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Bench Fettling
Monday, 26th April 2010 20:13 PM
I first made the benches that I use for the courses about three years ago. They have moved workshops since then and seen some abuse, so I decided to give them some TLC.
They are traditionally made joiners benches with two thick wide boards on top, on which most of the work takes place. If these boards are not flat then it is difficult to get other things flat on them! They act as a reference for the work being done on them. I started by checking to see if there had been any cupping of the boards using a straight edge. There was a dip of about 2mm in the centre of a couple of them. To correct this I planed across the board all the way along them. People are often surprised to see me planing across the grain like this, but it is the best way to correct unevenness across the grain. However the plane needs to be extremely sharp to avoid tearing.
Periodically I checked with the straight edge to see how I was doing. I also checked with my longest straight edge whether the boards was straight alonghteir length. When I was happy with the flatnessI went overeachboard with a belt sander to remove any planing marks. Some of you may have noticed that the tops are redwood and thought "it serveshim right, a proper beech top would not move so much". All I can say is I was driven by economics when the benches were built! I'll replace them when I win the lottery. However I would recommend doing these checks even if you have a hardwood bench.
The other thing I checked was how vertical is the vice, I did this by clamping a spirit level in the jaws. A couple of them were out of true so, to correct them, I shimmed them out where they are bolted below the bench. If a vice is out of true it is difficult to plane an edge square. It is remarkable how the human brain can calculate quite subtle levels based on gravity. It seems we plane an edge in relation to vertical and I can only assume this is related to gravity. Any slight variation from vertical is reflected in the squareness of the edge.
Finally, you will also notice that I had my head polished specially for the photoshoot of my bench fettling!
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Planing the top to remove cupping.
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Sanding the top, I like to trial the extractor hose and sander cable over my shoulder to keep them out of the way.
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Checking to see if the vice is vertical using a spirit level.