Well the separate paths of motivation and free time finally merged today for a couple of hours, and I was able to get my jack plane out and get busy!
I am about 3/4 of the way through “Phase 1″ which involves getting the whole top flattish. Then I’ll drop it back down (you may be able to see it’s “up on blocks” (literally) to keep the top clear of the leg tenons) and see how level it is. If it’s pretty close to level, then I’ll smooth it up! If it’s much off (it was almost 1/4″ high in some places!) then I’ll get back to work on “Phase 2″ and reassess.
Hope to do some more tomorrow!
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7 comments
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October 29, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Boo
Welcome back! …. Looking forward to more posts.
October 29, 2011 at 11:34 pm
Seamus
Boo Yeah!
November 1, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Torch02
How big are those legs – 6×6? They look massive!
November 1, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Gregg
Chris,
This blog on flattening your bench reminds me of an article I would love to see along the lines of:
“How do you get flat, straight and square, if you don’t have flat, straight and square?”
Everyone knows you can start out by buying a machined engineer’s square and straightedges all accurate to a zillionth of an inch, and use those to bootstrap to a flat bench, a flat wooden plane sole and then flat square straight furniture components.
But what if you didn’t have the super-accurate squares and edges to begin with? What if you were in the middle of the woods and had nothing but some basic handtools? What if you were starting out 200 years ago?
How does one proceed?
You want to end up with winding sticks, straight edges and squares, but you have none of those.
I’d love to know the history and methodology of getting flat, straight and square.
Thanks
Gregg
November 2, 2011 at 9:30 am
Eric
@Torch02: Yeah, something like that. The legs are 8 laminated 1x6s. They are probably my favorite part of the bench.
@Gregg: Once I figure out how to get something flat, straight, OR square (any of those!) I’ll let you know. LOL…but that’s a great question.
November 12, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Workbench Eve « Adventures in Woodworking
[...] from May to October because I dreaded the flattening and leveling that I needed to do. Once I got over that hump, I made ginormous strides in no [...]
November 16, 2011 at 10:43 am
The Reject Roubo « Adventures in Woodworking
[...] October 2011: I finally get going, and indeed, finish the bench in virtually no time. [...]