All posts tagged: Woodworking

Moravian Workbench: Installing The Second Vise

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ust as I began the installation of the second vise for my new workbench (an end vise), I saw a blog post by Richard Maguire saying that you don’t need a second vise. In fact the title of his post, “Why Your Workbench Needs One Vice (Or Less)” implies that you can get away with no vise at all. And I recently pointed to a video by Mike Siemsen where he shows several ways to use a workbench without a vise. But, If that isn’t enough, I have heard Fine Woodworking authors Mike Pekovich and Matt Kenney talk about how they dislike end vises. Specifically, they don’t like pinching stock (heard on Shop Talk Live). Pinching stock is when you place a board between a bench dog and an end vise and clamp it in place. All of these woodworkers do great work, all of them teach woodworking, so they are people whom I listen to and respect. Now then, I know something about having a workbench with no vise at all. For many years, I …

Moravian Workbench: Attaching the Top; Adding the Gap Stop

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I am sure there are woodworkers who just walk into the workshop and without much preparation, begin building. I’m not one of those woodworkers. I have to think about most construction processes. I want the feeling of a sound plan as I begin a woodworking session. Just mounting the workbench top to the base had me doing some considerable thinking about the best way to go about this step. I had always thought I would simply add some keys to the top of the leg assembles. These keys would act like tenons and would mate to corresponding mortises in the two slabs. Like this… An important aspect of this workbench design is the flat vertical plane formed by positioning the two top slabs flush with the legs. I know full well that adding the keys and then creating a mating mortise is a super exact process. I could see the mortises not aligning perfectly with the keys resulting in an alignment problem between the slabs and the legs. I then thought of drilling holes for …

Free Woodworking Plan: Old World Dining Table

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xciting news! My fifteenth woodworking plan called You Can Build an Old World Dining Table is available for download at the link below. This is the first of many I’ll publish in 2018, but Old World Dining Table will be my last free one for a while. I want to experiment again with selling plans; something that has not been a significant money-maker in the past. The styling for this table was inspired originally by furniture seen in Harry Potter movies. I researched set design images from this movie series paying attention to leg and foot profiles. I also looked at workbench designs which included historic leg and foot forms. The resulting table design includes a bold foot, heavy timbers for the legs as well as a significant structure supporting the table top. This table can be disassembled for ease of moving. I need to tell you that this table is designed to fit in the dining room of my home. The top measures 72″ x 40″ and will accommodate eight adults, but seating will …