one of our vises at work is the Renaissance Woodworker blog, written by Shannon Rogers of Rogers Fine Woodworking. Shannon is building a Roubo bench featuring our tail vise. (that's one of his massive Ash bench legs above). We're looking forward to seeing Shannon's completed bench.

We've put out a call for submissions for vise customers' bench projects. Please send us pictures and commentary, blog or forum posts about your project featuring the Benchcrafted Tail Vise. Every submission gets a 10% discount on your next order. And that includes vises.

Woodworking in America 2009

The first of two Woodworking in America Conferences for 2009 has been announced. The first conference will focus on furniture construction and design and the second one, later in the year will focus on technique.

The good news for tool makers (and tool junkies like us!) is that there will be a marketplace at both events, giving attendees the opportunity to see some of the best hand tool manufacturers and their wares in one location. If the turnout at last year's event is any indication, this year's events should be even more amazing, with even more makers present. We know of at least one relatively new company that plans to exhibit. Yes, Benchcrafted is hoping to make it to both conferences this year. And hopefully with new products to offer!

We're excited!

Vise Orders on the fly!

For those of you watching, waiting and eagerly anticipating; another good size batch went out the door today. We are now officially ahead of schedule.

Amazing how many of these are going to Europe and beyond. Japan even has one or two floating around!

Benchcrafted ads that didn't fly....

A little humor is all we need. From the vault (way deep back in the corner), here are a few of our failed banner ads that never got off the ground.

Whew..........disaster averted!

Well, it took us about an hour but we got the new servers up and the site is running smoothly again. Thanks go out to IBM for this great equipment. IMSAI, we'll miss you.