Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw

The end vise is a 13 1/2" wide 8/4 beech board ripped up the middle to show bookmatched grain along the top. One of the halves was dovetailed into my top frame, and the other half tapered and drilled for dog holes.

I built in a pencil sharpener, an idea I hope will save me a minute a day for the rest of my career. Searching online led me to KUM brand sharpeners, when I saw the beech model I knew I had it. I got mine from pencilthings.com, and was treated very well.




To inlay it I used cyanoacrylate glue to tack it in place. I then outlined it thoroughly with a knife. A sharp blow knocked it off again, and a chisel was used to define the border. I used a small straight cutter in a laminate trimmer to hollow out a space as close to the outline as I dared. A chisel cleaned up the recess, and a sharp brad point drill made the access hole.



The tail vise is a modified Veritas Twin Screw.






The two screws are linked by a length of chain. The only part about the Twin Screw I don't like is the twin handles. The unused handle bangs around, and when your screws are as close together as mine are, they interfere with each other.

I set the vise up as per instruction, and it worked great. One at a time I backed out the setscrews in the slave screws sprocket, drilled a shallow hole in the shaft, then deeply reseated the setscrews. I then removed the springpin in the handle yolk, and cut off the protruding shaft.

Now I have only one handle, and when I pull the pin the left screw stops turning. I wanted a tail vise the full width of my bench, but the tool tray prevented me from putting a screw close to the back rail. Putting the master screw next to the tool tray makes it act like a horizontal leg vise when clamping stock to the right of it.

A custom cover was made to cover the chainworks from 8/4 steamed beech with light curl.



I like to clamp between the screws, dovetailing there is perfect. I inlayed ebony guides for slopes 1:5 and 1:8, it's a quick reference for my bevel gauge or to align my stock for sawing.



The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- The Top

My top glueup started with the dovetail between the doublewide front rail and the end board, my end vise rear jaw. Then the top board was glued to the front rail as it was installed into the end board mortise, and pegged to make a breadboard end. The top board is a single plank of 8/4 Beech 15 9/16" wide, from the same board that provided the four base panels.



The rear rail and end board joint was glued up, and the floor of the tool tray was glued to the rear rail as it was installed into it's end board mortise.




The benchtop is designed to allow the top board to be supported while still allowing for movement. Seasonal differences are absorbed by the joint between the tool tray floor and the centre board.



The centre board is the glued to the top board, the lip of the tool tray in the kerf.



I then flipped the bench top over, and attached three strongbacks, thick boards with slotted screw slots to allow for wood movement used to keep the top flat. I used dovetails to attach them to the front rail. Two are inline with the front leg mortises, and the third is centered. The one beside the front vise is mortised for a vise support.



The somewhat ugly mortise is for a NOS Record pop up stop that I won at auction while I was building the bench.



The vise support is tennoned into the strongback and the end board, and is glued to the front rail and the top.



The end is then glued on, and given a test run.



Out of order photos, the top glued up on the dry fit base.





I have always wanted to letter carve, but never had. I seized the opportunity to do it here, following the directions given in Fine Woodworking Magazine #187, which is accompanied by this video. I carved in my intials and the year of manufacture of the bench.



The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker

The front rail is the backbone of my bench top. It was a single 9" wide 8/4 beech board. I ripped it up the middle, and milled up the parts. It was then taped together to show bookmatched side grain along the top. The corner joinery was cut and I turned to mounting the vise.

The Tucker vise is meant to be surface mounted, but I want the rear jaw to be slightly proud of the front rail, so I can use the front rail as support. It's a patternmakers' vise, so to allow its movement I need to remove a lot of material.

I started by finding the middle of the vises centre shaft, this is the point to attach a router compass to. It was below the rail, so I needed a temporary centre.

I screwed a piece of MDF to the backside of the front rail board. To it I attached a block the same thickness as the rail. I then attached a router compass. I varied the length of the beam several times. Every time the bit depth was set by a tracing of the rear jaw on the top of the front rail.



This photo shows the MDF support, the four holes in the top corners are screw holes from where it was attached to the backside of the rail. The drawn circle represents the area needed by the vises’ screw and guides. The horizontal line represents the bottom of the rail. The vertical line on the block is the vises’ centre line, the hole is the centre of the vises’ movement. The beam shows several holes, that is from the number of passes made.

After hogging out the majority of the waste, I used a gouge and carved the steps away. I them mounted the vise and put it through all of its movements. Everywhere it left a mark on the rail was carved away until I had removed just the wood interfering with its use.





The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- Top Dovetails

My benchtop has an 8/4 Beech frame, 4 1/2" wide. The corners of this framework are dovetailed together. I cut the joint on the bandsaw, then chopped out the waste by hand.

A jig is prepared for the bandsaw, an MDF scrap with a mitre bar attached at a 1:8 angle.



A front stop and a fence at 90° is fixed to the top side. A stop is clamped to the table, this ensures the cuts are all the same depth.



My stock is then placed on the jig, tight to the side and front fence. The saw is started and the jig is slid forward until it makes contact with the stop block. The board is then pulled back and flipped to saw the other side. This allowed me to make two cuts per joint per set up, and it kept the joint symmetrical.

All photos are of test scrap, the same dimensions as the actual rails except for length.



I then screwed a spacer to the jig, tight to the fence, and the cuts are repeated.



A second spacer is screwed to the jig to finish the cuts for the three tails.





The pins are made by tilting the table to the correct angle, and clamping a stop on the fence. The fence is moved to cut each pin.



The waste is chopped by hand.



SUPPORT HEAVY STOCK.

I didn't support my long rails while at the bandsaw. They are 75" x 4 1/2" 8/4 beech, and I had to exert a lot of pressure to keep the end on the bandsaw table. My left hand slipped on the freshly jointed surface, and I nearly lost my little finger to the blade. As it is I have a large scar. Support your stock.



The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- The Legs and Base

The legs are bookmatched 8/4 steamed beech. The panels are bookmatched white beech, from the same board as the back panels. All joinery is pegged and ebony capped.



The front legs have tenons to fasten through mortises in the top.



Standing, with kerf for compartment floor.



Glued to carcass.



The compartment floor is tapered by bench plane.



The other leg set is glued to the carcass.



Corner blocks installed.



The drawer slide supports are glued into the centre stile.



Then that structure is glued into place.



The base!





The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs

Bench Making- The Carcass

The Veritas Tucker vise has always been my dream vise. In January 09 I found that it had been discontinued. A few frantic phone calls later I had the Winnipeg display model, the last one in the wild, on hold.

Several years ago the shop where I work had a job involving unsteamed white beech. That's hard to come by here, so an extra large order was placed. It came in huge plainsawn boards, 8/4, up to 24" wide. The remainder was in storage for a long time, so my employer sold it to me at a large discount.



I had my vise, I had my lumber, and last spring I moved shop, so I felt that the time was right to build my dream bench.

THE CARCASS


The back of the the carcass has bookmatched raised panels of white beech 18" wide. The 8/4 board I used for the panels was cupped quite badly. I cut it into three pieces, 6" wide, on the bandsaw before resawing. The six boards were carefully milled and glued back together. The kerfs dissappear in the straight grain.

The framework around the panels is steamed beech and carefully chosen for grain. All tenons are dowel pinned, and capped with ebony.

Several years ago our shop did a sheet music cabinet. It had viola pegs as its drawer pulls. The pegs were too long, and they were sawn off. The long tapering ebony shaft is perfect for capping dowel holes.



I'm using side mount full extension drawer slides, their supports are dovetailed into the carcass.



The right bottom shows a kerf for the floor of the hidden compartment, and a mortise for the divider.



I resawed a piece of white beech for the top and the floor of the compartment, severe internal stresses are evident. The last inch of this cut snapped open before the cut. The event was loud and violent and startled me, especially because my hands were fairly close to the blade.



I still got my panels from it, the floor looks good but the bookmatch in the top was lost.

The face frame is full pinned mortise and tenon. The dry fit revealed a foot room problem, so the bottom rail was arced. This required the divider to be tapered.

The top fit, the tapered divider installed, the face about to be glued on.



Bookmatched floor panel and dovetailed drawer supports installed.



The Blogs

Bench Making- The Carcass
Bench Making- The Legs and Base
Bench Making- Top Dovetails
Bench Making- Mounting the Tucker
Bench Making- The Top
Bench Making- Modifying the Twin Screw
Bench Making- The Drawers
Bench Making- Final Assembly
Bench Making- Completed Work
Bench Making- The Specs