Popular Woodworking 2001-02 № 120, страница 57
end assemblies that are joined by two rails. The end assemblies are built using big 1"-thick, 2"-long tenons. The front rails are attached to the ends using 1" x 1" mortise-and-tenon joints and the 6"-long bolts. Begin working on the base by cutting all your pieces to size. The 23/4"-square legs are made from two pieces of pine laminated together. Glue and clamp the legs and set them aside. Now turn your attention to cutting the tenons on the rails. It's a good idea to first make a "test" mortise in a piece of scrap so you can fit your tenons as they are made. I like to make my tenons on the table saw using a dado stack. Place your rails face down on your table saw and use a miter gauge to nibble away at the rails until the tenons are the right size. Because pine is soft, be sure to make the shoulders on the edges 1" wide on the upper side rails. This precaution will prevent your tenons from blowing out the top of your legs. Now use your tenons to lay out the locations of your mortises. See the photo at right for how this works. Clamp a piece of scrap to your drill press to act as a fence and chain-drill the mortises in the legs. Make your mortises about ^16' deeper than your tenons are Drilling the 3/s" holes for the bolts is easier if you do it in this order. First drill the holes in the legs using your drill press. Now assemble the leg and front rail. Drill into the rail using the hole in the leg as a guide (left). Remove the leg from the rail and continue drilling the hole in the rail.The hole you drilled before will once more act as a guide.You still need to be careful and guide your drill straight and true (right). long. This will give you a little space for any excess glue. Once you've got your mortises drilled, use a mortise chisel to square the round corners. Make sure your tenons fit, then dry-fit your base. Label each joint so you can reassemble the bench later. After you cut your tenons, lay them directly on your work and use the edges like a ruler to mark where the mortise should start and end (top). Use a 1" Forstner bit in your drill press to cut overlapping holes to make your mortise (middle). Now square up the edges of the mortise using a mortise chisel and a small mallet (right). Bed Bolts There's a bit of a trick to joining the front rails to the legs. Workbenches, you see, are subject to a lot of racking back and forth. A plain old mortise-and-tenon joint just won't hack it. So we bolt it. First study the diagram at left to see how these joints work. Now here's the best way to make them. First chuck a 1" Forstner bit in your drill press to cut the countersink in the legs for the bolt head. Drill the countersinks, then chuck a 3/8"-brad-point bit in your drill press and drill in the center of the counterbore through the leg and into the mortise. Now fit the front rails into the leg mortises. Chuck that 3/8" bit into your hand drill and drill as deeply as you can through the leg and into the rail. The hole in the leg will guide the bit as it cuts into the rail. Then remove the leg and drill the 3/8" hole even deeper. You probably will have to use an extra-long drill bit for this. OK, here's the critical part. Now you need to cut two small mortises on each rail. These mortises will hold a nut and a washer and must intersect the 3/8" holes you just drilled. With the leg and rail assembled, carefully figure out where the mortises need to go. Drill the mortises in the rails as shown in the photo. Now test your assembly. Thread the joint with the bolt, two washers and a nut. Use a ratchet and wrench |
