Building The La Forge Royale Miter Jack- Part 2

This morning I cut the assembled body to final length and laid out the final width as well as the main 45 degree chamfer. I won't cut the waste sections off until later.

I took the jaw blank out of the clamps and four squared it. I milled it to 4-13/16" wide (the width of the wider, fixed jaw) by 5-9/16" tall. Don't confuse the nut block in the drawing above for the jaws. I didn't include the jaws in this drawing. I then sawed the blank in half at 45 degrees on the band saw. Each jaw is overlength by an inch or so. I'll cut them to final size after all the joinery is done and the vise is working smoothly.

To install the garter you'll need to make a small drilling block. But first you'll need to find the location of the groove pin which holds the ferrule and garter pin in place.

The garter must be somewhat loose on the garter pin so the screw is free to turn easily. To achieve that loose fit, we need to position the groove pin in the right place.

Cut a shim that's about 20 thousands thick. I made mine from a double layer of paper cut from a file folder. Place this shim between the garter and the garter pin.

With the ferrule on the screw's tenon, press the garter and garter pin flat to the end of the screw.

Using a transfer punch (or a 3/16" bradpoint bit) insert it into the hole in the garter pin and mark the brass ferrule. Don't tap it with a hammer, just press by hand. The soft brass will mark easily.

 Remove the garter pin and set a marking gauge so the scribe touches the mark you made.

Get a scrap of wood that's true. The size is not important. Just make sure its about 1/2" wider than the length of the screw's tenon. Using the marking gauge, scribe a line across the top of the block. I'm pinching the end grain here with my left hand. I'm darkening the scribe line with a pencil. This is the location of the 3/16" cross hole.

Reset your marking gauge for exactly twice the previous setting and scribe another line parallel to the previous one. This will be the depth of the hole the screw's tenon fits into.

Now scribe a center line perpendicular to the other lines in the middle of the block (it doesn't have to be exactly in the middle) and carry the line down the front of the block.

Now scribe a line 5/8" up from the bottom of the block on the front side and draw a 1" circle where it intersects. This is the hole for the screw's tenon.

Where the center line intersects the line on the top of the block you'll drill a 3/16" hole.

If you have a 15/16" forstner bit, mount it in your drill press. A brace and bit works too. Otherwise, use a 1" bit. Set your depth stop so the bit stops at the second scribe line on the top of the block.

Now flip the block so the top is up. Using a brad point bit, drill the 3/16" hole until you feel it break through into the larger hole.

If you drilled a 1" hole, you'll need to wrap some masking tape around the ferrule to take up the slack. Put enough layers so it fits snugly into the hole.

Hold the screw firmly into the drilling block with a clamp and drill the 3/16" hole through the guide block, ferrule and screw tenon. Use a regular twist bit, and use a sharp one.

Assemble the components and see how they all line up. The cross hole in the ferrule, screw tenon and garter pin should all line up, with about 20 thousandths play about the garter.

To test fit the groove pin in the garter pin, cut the drilling block in half and use it to support the end of the screw. Do this without the garter in place, then remove the pin. Later, when the vise is totally finished, you'll install the garter after the screw is threaded through the nut block.See video below.

If you've messed up somewhere and the garter is too tight, you can file and/or sand the end of the ferrule and tenon to loosen up the fit. If the fit is too loose or sloppy, you may be able to place a washer on the garter pin's shaft between the head of the pin and the garter. This will get buried in the moving jaw, so you'll never see it.

Next, lay out the joinery on the nut block. The tenons on the original are 7/16" wide, but if your tooling is happier with 1/2" feel free to use that. I'm trying to make mine as close to the original as possible, so I'm using 7/16". The grain here is running vertically. The threaded portion of the nut should be facing in. You'll also note that the nut block is a bit oversized in length and width, but not in thickness.

Also lay out the grooves for the runners on the top of the body and the end.

I cut the tenons on the nut block with machines and by hand. The cheeks were cut on the bandsaw. I cut the majority of the waste between the tenons freehand, getting as close to my scribed shoulder line as I dared. 

The shoulders are chopped with a chisel placed directly in the scribe line.  On the outside shoulders I only chop down one blow, then turn the block and repeat on the adjacent face. It's nearly impossible to chop flat to two adjacent surfaces, even with scribe lines. So I use this method.

Once I've chopped down on all three sides I mount the workpiece vertically in a high vise which places the work at chest height where I can use my paring chisel to shave the remaining waste flat to the chopped areas.

I can exert lots of controlled pressure using my high vise. It's awesome. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

The trick to paring waste like this is to take small bites with the edge of the chisel. I do about half the waste, then start from the opposite side to balance wear on the tool.

Here's the video on drilling the ferrule and tenon.

Building The La Forge Royale Miter Jack- Part 1

When I build, I use a simple principle. I keep parts as large as possible, for as long as possible. I only make cuts or plane surfaces that are essential to the task at hand. This accomplishes two things. It gives you the opportunity to correct small errors, and it prevents you from making errors by keeping your mind focused on simple, individual tasks. This is especially important when building something for the first time. As this is the first miter jack I've built using this design, be warned that I have not had a trial run. I'm as green as you are if you're building along.

First thing is to mill the stock for the base, which finishes out at 1-15/16" thick. If you choose good straight stock, and tell your yard not to hit or miss it (skip plane), you can likely get that thickness from 8/4 stock. If not, you'll need to laminate, or use 9/4 stock at least. I began with 12/4 hard maple, and sawed about 3/4" off the thickness (each face) before milling it to 1-15/16". I did not have access to quartered stock, but if you do, definitely use it. It will make the base very stable.

After milling, layout the large rabbets on the spacer stock and the two body sections. If you use a table saw to cut the rabbets, you only need to layout on one end of each board.

The rabbets are 13/16" wide and 31/32" deep. The latter dimension centers the rabbet on the stock's thickness. Note that the spacer stock is milled to final width, and is the full length of the other body pieces. More on that later. The two body pieces have not been milled to final width.

If you use machinery, the table saw excels for cutting the rabbets. With only four to cut, I didn't bother mounting a dado set. I like the more controlled results I get with the two cut method anyway. Especially with these very large rabbets in hard maple.

It's best to cut the rabbets a tad small, then dial them in with a shoulder plane. If you do this, make absolutely sure your iron is set parallel to the sole. It's all too easy to go past 90 degrees, even with just a couple strokes. The trick to using a shoulder plane in this situation is to take as much of yourself out of the equation as possible. Use your leading hand to firmly press the toe of the plane directly into the rabbet's corner. Now use your other hand and push forward only. Don't grab the plane with this other hand, your leading hand is the steering wheel, and your other hand is the gas pedal. If your iron is sharp (it better be) the plane will jig itself into the rabbet and make it dead square with successive passes. I like to take many light passes with a rabbet plane. It may be slower, but I can be extremely precise.

Here you can see that I've got to take a couple passes either on the top edge of the spacer stock, or on the side of the rabbet in the body section. I took a couple passes on the spacer stock with a bench plane to get the fit right.

A good fit on all three surfaces. It's not entirely necessary that you nail a certain dimension here. So if you need to make the spacer a little narrower to get a sweet fit, do so. Good joinery is more important than an arbitrary number.

With the spacer stock in place, mark for the final length of the body, and for the length of the two spacer piece at each end. There's a minor mistake in the Sketchup drawing. The spacer blocks are both 3-1/4" long, but in the original jack the spacer block on the nut block end is 3" long. It won't affect anything on the vise, so I'm leaving the SU drawing as-is. I did mark my nut-end block at 3".

Next, cut the spacer blocks from the piece, but only cut the inside end. Leave them long for now, like the body pieces. You will cut them to final length after gluing them to the body pieces. You will want to sand the ends of the spacer blocks now, before glue up.

The remainder of the spacer stock will get used for the jaw spacers and retaining blocks.

Glue up the base assembly, carefully aligning the inside ends of the spacer blocks with the marks on the body sections. The ends won't necessarily be flush, since all pieces are over length. I made two special cauls with relieved mid sections so I could draw up the spacer blocks tight into the rabbets. Make sure when you apply glue that you glue not only the rabbet in the spacer blocks, but also the lower edge that fits into the rabbet on the body pieces. I realized a few minutes after they were in the clamps that I had only glued the rabbet in the spacer blocks. I'm not worried about the strength, since these blocks don't see a whole lot of stress. The splines at the end will help reinforce as well. Still, don't make my mistake.

The jaws are glued up from 12/4 stock, or thinner if you need to. The original is finger jointed. Feel free to do this if you like the look. I'm not convinced it adds any strength if you can make a great glue joint.

A Case For Sharp Tools

If there's one single thing that can make or break your quest to better your work, it is, without a doubt, sharpness.

Several years ago I moved from making furniture to musical instruments and it completely changed the way I work wood. If you're stuck in a rut and making typical Shaker or Craftsman-style pieces (and I make both, and like both) I suggest you step back, buy a guitar kit and prepare yourself to become a Jedi-master of woodworking.



Here's one thing luthiery did for me. It taught me why tack sharp is the deciding factor in doing exacting work in all woods, and how less than tack sharp doesn't just mean tearout, but likely complete destruction of your work. A rough spot on a table top is child's play compared to tearout in a piece that's only 1/32" thick to begin with. You don't scrape that out. You scrap it out.


But this isn't about sharpening. It's more about the workmanship of risk. Do you build things for completely practical purposes? Or do you build for that intangible sense of creative satisfaction? If more the latter than the former, you should try upping the ante in your work. I don't build like this all the time. It's too much for me. But every now and then I return to this type of work to fertilize the rest of my woodworking. Taking on an intense project has lots of carryover. It will feed simpler work, sometimes for years. It simultaneously drives me mad while depositing loads into the satisfaction bank.

Now, as long as the bank doesn't burn down before I can make my withdrawal.

Building The La Forge Royale Miter Jack - Body Dims

Today we were busy packing up Miter Jack kits and printing out postage labels for the many that have pre-ordered. We're scrambling to get as many shipped as soon as possible. Some of you may receive them before Christmas, but most won't. We're sorry we didn't hit that target, but we think the quality of the kit will make up for it. I admired every nut block that I packed today, and was simply awestruck by the quality of the material. All nearly dead quartered, dead clear, straight. This maple looks like it was extruded at the Silly Putty factory. It's beautiful. There are even a few curly blocks in the mix. I got tempted to single out one of these for my personal vise, but I resisted (you're welcome.)

So this evening, long after its safe to do real work, I sit at my computer and figure out how to get the Sketchup drawing out to the shop. I don't like to keep a computer in there because of dust, so its over to Layout to make some measured drawings. You can make your own from the Sketchup drawing using the tape measure tool, but I figured since I'm making these for myself, I might as well post them.

I'm not including every dimension on these prints. Some you'll have to interpolate. But all the info necessary is there. This is also just the info I need to start milling wood. No more. I will post instructions for how I mill the components as I build them, including photos.

If you want to rough down your stock now, you'll see that the final thickness of the body is 1 15/16". That's going to be a trick to squeeze from typical 8/4 stock. So use your own judgement. I'll say that you can go a bit thinner, but you'll have to adjust for the discrepancy as you go along. I'll be building to the print. I have 12/4 maple for this project, so I'll be able to easily hit 1-15/16. You can also laminate to get the necessary thickness. And if you use quartersawn boards, which are easier to find in thinner dimensions, your base will be ultra stable. Mill all the components to 1 15/16", and don't cut the spacers to length yet (mill the stock for them at least 12" long, and you'll have enough to make three.) Make the front body section about 1/8" over width at 3-3/4" wide, the spacer stock on size at 2-19/32" and the rear body section also about 1/8" over width at 2-13/16" The body will get cut to final width later, after the spline grooves are milled. This will help remove any blowout from the groove cutting operation, and allow you to dial in the final width exactly. Do not cut the 45 degree bevel at the front, but keep it square for now.

Miter Jacks - Just About There

Today we received the wood components for the La Forge Royale Miter Jack Kits from Nick Dombrowski of Lake Erie Toolworks, who machined the hard maple screws and nuts to machinist tolerances.

We're again floored by Nick's work. It is simply flawless. Nick nailed the fitment of our machined metal parts with the screw's tenon. We didn't check every screw, but on the first one we grabbed, the ferrule slid on with no play and snugged up at the last 1/4", dead flush with the end of the ferrule. Sweet. The garter pin slid into place perfectly. The fresh brass, steel, and maple are going to make a gorgeous vise.

We sourced the stock for the kits from our good friend Pete Terbovich of Horizon Wood Products and boy did he deliver. The nut blocks are cut from prime quartersawn 10/4 hard maple.

Tomorrow morning we hit the road to pick up the last couple bits for the kits, and then we'll get busy packing these for shipment. We're still fiddling with branding for these, so Christmas delivery is quite likely not going to happen (sorry!) We expect to have these ready to ship very soon though.

To remind, we're only making 100 of these. Actually, 99, since we'll use one kit to do a series of blog posts on making the miter jack start to finish. If you're planning to build one, you should source your maple now and get it roughed down so you can start building when the parts arrive. Get the Sketchup drawing here.

We still have a few kits available. If you'd like to order, click here.

Holdfasts: Still a few left

SOLD OUT

We've still got a few holdfasts available from the last batch. If you order now, you'll likely get it in time to put it under the tree.

These are not available on our website, but only via email.

More info here: http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-benchcrafted-hand-forged-holdfast.html

Benchcrafted's Book Of Plates Now Available

Earlier today we received the first and only shipment of our new publication "The Book of Plates, Connoisseur Edition." It was delivered in a Bugatti Veyron, Sang Noir Edition by the mayor of Shueyville, IA.

What is this book you might ask? Well, it's a reprint of Roubo's original work, "l'Art du Menuisier". We went back in time to Paris, to when I was 3 years old in Iowa, and asked Leonce Laget in Paris to give a copy to his son Jacques in Paris, and then sign it and ship it to us, from Paris, in Iowa in 2011. That all really happened, well, except for the time travel part. I do have a flux capacitor though. And it lets me sweat copper joints like there's no tomorrow (literally.)

So why would you buy our version the Book of Plates instead of the one by the Lost Art Press? A few good reasons.

1. Our's comes with words. French ones. The Lost Art Press version is pictures only. That's fine if you is illiterate. Or have the patience of a 16-year old. Or you like to use Twitter.

2. Our's is almost a foot thick. The Lost Art Press version is only 1-3/4" thick. Schwarz calls this "a sizable chunk." I'd like to see Schwarz tell that to Jack Palance.

3. You have to store our's flat. Our's is so huge you can't stand it up on edge, like the puny LAP version. That one stands at attention, like a skinny soldier waiting for orders. Our's loafs around on its own dedicated bookshelf and gives orders.

4. Ours smells musty. Like something old, but good, and vintage too (but definitely not hipster, oh no) The Schwarz version smells like pansy-banana soy ink.

5. Our's is actually printed on a press. The Lost Art Press version was made with a Mac Book Air, tethered to an Apple Newton, on top a coffee table in a (flat screen tv-less!) living room, while Schwarz sipped warm Schlitz through a straw from a red Solo cup.

6. Our's costs ten times as much as the LAP version. Sure, you could have ten copies of Schwarz's version, but that's because it's 1/10 of what our version is. Our is ten times better, literally. Yeah, its pretty much the same, but still, its ten times (10x) better. It just is.

7. Our comes with a dust jacket. LAP doesn't even give you a wooden box. Neither do we, but our's does have a dust jacket, with Plate 11 on it. Three times.

8. Our's is in French. That's awesome-ique. The LAP version isn't even in English, because it's so lame IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE WORDS (see #1)

9. Our's actually does come in a wooden box. (see picture above) We built a special marquetry cabinet embellished with Roubo's engravings just for this book. LAP gives you cardboard. I've never seen good marquetry done on cardboard before.

Satisfied? Contact me if you'd like to buy the one and only Benchcrafted Book Of Plates.

Seriously, this is still available. For more (totally honest) info on our copy of "l'Art du Menuisier" see here.

Also, needless to say, everything about LAP's Book of Plates (which is incredible) was offered tongue-in-cheek. I personally buy everything LAP produces. Well, except for the hoodie. I quit wearing those when I hung up my parachute pants for the last time. But the books are good! The best!

Don't Crochet With Your Leg Vise

We get this question a lot.

"Chris Schwarz put a crochet and a leg vise on his first Roubo bench, why don't you include one in your plans?"

Chris' first bench was largely an experiment. He built it to prove out Roubo's design in a modern setting. The rest as they say, is history. We were of course influenced by Chris' work, but our bench is Plate 11 at its core. In "L'Art du Menuisier" we don't have an illustration of the bench with the leg vise installed (discounting pl. 279--which incidentally has no crochet), but only close-ups of the leg vise in Plate 11. Roubo doesn't specifically say that benches with leg vises shouldn't have a crochet. But he does specifically mention the superiority of the leg vise for furniture makers. So we put two and two together and didn't include a crochet in our plans. If you do some research you'll find that anyone who's used a crochet, then a leg vise, never goes back to using the crochet (Schwarz included.)

To boil it down, don't include a crochet if you're planning to install a leg vise. There are reasons why it would not only be superfluous, but also a disadvantage. A crochet reduces the capacity of the bench (see pic above).

Although Roubo doesn't show a bench sans crochet, there are plenty of French shops with Plate 11-style benches with leg vises and no crochet.