Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Planar planing

Whether because of my progressive lenses or inexperience, I was having trouble satisfying myself with winding sticks that the tops of the side boards were in the same plane.  So, as a doublecheck, I stretched string tightly across the diagonals and was relieved to find that they intersected in the middle without deflection.  The last thing I want to do is remove a lot of material from the top, so I think this is a critical step.  Not sure if you can see the string:


As you can see from the shavings, I did have to remove some material to get the side boards in the same plane.

I made the transverse bearers today, but didn't get them installed.  I settled on seven:



I did some testing with a dead blow hammer and a block.  It seems really solid.

4 comments:

  1. That is gonna be one crazy stout workbench! Looking good!

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  2. I want to build a Nicholson NOW!
    Awesome job so far Andy. Like the color of your tool chest also...

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  3. Andy, the bench is coming along very nicely. Your documentation of the project is excellent. Thank you.

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  4. This is the most robust Nicholson that I have seen to date.

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