Workbench

Some 20 years ago, we had just built a home in Kingston, Washington and I needed a workbench. I had planned on building one but the local Ernst Hardware store got in a batch of European style benches. They were a knockoff of the Hoffman & Hammer compact bench, but also had 3 drawers & a storage cabinet. The vise & drawer hardware wasn't bad & they were made with Mai Pradoo (Burma Padauk) which is a nice looking, medium hardwood.

Ernst offered them at $400 but there were few takers. I kept researching bench designs and pricing wood. Meanwhile, Ernst cut their price several times. When it got down to $169, I bought. It was easy to assemble & made a good light duty bench. I put it together without glue so it would be easy to dis-assemble & move.

Life went on & I was quite happy with my new bench until one day I heard a crash from the garage. Shortly, my dear wife entered the house and told me I needed to go buy another bench! Our killer Audi hit the bench pretty hard, smashing the drawers, cabinet door and face frame. So off I went to Ernst.

There were 2 benches left & they were marked down to $99! I put the new bench together, then, after a few weeks, started to take apart the old bench, thinking to use the wood for other projects. I found the main structure was mostly undamaged, so I rebuilt it. It wasn't as pretty as the new one now & had a bit of racking, still it was useful.

The problem with such inexpensive benches was, I tended to disrespect them. In addition to woodwork, I used them for car & tractor repair, even dis-assembling & overhauling 2 tractor & 3 Mercedes engines on them. They got pretty beat up as a result.

I hadn't glued my benches during assembly & they developed racking problems as bolts loosened, requiring re-tightening every few months.

We moved twice since I got the benches and both times they weren't dis-assembled, just moved in one piece. So I decided to re-assemble them with glued joints this time.

Our new home in Stayton required some big, Fir beams and I saved all the large cut-offs along with some 4X4 & 4X6 pieces. Since I was going to tear down anyway, why not improve the bench while I was at it? One of the beams approximated the size of my bench top. Also, I had been admiring a vise I'd seen. It used a hand crank to quickly move the jaws. Only the astronomical price held me back. I found a crank on e-Bay & so I began to re-build the bench into a Hermaphrodite Roubo.

I'm quite happy with the results. I got rid of the annoying tool tray, raised the benchtop height to match my Delta radial arm saw & added the beam to the back of the bench with two 4X4 legs dovetailed in for support. The bench top has twice the area now (24" X 55") & I incorporated a reversable planeing stop down the middle. I put the hand crank on the front vise. The extra mass, glued joints and 2 additional legs make the bench extremely rigid and solid.

I liked the results so well, I decided to make the remaining beams into a larger bench. The result so far is a massive 24" X 84" Roubo style bench with 4" X 6" legs dovetailed into the top. I tied the two beams together with 2" X 4" scraps. I didn't bother fitting either cross piece with dovetails or through mortises, just bolted & glued it into place. My son was disappointed with me for taking this short cut. I don't agree. Its crude, but effective and doesn't detract much from the overall appearance. The bench is also the same height as my Delta RAS, & has a reversible plane stop down the middle. I'm going to have a local artisan make 2 hold fasts & I will drill the bench top for them. I had intended to tie the legs together with stringers and through mortise joints, but the bench is so stable already, they may not be needed. I will use the bench with hold fasts for a while but may add a good vise later.

Old WoodWorking Machinery

Old woodworking machines offer a great deal of utility for not much money. Over the years I acquired several:

The 1958 Delta 900 Radial Arm Saw(3rd & 4th from top) is my best buy so far. Picked up from Craigs list $35 to use as a dedicated dado machine when I had to fabricate door jams to hang our fir doors.

Despite noisy bearings, it handled that job & several others well, but eventually the blade began to wobble & the bearings developed a grinding noise. I dis-assembled the motor, installed new bearings ($20) & repainted the saw with some Benjamin Moore Industrial Machinery paint ($5 at the Habitat Re-Store), so now it is a $60 saw. When I replace the table, I will still have less than $100 in this Articulated Turret Saw.

The top 2 pics show my 1948 12" Red Star Radial Arm Saw. At $250 it is my most expensive used machine but it was newly cleaned, rewired & repainted, so almost a new saw.

Red Star produced their line of Radial arm saws until 1948 when Delta bought the company. Their Multiplex saws were more versatile than any other RAS, but had some features that were expensive to manufacture and a name like "RED STAR" was a handicap when the cold war began.

Delta continued to produce the Multiplex line unchanged except for adding a Delta decal. Later Delta redesigned their RAS, changing to a fixed turret mount and adopted a different bearing system for the saw head. They soon dropped the 9" & 10" saws, but the 12" & bigger models are still available today. They are often found in commercial shops but rare in home shops.

The bottom picture shows my 80's era General 6" jointer. I own a General 10" Table saw that is impressive in its quality, accuracy & durability, so I was quick to buy this machine when I found it for $150 on Craigs list. It has a new motor, is usable as is but needs a tear down for cleaning & repainting.

Back in the 80's I picked up a Sears 12" Bandsaw and a Shopsmith Model 10ER, for $150 each. I will add some pics of them later.

Mickey

Lynna's mom, Mickey, will be 92 this August. She was widowed years ago & lived a very independent and active life for many years. She had a cottage at Lakeside Assisted Living nearby, but came to live with us in January when she was unable to continue living on her own.

To accomplish this, I needed to quickly finish the West Bedroom & Bathroom trim & hang the closet doors.

Everything got done in good time and that part of the house is much improved.

Mickey is much doing better but there have been a few setbacks along the way. Her doctor continues to search for a more effective medication to slow & moderate the progress of her dementia. A caretaker comes daily to take some of the load off Lynna.

Sometimes Mickey has "Sundowning" episodes but I secured all our gates & she is always back to normal the next morning. We have visited all the memory care facilities in our area and found a few that are acceptable, but for now, the present arrangement is still her best option. Mickey is able to attend church with us on Sundays & still enjoys lunch out afterwards.

Projects with Life Changes

I have been posting some of the housebuilding progress and life changes during the time I wasn't updating the blog. Hopefully I can stay more current through the rest of 2011.

We wanted a breakfast bar on the pony wall between the Kitchen and Nook, so I started with a cardboard mock up and Lynna approved. We worked with Dieter's cabinet shop to find a good piece of Cherry, which was cut into 3 pieces, then edge glued into a nice bar. I mounted it the same way I had done all our previous bars.(I used 1/4" angle iron that could handle some dunderhead trying to sit on it!) . Once the bar was up, I was able to install the appliance garage cabinet Lynna wanted.

One of life's great inequities is the short lifespan of our canine companions. Our jolly old dog Sunny was a character. A Border Collie/Pointer mix, & a dog genius, always examining the world around him, learning as he went. He could open doors & unscrew bottle caps. Like many herding dogs, he would bare his front teeth in a smile. Last Summer, Sunny was nearly 15 y.o. & well stricken by age. He could no longer race about but still enjoyed walking with Lynna & would poke around the yard while she gardened. He spent evenings sleeping at my feet in the study. We were unprepared when he passed away June 15th, 2010. We both missed him greatly & our other dog, Peaches was lost without her buddy. She got very clingy & refused to go out in the yard unless I came along. She would lean on me while we walked the yard. Within a week we were at the Humane Society Pound & rescued a 4 y.o. male German Shorthaired Pointer.

This friendly bundle of energy had been spoiled by two successive families who gave him little training or exercise, let him free feed into a typical obese pet, then dumped him at the pound when he became "to rambunctious". A female Shorthair was part of our family back in the 60's & 70's. This guy was amiable & seemed trainable, so we added daily work sessions, walks & obedience class to our busy lives.

Nearly a year later, Gunther (we call him Gunny) has made great strides, with diet & exercise his weight came down from 80 to 55 pounds, his behaviour is much improved with only a few things chewed along the way. He sticks to me closer than a shadow, likes to hang out in my workshop(where he eats sawdust & chews scraps at every opportunity), Peaches is back to her old self again, & the cat has accepted Gunny into the pack.

More Catching Up ++

(More of what happened since June 2009)

The heating system was finished quickly & the fillup/first run was uneventful with no leaks or problems. Lynna worked constantly getting in the landscaping and only called on me for occaisional muscle or tractor work. Our naturalistic landscape is filling in nicely and we got a lot of vegetables from my 20'X30' garden.

I got a big pile of Cedar decking from John's brother but when I built our deck, we ran out of wood & had to go back for more. Unfortunately, I neglected to note the thickness of the original stock & the new boards were about 1/8" thicker. I laid out the planks to cover the holes & eventually borrowed Jeremy's planer one hot day. Lynna caught while I fed the 12' & 14' boards. Then I completed the deck and built some stairs for Lynna, next we went through the color selection process. Once we had agreement, everything was stained and the railing painted, it looked pretty nice.

The Summer heat bothered us enough that we mounted an air conditioner in a dining nook window. It comes out in the Fall & is stored downstairs in my shop over the Winter.

We had lots of time with our grand kids and took in the sheepdog trials in Scio. Those are some smart dogs! One of the best dogs sat near us & intently studied the other dogs performance while he waited his turn.

After I got all the doors hung, I wrapped the windows with Fir then (as time allowed) re-sawed & ripped the door & window trim down from my big stash. Everytime I produced a big pile, out came the tarps & I would put on the Danish oil finish. When it dried, I would put up trim door by door & window by window until I ran out of finished wood. Then repeat the process. I expect to finish the last of the trim tomorrow. I saved the 3 arched windows for last due to their large size, the difficulty resulting from the arches and the fact that I have reached an age where working 12' up on a step ladder is out of my comfort zone. I'm quite pleased with how the dining room and Entry windows turned out. The Den, not so much and I may re-do its arch at some point. For now, I'll live with it.

Our Master Bath called for an oversize shower and we had trouble finding someone to install the glass surround. I offered the job to several contractors but was surprised when they begged off as I knew they needed the work. Eventually, I took it on myself. After all, how hard could it be?........Pretty difficult actually but relying on my "pig headed" gene, I soldiered on & got er done!

In September of 2009, we moved Lynna's mom down here from Whidby Island, WA. Originally, she was going to live with us but she really wanted her own place, so she settled for one of the cottages at the Lakeside Assisted Living center just down the hill from us. getting her moved & settled took about a month and I decided to leave the West bedrooms & bathroom unfinished until the house was more complete. (This was to change later)

Catching Up

It has been a very long time since my last post. I let the "Tyranny of the Urgent" take over and just went from one day to the next. With the passage of time, much progress has been made & I am going to try to briefly bring the Blog up to date.

My June 2009 post shows the installation of our built in vacuum system. I had installed the outlets during framing but still had to hang the vacuum in the garage then get under the house to assemble the piping manifold system & connect up the low voltage wiring.

The next project was to install & plumb the baseboard radiators for our hot water heating system. We passed our final inspection with only the Jotul & Vermont Castings gas stoves for heat & only had the boiler operating for the indirect hot water heater. I had designed a good main system & wanted everything in & operating before Fall.

I cleared some space in my basement workshop & setup an assembly line to prep for installation through the flooring. After all the radiators were in place, I went back under the house & soldered up the copper pipe. My system design included separate zones for the Main Living space, Master Bedroom, West Bedrooms & Upstairs Bonus Room.

For some reason, the "add photo" option isn't operating, so I'll add photos later