Some Shop Maintinence

One of the things I did on the current table build (more on that later) was to fill the knot holes with black epoxy.  Whenever I mix epoxy, I use the leftovers to fill some of the cracks in my bench top.  There are a lot of cracks, because the top is four beams of French oak laminated together, and the beams all contain the pith.

I think the top is stable, and would recommend if you build a bench not to turn up your nose at wood with the pith in. Just be warned that there will be cracks. The cracks are not a problem unless you drop something small like finishing brads on your bench top. They will get lost in there, but structurally they make no difference to the bench.

I figure that while I have extra epoxy, I can just dump it in these cracks, and someday I will have a bench top with no cracks in it.

Here is my bench top after I poured extra epoxy into some of the cracks.

Not too long ago I went to a flea market and found a cool hand cranked grinder, an American Champion made by American Hydraulics. I think it is the bee's knees. I like it so much, that when I found two more on eBay, I bought them. Now I have three awesome grinders.

Why three? I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out.

There wasn't much to getting these new two running. One of them worked perfectly, the other felt like there was bubble gum wrapped around the axle. A little WD-40, and it works perfectly, too.

There was a surprise, in that one of them had a one inch arbor. That means it will fit a modern grinding wheel out of the box. The second one had a 5/8" arbor, and it fit a modern grinding wheel using the plastic bushings that came with it. In the past, I have found hand cranked gridners (including the first of this trio I found) have a 3/8" arbor, and need some real fiddling to make work. I had both of these running new wheels in five minutes flat.

Lucky me, a one inch arbor.

I took a recommendation from Larry Williams' InstaGram feed, and bought from Victor Machinery, a 24 grit 6"x1" Meda grinding wheel. The good news is it was less than ten bucks, but there is a minimum to order. I bought two of these wheels and a bunch of wet/dry sanding paper from them.

24 grit seems awfully course, but Larry knows his stuff.

The six inch wheel fit perfectly on the blue grinder, and surprisingly I found out the green one would take a seven inch wheel. Next time I'll order a bigger one for that grinder.

Everything installed in no time flat.

I have a brace of new Ohio Tools bench planes that all need rehabbing, so I thought I would try out this new wheel grinding a plane blade, one of my least favorite pastimes.

This Meda wheel, I have to say, is pretty awesome. The blade never got very hot, and the grinding went very quickly. Definitely an upgrade from my brown Norton wheel (80 grit, I think - maybe 40). The only thing is the grit seems to come off quickly. But, for the price, I think it would be worth burning through these wheels twice as fast.

Here's my grinding set up using my saw bench.

Enough of that, back to the bench. I haven't flattened it since the first time in 2012. Over that time, the top has settled quite a bit. There was a dip in the center I would estimate at about 3/16" deep in the center.

Before

I learned in this time that I can work just fine 99.5% of the time with a bench that isn't perfect and doesn't look like the cover of a Fine Woodworking article. As long as the bench stays still while I'm planing, I can make many other deficiencies work.

With this in mind, I decided to make it flat, but not to waste time making it too smooth.

This was over before I really got a chance to photograph the progress.

I took a big wooden jointer set with a heavy cut, took passes front to back evenly across the grain for the whole length of the bench. Next I took shavings at a 45 degree angle across the top. Last, I went with the grain using a medium cut with my BU jack plane.

Done.

After

It has made a big difference in looks, but I really needed it to be flat to plane the couch table's top. I would say about 20 minutes of work, probably less, from start to finish.

Here is a close up of a crack that has been filled with black epoxy, then planed.

The bench is great. I built it in a class with Christopher Schwarz in 2012. What I like is it is heavy and stable.

So far I have yet to put finish on it, and I think I probably never will. Someday I might put a shelf on the bottom. The only thing it really needs is the sliding deadman, which I need about twice a year for the kind of work I do. So far I have gotten away without it. The bench is about 18" deep, maybe a little more, and a little over six feet long. I have upgrades still awaiting for the tail vice, and I have a nicer piece of elm waiting to be installed as a face vice, along with a Benchcrafted CrissCross.

French Heavy Metal

When I got home today, there was a package sitting on my front door step.  Yes, I fell off the wagon again and bought another old tool off of eBay.

Sometimes buying a tool on an online auction is a crapshoot, because in my experience sellers have no idea if a tool is really in good shape or not, nor what it is worth.

"Heck!  If it would look good screwed to the wall at AppleBee's, then it should be worth it's weight in gold!"

I digress.

This time, it was French eBay.  It turns out there are lots of neat old tools there that you really can't get in Germany, England, or the U.S., where I usually troll for old tools.  I couldn't resist a traditional French holdfast.

Here it is.  I knew it would be big, but jeez!

I won this auction for about 15 Euros, plus shipping.  The great part about a holdfast on an internet auction, is that there aren't too many moving parts, and nothing has to be sharp.  It is, after all, a simple thing designed to be whacked with a hammer.  How could I lose?

For a little perspective, here it is next to a Gramercy holdfast.

If you choose to troll French eBay for one of these, the term is, "valet d'établi," and as of this writing there were a couple still up for auction for less than what I paid.

Detail of the complex working mechanism.

I like the way this holdfast looks.  There are just enough details in it to give it a bit of elegance.

If I decide to remove some of the surface rust, it will only be on this spot.  It isn't needed anywhere else.

Besides being comically bigger than the Gramercy holdfast, there is a little bit of a difference in the angle of the pad in relation to the stem.  I have no idea how it will work, but I imagine it is at this angle for a reason.

Angles on the pads are different.  I wonder how it will work?

I like my Gramercy holdfasts, but with my 5 1/2" thick oak top of my Roubo bench, I find I really have to whack them hard to get them to stick properly.  I am hoping this one will hold with just a light tap.  I feel like this holdfast was designed more for a French style bench with a thick top.

The only issue I have so far, is I must drill new holes in my bench to try it out.  This enormous hunk of French metal will take a big hole.  My Gramercy holdfasts have 3/4" holes on my bench, but it looks like this beheamouth will need a hole at least 1 1/8" in diameter.

Gramercy holdfast - .719" thick, according to this.

I tried this holdfast out in one of my 1" dog holes, and it wouldn't even go in.  Does anyone know if a 1 1/8" hole will be big enough for this holdfast in my bench?  Perhaps I need to go a bit bigger?  How about the best way with hand tools to enlarge an existing hole?  I know I can't do it with my standard brace bits.  I think it would be easier to just drill new holes and keep the 3/4" ones for the Gramercy holdfasts.  There are only two holes in it now, anyway.

French monster - 1.097" thick.  This will need a big hole.

I look forward to getting to know this holdfast.  If you want a giant French holdfast, but are reluctant to spend the money for a custom one from a blacksmith, a French internet auction might be the answer.  Be careful bidding, especially if you don't understand French.  Some sellers won't ship out of the country, and some of them will only take a check (I'm guessing not one from Minot, North Dakota).  But, if you can navigate your way through the language barrier, you might get a bargain!

And thank you to Aymeric for the help.

VIDEO: Shop Tour

Last year I took a class at Dictum with Christopher Schwarz to build my Roubo bench. The class was a blast, and I wound up with a beast of a bench with a 5 1/2" thick French oak top.

Wow.

It gets better. Chris had to get back to Munich, so I offered to give him a ride if he would help me unload the bench from the SUV.  

Good move.

Chris not only has build a bunch of these, but I found out he is the world's formost expert on unloading benches from an SUV. I think without his help I would still be in the hospital.

He was so amused by what I was using for a shop, he made a video and posted it on the LAP blog.

I have since reorganized everything in my storage room/shop and thought you might want to take a look. My whole shop is about 90 square feet. This is also our storage room, so I have to share space with that.  

I have moved and gotten rid of a bunch of unnecessary stuff, and am mostly happy here. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't sneeze at a bigger shop or a window, but this is my space, it's all I have.

Park Row (LeGroulx) (Matt LeGroulx) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Roubo Bench - Mostly Done!

I made some good progress on my bench this week.

To recap my progress up to this point, I built this bench in a class with Christopher Schwarz at Dictum in June.  Once it was home, I put it in my little cave of a workshop in the basement, after cleaning out a bunch of the old junk.

New bench freshly installed in the Bat-Cave.

The first thing I did was scrub the top with my home-made scrub plane.  The top was already glued up when we got to the course, so I didn't have much say in grain direction, etc.  It is made up of four massive European oak beams about 5 1/2" square.  There was one in particular that was bowed, and created a hump right down the middle.  I chose to put this on top thinking scrubbing it off would be easier than scrubbing the others down to it's level on the other side.  I was right.  This took only about 10 minutes.

Scrubbing off the hump.

After scrubbing.

My Krenov-style scrub plane in action.

It leaves a fairly pronounced scalloped surface.

It even worked well on the end grain.

So, this is the state my bench has been in for the past few months.  I did a couple things like installed a planing stop, wooden dogs, a tail vice, and had been working on the Benchcrafted face vice.

I actually have been using this bench in this state.  I completed a Krenov-style laminated jointer that I needed for the flattening process.

Now that I have the face vice done, I feel like it is time to flatten the bench.

First, I emptied the shop and cleaned the corners.  All my stuff went in the hallway for a couple days.  Sorry, neighbors!

After making the shop suitable for doing this job by making space, I started by planing across the grain with my BU jack plane with a toothed blade set for an aggressive cut.  I was reluctant to do this with my scrub plane, as I thought the surface left would be difficult to clean up.

This worked great.  I started by knocking down the high spots.  Just make sure to put a small chamfer on the far side to prevent most of the blow-out.

Toothed blade with an aggressive cut. 

I then used the toothed blade to go at a diagonal on the top.  First one way, then the other until everything started to get at basically the same level.

Next up, joint the top going with the grain.  My new Krenov jointer has been tested and I find it does what it is supposed to superbly.  The only problem with it is that the mouth tends to clog up if you don't remove the shavings after each pass.  When using it on an uneven surface (such as this one that has toothing plane tracks on it) the mouth fills up and clogs with all of the dust.  Nothing seems to eject.

I don't think this is necessarily a problem with my construction, just a limitation of this style, with the cross-pin designed as it is.  This is a finesse tool, and cleaning up toothing plane tracks is not a finesse job.

Out came the regular blade for the jack plane, and a few minutes along the grain and the tracks were mostly gone.  NOW it's time for the jointer.

This is probably my favorite plane of the moment.

Taking slightly overlapping passes, I only had to go over each spot four or five times before I was getting nice, full length shavings that indicated the bench was probably as flat as I would get it.

I have to say I am impressed with how this bench works.  It made me realize that I have never before had the opportunity to work on a truly flat work surface.  What a treat!

Complete! (mostly)

I drilled a hole for a holdfast, and two more holes in the leg to store my holdfasts.  I only drilled one hole for now until I see where I could most use another one.  That, and it was a pain, as I had to do it from the underside.  These Gramercy holdfasts won't hold in such a thick top, so I had to drill half-way through with a larger bit before finishing off the rest with the proper size.

Now all that is left is the sliding deadman, and finish.  I am thinking about painting the legs with milk-paint to match my sawbench and toolchest.  The top will either be left unfinished, or perhaps some boiled linseed oil.  I haven't decided yet.

In the meantime, this bench is perfectly functional and I intend to use the snot out of it.

Next up:  Complete the tills in the toolchest.  I have been hung up on this because I am reluctant to resaw the wood I have to make the tills.  Luckily, Steve Branam has posted a how-to today that makes me excited to try it.

Wish me luck!

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Face Vise Installed (Finally!)

I think I mentioned once before that I am not the world's fastest woodworker.  No?  Well, I'm not the world's fastest woodworker.

Today marked a milestone in my bench build (that I started in a Christopher Schwarz class in June).  I got the face vise installed.

This thing works fantastic.  I saw that Benchcrafted is offering a special on their CrissCross.  I wasn't planning on buying one, but the price is definitely tempting.

This install went well.  I am not sure why it took me so long, other than that there always seems to be something else more important to do.

Now that I have this face vise, I'll have to see how I like my tail vise.  So far I have been unimpressed with the Record-knock off quick release vise I chose.  A bit too sloppy for my taste, but until today it was the only vise I had.  This pressed it into uses in which I didn't intend for it.

You can see in the bottom of the photo my cross pin for this vise.  I was going to take it to the Army woodshop to use the drill press to drill the small 1/8" hole in it to insert the cross piece that acts as a stop for the pin, preventing it from going in to far.  It dawned on me that I have some cheap metal drill bits, and a 3mm one worked nice in my eggbeater drill.  It is a Millers Falls #5, from what I understand was intended as a metal-working eggbeater.  Remembering this inspired me to lock this thing in my new vise and drill a hole in it the old-fashioned way.  It worked great.

I excavated the area for the plastic bushing with my Lie Nielsen router plane.  Does anyone else have this problem with this tool?  It tends to leave ugly black marks on the parts of the workpiece, requiring cleanup afterwards.

Next up, bench-top flattening with my new home-made jointer!

Progress on the Bench

While I seem not to be breaking any speed barriers with this build, I do like to make sure I at least accomplish something in the the shop every once in a while.

Here is what my bench now looks like after today:

Being frustrated about not getting much woodshop time in lately, I have not gone out of my way to ensure I have photographic evidence of the details for the blog.  So, here is where I'm at:

I finished boring the dog holes a week or two ago.  I took more video, but thought I would spare you of yet another brace and bit video.

Today I finished all of the dogs for the holes!  This was a lot harder than I thought, because the walnut one inch dowels I bought were oversize by about a tenth of an inch.  First I tried widening my holes with sandpaper wrapped around a smaller dowel.  This took forever, as the oak top is almost 5 1/2" thick.  Sanding the dowels down in diameter that much took forever, too.  If I'd have done them all that way, I would be working on this for years.

In the meantime, a box arrived from Joshua Clark again.  This time there was a sweet screw-arm moving filester and three singleton hollow and round planes.  Why singles?  Because I think I would like to take a stab at building my own, and thought a few examples would be helpful.

Lucky for me, the only hollow was a #12, which cuts a round with a 3/4" radius.  A #8 would have worked perfectly for these 1" dowels, but since I didn't know that this is what I'd use them for, I figured I couldn't be picky now.

The hollow worked really well for taking this much off of the dowels to make them fit.  Because it was oversize, there are some facets on the dowels now, but it was much easier than using a block plane with a flat bottom.  A bit of sandpaper and they went in nice.

The dogs are staying put as of now with just a friction fit.  But, eventually I might install a wooden spring on them to keep them in place.

I think the wooden dogs are great.  For the price of a single metal one I installed a dog in every hole.  Plus, they won't hurt my tools!

You can also see that it appears my vice is installed.  It isn't quite finished yet.  It still needs the rollers and some final tweaking before it will be done.  I did get to use my expanding bit and a big-honking #24 Irwin auger bit on the chop.  That was fun.

Stay tuned for the completion of the vice and flattening of the top!

Even More Regarding the Brace and Bit

I got a little shop time yesterday, and was able to finish my dog holes.  I continued with my brace and bit, with the one inch holes you may have seen in a previous post.

A few days back I spent a little time with the bench dog that is in the chop.  I had some problems with my last bench, losing the bench dog in the chop with no way to remove it, short of screwing a gimlet into the dog to remove it.

To solve the problem this time, I had intended to drill the hole all the way through so I could push the dog up from the bottom.

Needless to say, things didn't go right.  I ran my brace into a broken lag bolt (ruining my bit), and no farther can I drill.

I fixed the problem by inserting a magnetic cabinet door spring thingie (not sure the technical name), which now ejects the dog when I want.  I drilled a hole in the center of some 1" dog stock, inserted the cylindrical contraption and drove that to the bottom of the dog hole.  Now there is room for a short dog above this mechanism.  When it is engaged it allows the dog to sit flush with the bench top, and when engaged again it pops out about 1/2."

A good woodworking friend from Denmark brought his family to visit, and he brought me a gift:

He read on this blog that I wrecked my 1" brace bit, so he brought me some really nice Irwin style bits made by C.I. Fall in Sweden.

About the same time, Joshua Clark sent me a new Jennings style replacement.  Neat!  I have two different styles to try out next to each other.

I sharpened them both using a trick I just discovered in Aldren Watson's book.  Instead of using my auger bit file, I glued some sandpaper to a piece of scrap about the size of a popsicle stick.  This worked great, and I highly recommend it.  The big advantage is that I think it should allow the bits to last longer.

The file is a bit course, which leaves the bit sharp enough to cut well, but it takes off a lot of metal.  I tried a few different grits of sandpaper, and found that as long as there wasn't major shaping to do, that 320 grit worked nice in the fact that I was able to touch up the edge without grinding an entire new cutting surface.  I think I'll only use the file when I need to re-establish a fresh edge.

I found the Irwin style bit cut just as well as the Jennings.  My feelings at the time were that I might be able to steer the Irwin at the beginning of the cut a little better, but that the Jennings was easier to turn in this nearly six inch thick oak.  I think some more testing is required for me to really learn the advantages and disadvantages of each.  I was able to get straight holes with each, and they both looked smooth enough for my purposes.

One thing to note, that the lead screw on the Irwin looks coarser than on the Jennings.  I don't believe this to be true.  Joshua Clark told me that the appearance is deceptive because the Irwin has a single thread, and the Jennings a double.  I didn't time anything, but I felt the Jennings in my test actually may have cut faster.

Now, I only need to drill 3-4 more holes for holdfasts in this 5.5 inch oak, and I'll be done with this grueling task.

Elementary, Dear Watson! Video Example

Galoototron's post about his leg vise couldn't have come at a better time for me than today, as I am about to install a Benchcrafted face vice to my bench, too.  He refers to the instructions from Benchcrafted that require a 1 3/4" hole about 3/16" deep followed by a 1 1/2" hole the rest of the way through.

Like Brian Ward, the author of Galoototron, I am using a really thick piece of Beech for my face vice.  He used an expansion bit with his brace to layout the circle for the 1 3/4" hole, and finished it up with a router plane.  I think Brian voiced many people's opinion about these infamous tools when he said, "Now, those bits are not known to be terribly good even in soft woods, much less something like beech."

This statement got me to thinking about Aldren A. Watson's book "Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings".  I vaguely remembered that he discusses the expansion bit for the brace.  Essentially he says the expansion bit only has one cutting blade, so there is nothing to support the other half of the cut, like a typical brace bit with two cutting blades.  This can make it difficult to drill straight, as the brace becomes unbalanced and wants to move all over the place.

First, one should really tighten the screw on the adjuster mechanism tight, otherwise the hole will get bigger as you bore (don't ask me how I know this).  Please do this safely and away from your hands.  I put the bit on my bench when I foresaw blood gushing out of my wrist.

The trick with this cut is to use a lot of downward pressure, and use the ratchet mechanism on the brace.  Only make about 1/8 of a turn before ratcheting the brace back to your starting point.  I found it easiest to pull the handle a few inches with my right hand before starting over.

This worked great!  My cut was perfect.  The inside of the hole was pretty ragged, but it could easily be cleaned up any number of ways.  The bit worked good and took nice big shavings out of the scrap of beech I was practicing on.

A video is worth a thousand pictures, so here is the technique in action:

(notice the cool bench dogs in action)

The down side of this bit is that I'm pretty sure I don't want to drill a deep hole with this bit.  The deeper I went, the harder it got.  Perhaps a 14" sweep would help.  Also, for an accurately sized hole, one must make a few test cuts.  It took me six tries to get exactly 1 3/4" diameter.  

However, I think for occasional use (really, how often do you make a hole bigger than an inch, anyway) this bit is a valid option.  On those rare occasions when you need a big hole, you will have a way to do it.

The Boring Video

OK, the title sounds better in German, like when Wolfram did it.  Das Bohr Video.  The English misses something.

I came across a neat tip the other day that I just had to try.  I have been reading a fantastic old book by Aldren A. Watson called "Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings."  Really, one of the best hand tool books I have read.

In his writings about the brace and bit, he suggests practicing by marking a point on the face of a board, then moving the mark over to the other side.  Now, you can practice straight boring by starting the bit on one side, and when the screws pop out the other side, you can see if you hit the mark or not.

I picked out the thickest piece of beech scrap I had in the shop to practice on.  I need to bore holes through the top of my oak bench for dog holes.  The bench is well over five inches thick.  A small error should be magnified.

The good news is, if the dog hole isn't perfect, it should still work.  Lucky for me.

I decided to use 1" dowels for dogs.  I like wooden dogs because they are cheap, and easy on your tools.  I plan to put one in every dog hole.  I bought some walnut dowels from Bell Forest because they were among the cheapest that I thought would look cool.

So, here goes with the video:

You notice that I trashed the bit at the end.  I remembered having broken off a lag bolt while installing the chop, but I figured it wasn't in the way of where I was drilling.  WRONG!

I sent an SOS to Joshua Clark at hyperkitten.com/ hoping he has a spare #16 bit rolling around somewhere that he can send me. 

I think that the practice on the scrap warmed me up nicely for some straight boring.  I am sure it isn't perfect, but like I said, the dogs will still work just as good.

I finished two holes in the bench besides the one in the chop.  The bit worked a lot slower after having been damaged.  When I started you can see in the video the big, heavy shavings I get from the oak.  But, after I ground the spurs down on that lag bolt it took very fine shavings and cut very reluctantly.

So, let's here your story of the last tool you broke in the shop.  What happened?

Almost Famous!

The big news here today is that unpluggedshop.com now has this blog on their feed.  I sent a note to them with a link here thinking I'd get a "thanks but no thanks" reply, seeing as most of the other blogs on this site have content from authors with actual skill in woodworking.

I guess that means now I should start proof reading my posts.

Charge the batteries in my camera.

Start wearing pants in the shop.

Seriously, though, it just so happens that I am in the process of renovating my shop space, and starting up a new blog.  Both items that have been topics of The Literary Workshop Blog lately.  Great stuff to think about.

Unfortunately, the bit about charging my batteries is true.  Not sure where the charger is, so until I find it there are going to be only either low quality pictures from my phone or brilliant descriptions that will paint a picture in your mind with my mastery of the language.

Today's is the latter.

I got the base of the table project glued up.  Note to self:  when doing a glue-up in the future, don't start it five minutes before the shop closes.

I was very worried about this assembly because I wound up being forced into a big hurry.  I thought I would be manly and not a wuss by drawboring the tennons without any clamps.  Strangely enough, the drawboring worked perfectly.  The problem was my tennons weren't precise enough, so there is now a giant gap in the front of the table apron.  Why couldn't I have done it the other way?  The inside of the table shows some wicked tight tennons.

old picture of the table due to not having a functioning camera for this post.

Back at the shop at home, yesterday I got some new lighting installed, finished the planing stop, and got the tail vise put in my bench.  I had problems with the vise wobbling all over the place, so I bit the bullet and cut my chop shorter.  It is now only about 10 inches long.  It would have looked cooler taking up more real estate, but this Taiwanese vise just couldn't handle it.

I think it will work fine, though.  My guess is than 99% of it's use will be to hold a board between dogs to flatten it.

Speaking of dogs, I made the decision to use wooden dogs one inch in diameter.  I ordered some 1" walnut dowels from the internet and plan to keep a dog in every single dog hole on my bench.  It is annoying to me to move dogs all over the place.

Why one inch?  Because they will look cooler than 3/4" dogs.  I was thinking that my Gramercy holdfasts would not fit in those holes, but all of those holes will have a dog in them anyway.  Also, pleanty of people are happy with square dog holes and still use their holdfasts effectively, so why not?  Also I'll have the coolest dogs in Germany because who wants to buy a 26 mm drill bit just to chew up for a one-time use?  Stay tuned for my brace and bit demonstration.  My guess is the holes I drill at the end will be a lot straighter than the ones I start with.

Enough drivel for today.  If you've stuck with me this long, you are hooked.

Chop Slop

Some of my best ideas come when I am sleeping.

This morning I woke up and slapped my forehead, wondering why I didn't think about this earlier.

While installing the vise chop, I noticed that this vise has quite a bit of slop.  The vise is well made, with stout parts and a good design.  I did choose to go with the smaller of the two vises available, thinking I didn't need anything too big.  I can't say whether the larger vise has this slop, as I haven't seen one installed this way in person yet.

You will notice that the vise is installed very near the front edge of the bench, but the chop reaches almost the entire width of the bench, leaving a fairly lopsided look when viewing from the end.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this at the moment.  This results in the chop leaning a bit to the right when it is open and no pressure is on it.  The slop in the vise results in the right edge of the chop dipping down a considerable amount below the end of the bench.  Probably about 3/8 of an inch.

When I installed the chop, I chose to line it up as best I could with the top of the bench, tighten the vise and then marking out the pilot holes.  Now the vice lines up perfectly with the bench only with help.

The chop is now in the trunk of my car, as after I took this photo, I marked where the chop overhangs the bench, took it off and intended to cut it to length on a table saw at the Army's woodshop.  The Army's tablesaw didn't give me confidence that this would make a clean cut, however, so my intention is now to make that cut with a handsaw.  I just haven't done it yet.

Good thing, too, as I thought of a better way today.  I am going to plug the holes in the chop from screwing it to the vise and try it again.  This time, I am going to line it up adding the slop in the vise to the equation.  I'll mark the pilot holes when the chop lines up while the vise is loose and leaning to the right.  After I surface the top of the bench to make everything flat, including the tops of the vise chops, the end vise chop should stay flat to the bench because it is already leaning to the right.  If I would have done that the way it is, every time I open the vise, the chop will droop to the right.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Munich Vise

Back at the ranch...

Today I spent some time installing the vise.  I chose the smaller quick release vise that  was available at Dictum.  This seems to be a pretty well made vise, made in Taiwan that was not that expensive.

I chose the smaller one because I felt I probably won't use it that much other than to pinch stuff in between dogs on the bench.  Also, all of the working parts are the exact same on this one as was on the larger one, only the guides are closer together and it doesn't open as far.

First things first, I had to get that sticky gunk that is probably packing grease off of it.  First I sprayed it with some brake cleaner.  That sort of worked.  Then came some paint thinner.  This made everything smell terrible.  So, don't tell anyone, I sprayed it off with hot water, dried it best I could, and then coated everything with a generous douse of WD-40.  It seems to look and feel better now.

I prepped the recess for this vise at the workshop, having a nice Mafell plunging circular saw that made a really nice kerf.  You can see the kerf on the end of the bench here.

It turns out that the end of my bench was not perfectly square.  After some work with a jack plane, I was happy.  I temporarily held it in place with a clamp inverting the handle to make a spreader, I marked out the position.

Five minutes with a chisel and the space for the vice was excavated.

It took a little bit of fiddling, but after a few tries I got everything lined up nicely.

I needed to hold the vise in place to mark out the pilot holes.

The vise went in easily.

At this point, the batteries of the camera died.  I only got one more photo after everything was done.

The only problem I had was I used some narrower lag bolts to attach the chop.  Twice, I broke off the head of the screw in the chop while tightening it.  The easiest way to fix this was to leave the screw in the wood and move the chop out a little.  I finally got the chop on securely with some shorter lag bolts.  I'll take the chop to Peter's workshop to cut it to length on the table saw there.  Perhaps also rough out the planing stop.