Portable Workbench Build Process

1/4/2021

Next up was the buttons to attach the top. I flipped the whole thing over and spread some buttons around the rim. I went with twelve buttons in the end, which is almost certainly excessive, but I intend to clamp things to the top and I wanted to be sure it was very firmly attached.

With the buttons spaced roughly, I used a 2 mm Allen key as a spacer to make sure there was room for movement of the top and used a punch to mark the locations of the holes:

As I was marking the hole locations, I also put a pencil cross on each one just to be sure I would drill pilot holes in the right places:

I was feeling paranoid about drilling the pilot holes too deep, so rather than relying on a masking tape "flag", I set the depth stop on the drill press and drilled all the holes there:

It was probably quicker that way to be honest: once it was set up, the holes were drilled really quickly as I didn't have to think about depth.

With that all done, the buttons could be fitted and the top is now attached:

This feels like a major landmark to me. I've still got to decide on a finish and then apply it and finally fit leather to the moving jaws, but it's essentially complete and entirely usable.

The dovetail guide thing fits really well in its slot in the dual-screw vice fixed jaw, but is too loose in its parking place in the side, so I'll probably add a sliver of something into that pocket to tighten it up.

Before committing to a finish, I decided to go back and do some more tests. The linseed oil test jaw has now had a couple of extra days of drying time and last night I coated the unfinished fixed jaw with Danish Oil to give me another test piece to play with (I'll stick with the leather coated moving jaw as that seems to work really well). I wanted to do the test with the same piece of oak I'd used for testing the first time round. However, last night I did a big reorganise of all of my wood to make it much more accessible - the ends of all the pieces are now visible so I stand a better chance of getting to any given piece. In doing that, I seem to have misplaced the one piece of oak I need so I need to do some hunting around now to figure out where on earth I put it!

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