It is entirely up to the user's needs - there is no best. For what I do MY bench is infinitely better without an apron.
English Workbench Build
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Jacob
Pint of bass, porkpie, and packet of crisps please
Yebbut mine's bigger than yours.phil.p":3e7bdlht said:
Is this any better.richarnold":g1zphw7u said:Bm101":g1zphw7u said:Richard, use BBCode box. When you add your link. click on it then right click on here to add the link. will display your pics. You can reduce/edit the pic size in imgur before you share. This helps on here because imjur displays regular size pictures. Umlike Nabs ones lol
Regards
Chris
Perfect. Although that bench does still look fairly big.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXypyrutq_M
(I STILL can't work out how to embed youtube links :| )
El Barto
👍
Nabs, sorry to hear about your setback. If it's any consolation I made countless pineapple ups with my bench. The biggest of which was timber choice - started with CLS, realised it was utter dung and started again with PAR. It was worth it in the end but an annoying conclusion to come to.
And you're right, you haven't really wasted much time because you've gained invaluable experience in the process.
And you're right, you haven't really wasted much time because you've gained invaluable experience in the process.
attempt 2 is underway! I took Jacob's advice and got some decent 4x4 redwood, it is 3 times the price of crappy fence posts but has very few knots and no splits or cracks. I prepared all the bits for the legs this evening and it was much quicker than my first attempt - some of this down to the fact that the posts were already planed, but surely some of the time saving was down to my new 'Paul Sellers' rag-in-a-can-oiler! Highly recommended!
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Good move, Nick, and I assume that you have already found that it is more satisfying, probably 3x as satisfying , to work with!
, to work with!El Barto
👍
It really amazed me how much nicer it was to work with too. And feels nicer all round.
Jacob
Pint of bass, porkpie, and packet of crisps please
Pleased to hear it!El Barto":3qo1rleu said:
Good quality redwood is a pleasure to work with.
In spite of all the moanings and groanings top quality redwood is available (Swedish 'unsorted' and others) but not from B&Q!
The only thing you can't (often) get is very wide boards from old growth - it's nearly all farmed.
I read many years ago that Sweden sorted out their timber industry iirc in the '50s, whereby the forest owner could only collect a certain% of the timber sale price until the land was cleared, then only a certain % til it was replanted. At that time they could build a timber built house every 22 minutes without depleting timber stock.
well my newly purchased wood for the legs is 'scandinavian' unsorted and I think up to scratch.
I am now more or less back to where I was before messing up the first set of legs, and the redwood is indeed a lot nicer to work with. It is even easier to markup as the knife/gauge leaves a clear line compared to the squishy stuff, however, this did not stop me from marking up the wrong end of a (clearly labeled) leg, thus placing all the joints on the few knots I was trying to avoid. Luckily I noticed before I started sawing.
Talking of which, my sawing has improved and although I realize I may have been banging on a bit about the joys of the Rag In A Can Oiler recently, I think it really has helped my technique. For the first time I was able to do what the books say and let the weight of my tenon saw do the work, whereas before I'd have to sort of shove it forward. The result was that I began sawing straight - quite a revelation!
I won't have much time in the next couple of weeks so will try and get the unnecessary leg brace done and the legs glued up this weekend and then come back to do the aprons in early August.
In other news I realized that I had measured the dovetails that receive the aprons wrong on my first attempt, so had I carried on I would have eventually found the aprons did not fit. Thus it appears I was lucky to have a catastrophic cock-up when i did rather than find out later on.
My only lingering worry about the new legs is I have had to use 1 1/2 inch timber for the rails, rather than the chunky 1 3/4'' I had before. I hope this will not make a difference - we shall see!
toodles
nabs
The joys of good quality wood - in the v1 legs this type of chiselling tended to cause large lumps to chip out no matter how careful I was:
one of the good things about being so hopeless at woodwork that you have to do most things twice is that you get a lot of practice! The joints fit better this time round:
deja vu:
I am now more or less back to where I was before messing up the first set of legs, and the redwood is indeed a lot nicer to work with. It is even easier to markup as the knife/gauge leaves a clear line compared to the squishy stuff, however, this did not stop me from marking up the wrong end of a (clearly labeled) leg, thus placing all the joints on the few knots I was trying to avoid. Luckily I noticed before I started sawing.
Talking of which, my sawing has improved and although I realize I may have been banging on a bit about the joys of the Rag In A Can Oiler recently, I think it really has helped my technique. For the first time I was able to do what the books say and let the weight of my tenon saw do the work, whereas before I'd have to sort of shove it forward. The result was that I began sawing straight - quite a revelation!
I won't have much time in the next couple of weeks so will try and get the unnecessary leg brace done and the legs glued up this weekend and then come back to do the aprons in early August.
In other news I realized that I had measured the dovetails that receive the aprons wrong on my first attempt, so had I carried on I would have eventually found the aprons did not fit. Thus it appears I was lucky to have a catastrophic cock-up when i did rather than find out later on.
My only lingering worry about the new legs is I have had to use 1 1/2 inch timber for the rails, rather than the chunky 1 3/4'' I had before. I hope this will not make a difference - we shall see!
toodles
nabs
The joys of good quality wood - in the v1 legs this type of chiselling tended to cause large lumps to chip out no matter how careful I was:
one of the good things about being so hopeless at woodwork that you have to do most things twice is that you get a lot of practice! The joints fit better this time round:
deja vu:
El Barto
👍
Clean!
sundaytrucker
Established Member
Sorry to hear about your balls up but it looks like you have come out it with something you will be happier with. Those joints look nice and snug.
I made a few errors and considered starting again, it is probably why the bench went on hold while I improved my skill level. I still might yet.
I made a few errors and considered starting again, it is probably why the bench went on hold while I improved my skill level. I still might yet.
I finished the unnecessary leg brace, and the result is a rather complex looking set of recesses on the front RHS leg - it is not as complex as it looks to do, since you are just doing a series of simple half lap dovetails.
I managed to avoid any major cock-ups today, but to make up for it I discovered one that I made earlier.
Mr Maquire says at one point in his video instruction that you need to reduce the width of the top rail so it does not stick out below the bottom of the apron. Although I did cut them down, apparently my measurements were out by 1/2'' resulting in the ridiculous situation below. I decided it would look less awful to leave the little dangly bits that will be below the apron (rather than having a gap). Having said that, I will almost certainly snap one or more of the dangly bits off during the forthcoming work, so it is probably irrelevant!
Since the top part of my half laps are quite thin, I drilled pilot holes for the nails - this was an opportunity to try out my Millers Falls no 2 drill, which from my tool fiddling records (I know, I kept records!) I see that I bought for £25 in March 2016 (this is the first time I have used it since then). It is a good drill, and handily it came with all the original drill bits, one of which I used to make my holes. I probably need to do a few more holes to justify the 25 quid!
remembering my previous major cock-up occurred at this very stage, I bottled it and postponed the glue up until tomorrow.
toodles
I managed to avoid any major cock-ups today, but to make up for it I discovered one that I made earlier.
Mr Maquire says at one point in his video instruction that you need to reduce the width of the top rail so it does not stick out below the bottom of the apron. Although I did cut them down, apparently my measurements were out by 1/2'' resulting in the ridiculous situation below. I decided it would look less awful to leave the little dangly bits that will be below the apron (rather than having a gap). Having said that, I will almost certainly snap one or more of the dangly bits off during the forthcoming work, so it is probably irrelevant!
Since the top part of my half laps are quite thin, I drilled pilot holes for the nails - this was an opportunity to try out my Millers Falls no 2 drill, which from my tool fiddling records (I know, I kept records!) I see that I bought for £25 in March 2016 (this is the first time I have used it since then). It is a good drill, and handily it came with all the original drill bits, one of which I used to make my holes. I probably need to do a few more holes to justify the 25 quid!
remembering my previous major cock-up occurred at this very stage, I bottled it and postponed the glue up until tomorrow.
toodles
Jacob
Pint of bass, porkpie, and packet of crisps please
I'm sure it'll work out but if you do have to start again (again) there are better designs.
Jacob":2tbjv8t8 said:
How do you know? He's not building it for you.
Jacob":1bd5erex said:
I know I shouldn't encourage you, but I am curious about what you see as better in the other design?
Assuming you are still refering to the Paul Sellers bench mentioned earlier, they are basically the same, aren't they - two leg assemblies, two aprons and a top. The main differences are optional (tool well, leg brace, thin top and bearers vs thick laminated top). Why do you see one as better than the other?
PS I am genuinely interested to know!
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