Good progress this afternoon, even with having to run down to Santa Cruz for glue.
I decided to do everything I could to get ready to glue up the bench except routing the mortises for the Crisscross vise guide The main job was to get set up for draw boring the legs and stretchers.
I had some “curly red oak” scraps left over from the leg vise disaster so I thought I’d make some oak pegs. It was pretty straightforward, although somewhat time consuming to make all of the pegs. I’ll have to order a Lie-Nielsen dowel plate someday, but I figured I could make one that would do the trick today. I drilled two holes in a scrap of plain hot rolled steel plate, one 3/8″ (the finished peg size) and one 7/17″ (to use to rough dimension the pegs).
Layout Two Holes
Drill Two Holes, one 3/8″ one 7/16″
Then I ripped up an offcut of the red oak, chamfered one end of a piece and pounded it through the larger hole, then the smaller hole. It worked, but I was concerned about how much force I had to use. I decided that it would be easier if the pegs were closer to the right size so I fired up the lathe and turned them all to a round shape before driving them through the steel plate. It only took maybe a minute per peg to turn them round, so it seemed like it was worth it.
Rough Turned Round
Drive the Turned Blanks Through the Plate
Pegs Ready
Once the pegs were ready I decided to drill the holed in the legs and stretchers. I drilled all the leg holes, than assembled the legs with the stretcher, marked the location of the hole on the tenon, and then drilled the hole in the tenon offset 1/16″ closer to the shoulder of the mortise.
Peg Holes Drilled, Tenon holes are offset by 1/16 Toward the Shoulder
While I was Drilling Holes…
WHile I was doing this I was thinking about routing the mortise for the Crisscross guide, and the fact that the tenon is going to be right in the way. So I decided to glue up the front legs and stretcher so IU can machine the slot in one operation, including cutting away the tenon at the same time.
Front Legs Glued Up
Glued and Pegged
I checked the assembly for square after I drove in the pegs and it was perfect. By tomorrow morning this should be dry enough to cut the slot. I think I can get the entire bench glued up tomorrow!
