Popular Woodworking 2003-12 № 138, страница 42

tenons' shoulders. Set the height of the dado stack to ⁵/16", cut a tenon on some scrap as shown in the photos and see if it fits your test mortise. If the fit is firm and smooth, cut all the tenons on the front, back and end rails.

Now use your tenons to lay out the locations of your mortises on the legs. Use the diagrams as a guide. Cut mortises using your drill press and get ready to install the bench bolts.

Big Bad Bench Bolts Time: 14:54 to 18:59

The set of bench bolts for this project set us back $20, but they are worth it. There are less expensive alternatives to this specialty hardware, but none are as easy to put together.

The easiest way to make clean mortises using your drill press is to first drill a series of overlapping holes. Then go back and clean up the waste between these holes several times until the bit can slide left to right in the mortise without stopping.Then you only have to square up the ends with a chisel.

You can begin installing the bench bolts by drilling a diameter x ¹/2"-deep counterbore in the legs that's centered on the location of the rail. Then drill a ⁵/8"-diameter hole in the center of that counterbore that goes all the way through the leg into the mortise you cut earlier.

Now dry-assemble the ends plus the front and back rails and clamp everything together. Use a ⁵/8" brad-point drill bit to mark the center of your hole on the end of each tenon.

Disassemble the bench and clamp the front rail to your top or in a vise. Use a doweling jig and a ⁵/8" drill bit (as seen in the photo below) to continue boring the hole for the bench bolt. You'll need to drill about 3³/4" into the

rail. Then repeat this process on the other tenons.

Now you need to drill a 1¹/4"-diameter hole that intersects the ⁵/s" hole you just drilled in the rail. This 1 ^''-diameter hole holds a special round nut that pulls everything together. To accurately locate where this 1^1/4" hole should be, I made a simple jig (shown in the photos) I picked up from another project. This works like a charm and I recommend you use one. Sometimes drill bits can wander - even when guided by a doweling jig - and this simple jig ensures success.

Plane or sand all your legs and rails, then assemble the bench's base. First glue the end rails between the legs. Glue and clamp that assembly. When it's dry, drill a ^3/8"-diameter hole through each joint that's about 2" deep. Then glue and hammer a peg through the tenons using 2¹8"-long sections of ^3/8"-diameter dowel stock into each hole. Then install the

We cut our tenons using a dado stack.We like this method because it requires only one saw setup to make all the cuts on a tenon. First define the tenon's face cheeks and shoulders (above).Then you can define the edge cheeks and shoulders. Finally, check your work using the test mortise you cut earlier (right).

bench bolts and use a ratchet and socket to snug your bolts and bring everything together.

Now screw the 5" braces to the legs using the photo at right as a guide. Turn the top upside down on the sawhorses and place the assembled base in position. Screw it down.

Dog Holes and Details Time: 18:59 to 23:02

Dog holes on a bench are essential for clamping large panels, holding table legs and even clamping difficult-to-clamp assemblies. Most round dog holes are ³/4" in diameter so they accept a wide range of commercial dogs.

We made our own dogs for this bench to keep us from blowing our $180 budget. (If your budget isn't as strict, we recommend the Veritas brass Bench Pups. They cost $14.95 for a pair. Ask for item # 05G04.04. Contact Lee Valley at 800-871-8158 or leevalley.com.)

Our homemade dogs are made

Once you've drilled the counterbore and the through-hole for the bench bolt, mark its location on the end of the tenon using a brad-point bit.

Drill a hole for the bench bolt using a doweling jig and a ⁵/8"-diameter drill bit. It's a deep hole, so you might need an extra-long bit to do the job.

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Popular Woodworking December 2003