edge jointing top

Now the delicate act of edge joining these two beefy beams. hoo boy. watch your toes, this is 98" x 24" x 5,1/2" of WATCH YOUR TOES AND FINGERS.

benchwork begins in earnest

I begin with milling the beam. Had 2 8' sections for the bench top and some left over to attempt to rip for a few sturdy legs. ripping by handsaw is futile at this width so I made a couple increasing depth passes using the skill saw pete "gave" me. worked okay but i hope he doesn't see this as I'm sure the motor of got fairly cooked from it all.



The Skillsaw blade does not fully reach 1/2 the depth of the material, so after flipping the beam over, I will make a matching cut and then finish off the remainder with my ryoba. not too much fuss







Next came the 8 footers. same dance with ripping the wood to width and getting rid of that crown on the edge



Now the precision step of the operation (?). Cleaning up the edges of the beams for lamination. Just don't be in too much a hurry and keep the plane blades sharp...

A HUGE beam

Been eyein' a wonderful old timber at the architectural salvage site that i pick through on my lunch hour near work most of the winter. Kept thinking it would make an old European style woodworking bench top with its heft.

Impulse and fair weather made me throw down some dosh for the sweet thing before it rotted in a pile of underachieving hippie debris. Love the bill of sale:



What kept me from an earlier rescue was mostly logistics. It's very heavy and 21 feet long.



I rented a CityCarShare truck for 90 minutes yesterday morning with a plan to break the beam down into 2 8' segments with a remainder left over for some other project. That short candle is smeared across the face of my Ryoba blade for smooth operation. thing cut though the beam in short order, leaving a few AM crustaceans picking over architectural debris incredulous.



I'm quite sore today after getting them to sanctuary here inside the pleasing compound. Rain in the forecast, so need to get them in the garage soon. They need to dry out for a while, but the plan is to have the two 8' sections laminated together for the bench top. While I was at the salvage yard, I also found these two old growth timbers on the top of the stack which could form the legs for the bench. We'll see.

A Good Day 'Round Briones Reservoir

Temps: 75degF, Wind: mild, Road: open

an excellent manual lathe craftsman

Ratka's Sewing caddy finished

Gratuitous photos








A gap exists between the frame and the base of the sewing machine on the right there to allow for the power cord.










I included a little bubingawood letter opener attached to the roof here as a joke, we'll see when she notices it, hehehe

Getting a handle of it

More head scratching; surely there is a better way to center some holes in this carcass than my half arsed hairy eyeballing.

here are the reinforcment bearings out of mahogany for the handle arm pivots. There's a pair on the inside of the sarcofagus, too. Oak pegs drilled and tapped into the assembly reinforce


Now rotating the hadle and arm assembly clamped together through the arc of the bearings. Just want to test to see how out of coplanar the opposing sides are. Seems I can compromise to a certain extent at a consistent width, give or take.




Tapped some bubinga wedges into the oak doweling shaft when I finally glued the arms to the shaft. Should help lock it into place and look kinda cool, too.



Testing fitment of the handle with the arms again, this time with tenons cut into the handle. I think I'll drive another pin through the tenon on the outside of the arm to lock it into place when I finally glue this part up. For now, just testing. And I'll have a 3/8" washer on the interior backed by a cotter key going through the shaft to keep the arms in place when it's all said and done...


...On second thought, I can secure the arms from the inside just using a wood screw like so