Work on the bench top

Since the last update I've gotten the top almost done.  As you can see its all glued up into the final two pieces.  It started out as three small slabs, two long ones and the short one seen here.  Well, it actually started out as about two dozen boards but I'd rather forget about that pain in the ass.  If I were to do it again I would start with much thicker boards and cut that down to 8-10 boards.  This was by far the largest glue up I've ever done and what a pain.  There was lots of planing to do just to flatten it enough to glue the two long sections together.  I did the majority of the flattening with the hand plane because my planer set-up isn't really beefy enough to handle these slabs of hard maple.  My jointer can't handle these slabs either so I was forced to fine tune the faces of the slabs with a hand plane to get a perfect fit for the glue up.

Besides the slab, I've also been working on the tail vise.  I had the core all built up already so it was just a matter of mounting things to the bench.  I had to add a block on the underside to support the vice plate and then mount the plate.  Can anybody tell me what the last two holes on the plate are for?  The other ones are all counter sunk but the last two aren't.  Right now I'm farting around with things now just to get everything fitting tight and square and making sure the doghole strip lines up nice.  

Excuse my absence

Well, as all new parents know free time is a thing of the past ... at least for the first 6 months.  My time in the shop is quite limited now but I do still squeeze in an hour here and there.  I'm still working on the workbench and not much else.  There are some Christmas gifts that I should figure out and a dresser for our 'Little Peanut'.  I really wanted to do a crib but there's not way I'll have time before she grows out of the cradle, which is working fantastically.  My next big project will probably be a dresser for the nursery.

The cradle tenant has arrived

Eloise Riley 7.21lbs, 18in

More cradle pictures

A neat little defect I worked into the stretcher cap. 

Closeup of the joinery. 

Another "defect" that I worked in.  I had to fill the gap on this know with some superglue.

It was a real pain in the butt to get these spacers fine tuned.  I'm really happy how well it turned out.

The top stile on one of the sides has some beautiful quartersawn grain.  I'm really happy how the finishing regime popped the grain.  

I just went with an unfinished pine bottom.  I did put a layer of poly on it for some protection.  

The forest restoration project has started and halted

Crews started planting trees for the project last week.  Its finally happened.  Monday morning they planted about 200 trees and prepped for some more.  We were in contact with our partners at the zoo to get materials hauled up the hill to the site on Wednesday, but something happened on that Tuesday that no one here in Duluth will forget anytime soon.  The sky opened up and unleashed an epic rain that, as I've been told, only happens once in 500 years.  As it happens, the stream which gives the project its name burst forth from its banks devastating every path up the hill.  If you think devastating is an exaggeration just look at this.

This used to be an ATV trail, now its an 8 foot deep 15 foot wide washout.

As you can guess by  the boardwalk and railing, you used to be able to walk onto this bridge.  There used to be a path there with lots of earth under it.  This is where all the water got out and its hard to tell by pictures but the second river created by this was almost as big as the regular one.

With obstacles like these it's obviously impossible to get any machinery up there and its not very feasible to carry thousands of pounds of fence up.  There are other ways up the hill but they are now all impassable with washouts.  I wish I would have budgeted for a helicopter.

The Cradle is FINISHED!!!!

It's been a long time since a post but I've been one busy dude.  There gets to be so much to do in the spring when the weather finally gets nice.  It makes it especially tough to spend the roughly 10 hours in the basement doing all the finishing.  Here's the lineup of parts all ready for the business.  Of course I already started a few coats of finish on the panels.

The first step was to rub everything down with a coat of boiled linseed oil.  It really did a nice job of bringing out the grain detail and gives it a great, warm color.  As I was sanding each piece I was conscious to put the finished pieces in the dark.  Cherry has a tendency to darken in the sunlight so keeping them in the dark after sanding ensured that they would all be the same shade when it was time to finish.  Earlier in the project I noticed it only took a couple of hours after a sanding for the wood to start changing colors.  

After the linseed oil was good and dry it was time for the many, many coats of shellac.  I cut the shellac half and half with denatured alcohol.  This consistency of  shellac goes on easy and dries in minutes.  I just used a folded up rag to apply it.  With the size of these pieces I was able to do three consecutive coats on each one.  All those slats on the sides were a real chore.  Once the first three coats were on it was time to sand everything, again.  A quick pass with some 240 grit and back to the basement for the next couple of coats of shellac.  Then, of course, more sanding with the 240 before the final coats of varnish.  Here's the lineup after the first round of shellac.  It looks pretty much the same as when it's all done.  

The final coat was varnish cut half and half with mineral spirits.  Same idea as the cut shellac but it takes a little longer to dry; about and hour.  It's a forgiving finish.  It dries smooth with some subtle streaks.  Those streaks are taken care of in the last step, steel wool.  I rubbed the hell out of the thing with  0000# steel wool to give it a glass smooth, clear but not to shiny finish.  I've used this method before without the steel wool and now regret it.  It really gives it a finishing touch.  

So now the big moment!!!

TA DA!!!!

I wish I knew how to do some cool animation here or something.  I'll have to get some more closeups and angle shots and post them.  I've gotten to know this project very well since I stared and I've come to appreciate some details that deserve more picture.  So as satisfying as it was to get together I still wasn't quite done.  It was terribly squeaky, so I had to address the dowels it swings on.  I farted around on these for  awhile.  I sanded them and rubbed them with wax but it just wasn't getting it done.  A couple of google searches later and I had a great idea.  Cut flutes into the dowel to reduce the amount of wood rubbing and give the wax a place to hang out.   Now it works splendidly.  I'm expecting the button plugs for the ends shortly and it'll be showroom ready.

 

I think I remember starting a workbench

With the work on the cradle coming to an end I'm able to focus some attention on the workbench I started quite some time ago.  I still have a lot of work to do on making the tail vise assembly, but in the mean time I can get the top slab glued up and mounted on the base.

After spending considerable time staring at the two sets of plans, it finally clicked and I build the jig for making dogholes.  It was quite simple once I got going with it.  

I didn't have the ideal router bit for the job so I had to use a combination of my two routers.  I used a 5/8 straight bit with a collar on the big router to clear out most of the material.  Then I used a top bearing, 3/8 straight bit in the Dewalt to ride along the jig and clean things up.