Travel Bench Part 8

Can't really hold a 6' board vertically, so I had to come up with a quick and easy way of cutting the tails for the front laminate. An angled sliding fence was the answer.









To cut the other angle I just moved the jig's stop block to the other end of the fence.



I cut the shoulders on a table saw crosscut sled and finished up with a backsaw.



I rabbeted the tails so I had a nice shoulder for laying out the pins. I used a router with offset base for this.



I clamped the front laminate into position and checked the width of the slot for parallel.



Then marked the end cap to length.



After cutting the end cap to length clamped a scrap the same thickness as the tails between the dog hole strip and the front laminate and positioned everything for marking the pins.



I scribed lightly all around the tails.





I routed out most of the waste.



Then pared the rest.



The fit was decent, but I did have to glue in some thin wedges at the end grain to make it cosmetically attractive.





I laid out the end template on the end cap and marked the center points for the flange screws and clearance hole for the vise screw.



I drilled them out on the drill press.



I mount the screw to the end cap with regular nuts (not the nylon lock nuts that are provided with the vise) for quick removal, and check the rough alignment. I also make sure the sliding plate assembly completely clears the cavity its entire length. Looks good. At this point I removed the end cap and glued the front portion of the tenon, then reinstalled the end cap permanently with lock nuts. I then glued the front laminate in place, gluing the dovetails to the end cap.



Once the top is completely assembled I begin the vise installation. I lay the rails on the bench bottom and check for a little side-to-side play in the plate. I don't want it to bind. I then mark the location of the rails with a sharp pencil. I like to position the rails so the first screw falls in the end cap. This makes for a strong connection. The first screw in the front rail also falls in the dovetail, further locking this joint together.



This is the left hand vise.



I route the mortises for the guide rails. My top is right at 4", so the mortise is 1/4" deep.



I remount the screw and test the action. It's smooth. Sometimes the guides are out of parallel in the horizontal plane if the router didn't cut a consistent depth, or dust or chips get trapped. Cleaning out the mortise is the solution, or adding some thin paper shims.



With the plate about half way down the cavity, I can lift up and slide out the guide rails without having to remove the screw.



Once everything looks good I marked for pilot holes with a center punch directly through the guide rails, then mounted the vise.



The tops are virtually complete.

Travel Bench Part 7

Here's a view of the vise end of the tops with the cavity complete.



This is the cavity for the "lefty" side of the bench.



These are the two end caps showing the layout for the mortise. The mortise is curved on one end to match the cavity profile on the top's tenon. The mortise is about 3/16" longer than the tenon, at the square end (the back edge of the top) to allow the top to move. I milled the mortise with a plunge router and fence. The mortise about 1/16" deeper than the length of the tenon to allow the end cap to seat nicely on the tenon shoulder.



Testing the fit of the end cap.



Good fit. The end cap has not been cut to length yet.



It's important that the shoulder on the show side be tight. I don't worry about the shoulder fitting perfectly on the bottom. It should seat against the top nicely, but cosmetic issues are not important underneath.



Both end caps fit to their tops.



Here I'm placing the front laminate in position, fitting it to the dog hole strip, and preparing for laying out the dovetails that join the front laminate to the end cap.



Before cutting the dovetails on the front laminate I drilled for the bolt and captive nut that joins the end cap to the top. The holes in the endcap are a bit oversized to allow the top to move. I used 3/8" x 5" bolts. I also counterbored for decorative plugs that will cover the bolt heads.



View of the underside of the top showing the mortises for the captive nuts.



With both end caps bolted in place I began the layout for the dovetails. The joint between the dog hole strip and the front laminate has already been fit. I slide the end of the front laminate into the inside face of the end cap and after making sure the slot for the dog block is parallel, I mark the end cap for length.



I lay out the dovetails on the end of the front laminate.



Here's the joint compared to the original on my Ash Roubo bench. The dimensions are the same.



I've seen some bench end caps and vises with really skinny half-pins at the top of the joint. Some tapering to as thin as 1/8". I like the look of skinny pins, but I never understood why on a bench. Leaving only 1/8" of material here means that less than 1/8" of an inch can be removed from the top of the bench before compromising this joint. I prefer to leave more material here for this reason. This is about 5/8".

Travel Bench Part 6

I proceeded to lay out and cut the tenons on the vise end of the two top sections. The sections are narrow enough that I can cut the shoulder and kerf away most of the waste on a 10" sliding miter saw.



The saw doesn't get all of it, and I break off the thin sections that remain. Here I've clamped a straight piece of Baltic Birch plywood as a guide for my router. It's just proud of the shoulder, since I don't want to route the shoulder away at all.



The large diameter pattern bit cleans the tenon. I do this from both sides so the tenon is centered on the top.



I refine the shoulder with a shoulder plane.



I used a backsaw to cut the end of the tenon away at the back edge of the top and refined the surface with the same shoulder plane.



Here are both top sections in position, with the stock for the end caps lying on top. Each section will receive a Benchcrafted Tail Vise, a standard vise for the left section, and a left-hand vise for the right section.



Here's a shot of the left hand section (it will get a standard, right-hand vise). The end cap and final front laminate are not shown. I'm ready to lay out the cavity for the vise.



Since I'm using a breadboard endcap, I can't simply fix the template to the flat endgrain of the top. So I cut the template into three pieces and glue (with 3m super 77) each piece to the shoulders and the end of the tenon on each top section. This tells me exactly what I need to route away. Here you can see the right hand vise on the left, and the left hand vise on the right.



The end of the left top section. This is a typical installation of a standard vise. You can see my template doesn't extend completely down to the bottom of the top. That's because my top is about 4-1/16" thick at this point. I like to leave a little room for flattening after the top is complete.



This is my set up for routing the cavity. I've flipped the top upside down and clamped the front laminate into position, placing a spacer in the "slot" the same width as the dog hole strip. This guarantees that the front laminate is parallel to the slot. This is important because the router fence registers off the front laminate. And the cavity, slot, and front laminate all need to be parallel.



Here I've added a filler block to the top of the breadboard tenon to support the router base past the end of the top. I've also begun routing the cavity with a 1/2" straight bit. I'm just about to the maximum depth that this bit will allow. The curved part of the cavity must be cut with small bites, adjusting the fence and depth in about 1/8" increments in order to waste away as much material as possible without leaving too many "steps" to level after routing.



After I reach final depth with the main bit, I switch over to a very long straight bit so I can reach to the bottom of the cavity--about 3". I take very small bites here (about 1/8 x 1/4) since I don't want to stress this long bit. This is a Whiteside #1073.



Here I've nibbled away most of the cavity, adjusting the router in about 1/8" increments. The finer the adjustment, the smoother the cavity will be, but it will take more passes. All that remains are the steps left from the bit. I've also removed the spacer and front laminate in the picture.



End view of the cavity. The end of the cavity where it meets the top needs to be cleaned up.



Here I've flipped the top up onto its back. I cleaned up the steps in the cavity with a #3 sweep carving gouge. I removed material until the steps were mostly gone. This surface doesn't need to be pretty or feel smooth, it just needs to be out of the way of the vise's sliding plate assembly. I've also cleaned up the end of the cavity. I titled router a couple times during the process and made some blips in the endgrain at the end of the cavity. Once the vise is installed this area won't be very visible. I'm most likely cover this entire area with leather anyway, just so it looks nice.

The next post will cover the breadboard endcap joinery and the front laminate dovetails.