Living in a ranch built on a slab has some perks. For instance, I never have to run up the stairs from the basement to keep the under-the-stairs monsters from grabbing my ankles (sadly, still a real fear at 35). The basement is never flooded. I never hit my head on low beams. The only place in the house that smells musty is under the sink (still can't find that leak). All the infestations happen in the lived in portion of the house, which counts as a perk because I always know exactly who or what is in my domicile. I know, now I'm stretching it, but it's nice to have a positive spin on living in what is essentially a giant (maybe "giant" is too strong a word) shoe box.
Among the many issues that I have with this house, perhaps the most obnoxious, if not most serious, is that I have no place to work on my wood, leather, and other projects. So over the break I addressed this issue. We have a few rooms that we don't eat, sleep, or shower in; however, one of them is reserved for guests, one of them belongs, more or less, to the dogs and Bud, one of them is reserved for viewing MASH and sitting by the fire, and one of them is... no, wait, that's all the rooms that there are. So I built a fold-away workbench in the room that houses the dogs, the tortoise, my closet, and the entirely detritus covered writing desk. It fits right in.
I started by picking up some 100 year old barn wood planks from a guy called Charlie. He makes at least part of his living salvaging and selling wood from demolitions. When I held my hand out to shake his, he instead grabbed it, pulled it toward his face and inspected it. "Have all your fingers n' fingernails. You haven't been at this long." You can see the pattern made from the circular mill saw, here. Pretty cool.
I'm not sure what kind of wood this is. It's not quite as hard as I was hoping for, but I think it'll suffice for now. All the planks were a little cupped and needed to be cut to length (Charlie cut them roughly to 5 feet with a chainsaw so we could get them in the bed of the truck) and planed. I found this great old Stanley No. 5 at an antique shop for $12. The cutting iron was dull and installed upside down and the threads on the screw for the knob were stripped, but otherwise it seemed in pretty good order. I've learned a lot about planes from restoring this one, and it's not in perfect condition, but it functions well. I found a replacement iron on ebay for cheap, but I wound up putting it aside for later and working with the cambered iron that came with the plane. After careful sharpening, the edge has come back into alignment, but the corners are still rounded, which I like. Anyway, it does the job, and the job you see it doing here is flattening the edges of the planks in anticipation of joining them.
I know I posted a picture of this beer before, but here it is again. I really like this IPA, the rye gives it an edge, but it's nice and round and full bodied unlike some IPAs. It kind of became the mascot of this project.
I used a combination of power and hand tools. This little mitre saw has been with me for about a decade now and has done a lot of little odd jobs. Some day I'd like to get a fancier wooden rig and backsaw, but for now, this guy works just fine. Here I'm cutting 1"x2" "biscuit-dowel-tenons" to join the planks.
Here you can see the effect of warping and cupping. The bad news is that there was some, the good news is that, at 100 years, there won't be any new warping.
Using the chisels to gouge out the mortise to join the planks.
In what has become something akin to prophecy over the years, Nathan and Marjie sent me exactly what I needed at exactly the moment I needed it. I'd been looking at lots of different gauge designs and makes when this lovely little piece of inspired simplicity came in the mail. Thanks again, guys!
There they are, all ready to go. I got to use Grampa Cressman's drawknife to round the corners a little bit. Woulda liked to have had him to consult on a few things...
But I managed to get the planks together. The "negotiator" and the "persuader" allude to the precision of my joinery. Hopefully someday I'll look back on this time in my woodworking career and laugh because of how far I've come... we'll see. The sledge and crow bar may remain important tools. Maybe I'm developing a new style of woodworking. Fine woodworking has been all the rage, but maybe I'll be looked at as some kind of idiot savant of the course woodworking movement.
Oh my god! It's starting to look like a table. It was at this point that the thought of sticking some legs on it and dragging it into the kitchen came to mind.
But, onward, etc. Planed the whole top level... that took some time, but the sound of sharp plane is intoxicating.
Grampa Cressman's old Black and Decker circular saw was there to square up the edges. That thing is a beast.
Cut some joints with my new offset dovetail saw.
Doweled the leg braces onto the table and clamped 'em in place.
Drilled a 1/2" hole to receive a bolt
Chiseled out a spot for the industrial strength hinges and screwed the 2x4 ledge to the studs (pray that doesn't pull the whole house down)
And there she is! Already looking like every other flat surface in the house. Cluttered with stuff. Thanks for that particular gene, Mom!
I still need to cut the dowels flush and finish the surface. Also, I'll add a skirt around the edges to class it up, drill some holes for bench dogs and holdfasts, and install a bench vice. I'll post a couple pictures after it's finished and of it folded away. I already have a list of projects to work on, so this bench is gonna see some use.
