Time for a new bench (dog holes)

[AndyT]

That's a well used bench!

I spy an interesting mix of old tools (those moulding planes in the pigeon holes at the end) and shiny new ones.

Is it in a National Trust property? Is it going to be properly conserved?

 

[Alasdair]

There is a few old tools, newer tools and crap (like the electric sharpener that a friend picked up at a pertol station for £3, dont waste your money). Not as interesting as it was 35 years ago when i was serving my apprenticeship, the machinery was 2nd hand (bought in 1926) and had been converted to electricity to run the lineshafts and pulleys.

The property I am on is a National Trust for Scotland property which a tree fell through last year, we have been here best part of 10 months on and off stabalising teh structure, protecting it from teh elements and preparing it for the restoration which we are hoping to start by mid March. If the Trust give me permission I will try and post some of the works.

Sorry Mike, dont want to steal your thread.

 

[Mike G]

....Sorry Mike, dont want to steal your thread.

Not at all. My bench is done, so the conversation can just run on naturally. That old bench looks just wonderful, and I like the brick floor. For some reason I thought that was just a southern English thing, and that from the Midlands north stone predominates.

 

[Alasdair]

This is a West of Scotland floor, no idea why they did it like this however the building was originally designed and built as a joinery workshop around 1900. It was originally ground and first floor with timber storage in the loft, the rear wall and around 2 thirds of the side walls are buried as it is built into a hill (you would walk out the upper floor into the garden behind). I assume the bricks were to provide a hardwearing floor that could cope with the dampness caused by the hillside. Funnily enough I have worked in shops with concrete floors and (as anyone who has worked for periods on concrete will testify) had painful feet and calves after a while but that is not the same working on the brick where I would work all day with no adverse affects.

 

[Mike G]

If your bricks are laid the way they are around here, then they would be on sand. This is probably a bit more forgiving than concrete, no doubt.......although my workshop floor is concrete and I have no issues with it at all.

 

[Mike G]

As a very minor aside, I decided not to re-use my old adjustable planing stop:



Most of the time it is nothing but a dust-and-shavings trap, and it doesn't do it's job perfectly anyway, in that it allows side-to-side movement of the workpiece. I made this instead:







The little backstop "batten" is 4mm thick, so that's my minimum thickness of material at the moment. If I needed to plane anything thinner I could punch the pin heads in a little and plane it down a bit. It works really well, and saves me chopping a big hole in my benchtop.

 

[PAC1]

Mike, I like the thin planning jig (and might copy it) I would not trust myself with those 3 screws. If the edge is governed by a 4mm batten which as you say limits the minimum depth of stock, why not put a 4mm end stop on and do away with the screws?

 

[Mike G]

Fair point, Peter, although I might well slim that down one day if necessary and a 2 or 3mm high stop might not last very long. The screws are countersunk below the level of the base board, so should be safe. Frankly, it's one of those quick jigs which I threw together without an awful lot of thought. You know the type: 10 minutes of work and they last for decades, whereas the ones you put thought and effort into get destroyed or lost in no time flat.

 

[Mike G]

In line with suggestions, I have held off drilling dog holes until I needed them, so as I could see what the issues were and where they might be best placed. Anyway, I had an awkward cupboard door to plane today, so I drilled a few holes to help. Firstly, some in the apron and legs:





And then one in the top, where a pair of dogs can now act as a stop. In this case, the vice has a dog in it too to clamp the workpiece in place whilst I clean up the joints: