In Cincinnati Next Week

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

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

Omega-3 Fatty Acid For Your Cast Iron!

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

More Wood Whisperer Bench Build Info

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

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

"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

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

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

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!