Hi. My name is Clif Palmberg. I've been reading oldtools for a year and a half
or so now, and figured it was time to ante up and introduce myself. I kept
pushing it off, and decided when I finish my major project, I'd show that off,
too. 

Vitals - Clif Palmberg, 26, happily married living in north Dallas, Texas
(Little Elm to be exact). By day I am a project manager for a yearbook company.
By night I am a wood torturer and do cruel things to unsuspecting pieces of
trees for my own pure entertainment. 
I began woodworking when I was nine. My dad did it as a hobby, and I was signed
up in 4-H (Kansas) for woodworking. My first project was a tic tac toe block
that was mainly woodburning (that was quite the rage thinking back). That
progressed through high school, with stops along the way to make a chest,
stacking bookcase, grandfather clock, curved-front chest of drawers, headboard
and a few other things. My dad had a shopsmith with many attachments, and we
would find a way to use power for even the finest or most intricate of tasks.
Insert college, traveling, first job, marriage, apartment, moving to our first
home. I was reunited with my woodworking bug as I graduated college and made a
nightsttand for my eventual wife. 
Woodworking in my youth, there was a few things I generally didn't like. The
noise, sawdust, constant threat of being one wrong move and not being able to
count to ten with your fingers. I discovered oldtools, realizied quality still
means something somewhere, and there is a way to enjoy the smell of freshly cut
walnut while still hearing the music in the background.
The rest is history, as they say. 

...

Enough about me. The project that gave me pause to post my bio. What would you
expect - a workbench! I'm a bit of a photo and web junkie (used to do photo
professionally, do webwork on the side). So, I made a quick page on my bench.
Check it out at:
http://homepage.mac.com/maclif/shopprojects/workbench/
Ok - my bench vitals:
7' 1/2" long 
 2' wide 
 33 1/2" tall 
 3 1/2" thick oak top 
 Shaker-inspired closed base 
 enclosed tail vise 
 shoulder vise 
 Woods used: oak, walnut, southern yellow pine, cocobolo 
 With the exception of two pieces of oak, the entire bench was made out of
re-used pallet material or wood from my grandfather's farm (ok, cocobolo was
given to me by a friend). 
 Tools used: 90% hand tools (disstons, baileys, stanleys, and of course a whole
lot more). 

My gloat - total cost of the probably 500 lb monster - $150 or so. 

Well, if you're reading this far into the long-winded bio, I tip my hat to you.
Now, pass the spatoon.

-Clif, Dallas Texas
  

	
		
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> What would you expect - a workbench! I'm a bit of a photo and web
> junkie (used to do photo professionally, do webwork on the side).

Absolutely beautiful, Clif.   Did you have much trouble fitting the 
enclosed tail vise?  What hardware did you use?

-- 
Cheers --- Larry Marshall
Quebec City, QC 
http://www.woodnbits.com

Clif,

You have a beauty there.  If you need a place nearby to store it for a
few (or more) years, let me know.  I would be willing to move my current
bench out into the rain to make room for it.  :-)

Frank Sronce (Fort Worth Armadillo Works)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clif Palmberg" 
To: "oldtools" 
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 9:38 PM...
>
> Enough about me. The project that gave me pause to post my bio. What
would you
> expect - a workbench! I'm a bit of a photo and web junkie (used to do
photo
> professionally, do webwork on the side). So, I made a quick page on my
bench.
> Check it out at:
> http://homepage.mac.com/maclif/shopprojects/workbench/
> Ok - my bench vitals:
> 7' 1/2" long
>  2' wide
>  33 1/2" tall
>  3 1/2" thick oak top
>  Shaker-inspired closed base
>  enclosed tail vise
>  shoulder vise
>  Woods used: oak, walnut, southern yellow pine, cocobolo
>  With the exception of two pieces of oak, the entire bench was made
out of
> re-used pallet material or wood from my grandfather's farm (ok,
cocobolo was
> given to me by a friend).
>  Tools used: 90% hand tools (disstons, baileys, stanleys, and of
course a whole
> lot more).
>
> My gloat - total cost of the probably 500 lb monster - $150 or so.
>
> Well, if you're reading this far into the long-winded bio, I tip my
hat to you.
> Now, pass the spatoon.
>
> -Clif, Dallas Texas
>
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
> http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
>
> Archive: http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/
> To unsubscribe or change options, use the web interface:
>     http://galoots.law.cornell.edu:81/read/?forum=oldtools
>

>Absolutely beautiful, Clif.   Did you have much trouble fitting the 
>the tail vise. What hardware did you use?

The tail vise wasn't too bad to fit. Before the apron, before the three rows of
1" wood I glued on for the dogholes, I very carefully made sure the entire
length the front edge of the bench was square to the top. After that, using the
top as a reference, I used my 55 (actually, my great-grandfather who settled
the fam in Kansas' 55) to plough a 1/2" thick and 1/2" deep slot in the edge of
the bench. Not changing any settings, I did this to the apron. 
>From there, built up the dog holes, carefully glued on the apron and attached
the endcap (held by dovetails in the apron, tongue and groove in the end of the
bench and two bolts with captured nuts). I made the vise jaw taller than
needed, and planed it down. 
Hardware - the vise runs on a pair of cocobolo slides - naturally oily and
sturdy. Where the wood contacts has beeswax coatings. The acutal screw is the
shoulder vise screw from lee valley. That made the setup about $30.
(Technically, the screw was a christmas present - thanks Scott!) 
If I need to take out the jaw, I remove four screws from the bottom, and
removed the slides from the bottom. 

I've got pictures of the whole process I can post if anyone's interested.
They're shot with my palm pilot and not the highest quality, but you can see
how it all works.

>If you need a place nearby to store it for a
>few (or more) years, let me know.  I would be willing to move my current
>bench out into the rain to make room for it.  :-)

If you can single-handedly move it out of my garage and into the back of the
truck, maybe. On second thought, Galoots are pretty resourceful folks and you'd
probably pull up with some sort of sliding dovetail contraption based off of a
pole drill to lift it. I'll have to pass on the offer. :)

-Clif in Dallas, TX

	
		
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I have received a few requests and questions on and off-list regarding the
enclosed tail vise of the bench. I added about 25 construction photos of the
bench in progress. The shoulder vise, enclosed tail vise and the journey from
pallet to bench are covered. Take a looksie if you're interested at
http://homepage.mac.com/maclif/shopprojects/workbench/index.html

Clif in Dallas, TX

=====
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free.
      -Michelangelo

	
		
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--- bugbear  wrote:

> Wow! *very* interesting approach to fitting the slab to the end frame.
>
>
http://homepage.mac.com/maclif/shopprojects/workbench/Images/02const.de-
tails/06rabbetjigres.jpg
>
> This gets a good fit, whilst removing a minimal of material from
> the slab.
>
> This maximises stiffness and mass in the top, whilst still getting the
> required fit. It also minimises labour, compared to fully surfacing
> the entire underside.

I briefly entertained the idea of surfacing the entire bottom. Very
briefly. Beside the occasional bit of nail still hiding in the bottom (I
forget how many times I had to regrind my #5 blade from those), I
thought this would give a better positive contact to the base.

=====
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free.
-Michelangelo



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> The tail vise wasn't too bad to fit. Before the apron, before the
> three rows of 1" wood I glued on for the dogholes, I very

Thanks for the explanation, Cliff.  If it's not a big deal to post 
the photos I'd like to see them but otherwise don't bother as your 
explanation is very clear.

-- 
Cheers --- Larry Marshall
Quebec City, QC 
http://www.woodnbits.com

All

Why is the tail vise end of a traditional cabinetmakers workbench, like
Clifs, unsupported? That end of the bench hangs way over from the legs.

Joe West

>From: Clif Palmberg  Reply-To: Clif Palmberg
> To: "oldtools"  Subject:
>Re:[oldtools] Bio and project completion Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004
>19:30:03 -0700 (PDT)
>
> >Absolutely beautiful, Clif. Did you have much trouble fitting the the
> >tail vise. What hardware did you use?
>
>The tail vise wasn't too bad to fit. Before the apron, before the three
>rows of 1" wood I glued on for the dogholes, I very carefully made sure
>the entire length the front edge of the bench was square to the top.
>After that, using the top as a reference, I used my 55 (actually, my
>great-grandfather who settled the fam in Kansas' 55) to plough a 1/2"
>thick and 1/2" deep slot in the edge of the bench. Not changing any
>settings, I did this to the apron. From there, built up the dog holes,
>carefully glued on the apron and attached the endcap (held by dovetails
>in the apron, tongue and groove in the end of the bench and two bolts
>with captured nuts). I made the vise jaw taller than needed, and planed
>it down. Hardware - the vise runs on a pair of cocobolo slides -
>naturally oily and sturdy. Where the wood contacts has beeswax
>coatings. The acutal screw is the shoulder vise screw from lee valley.
>That made the setup about $30. (Technically, the screw was a christmas
>present - thanks Scott!) If I need to take out the jaw, I remove four
>screws from the bottom, and removed the slides from the bottom.
>
>I've got pictures of the whole process I can post if anyone's
>interested. They're shot with my palm pilot and not the highest
>quality, but you can see how it all works.
>
>
> >If you need a place nearby to store it for a few (or more) years, let
> >me know. I would be willing to move my current bench out into the
> >rain to make room for it. :-)
>
>If you can single-handedly move it out of my garage and into the back
>of the truck, maybe. On second thought, Galoots are pretty resourceful
>folks and you'd probably pull up with some sort of sliding dovetail
>contraption based off of a pole drill to lift it. I'll have to pass on
>the offer. :)
>
>-Clif in Dallas, TX
>
>
>
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
>http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
>
>Archive: http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/ To
>unsubscribe or change options, use the web interface:
>http://galoots.law.cornell.edu:81/read/?forum=oldtools

_________________________________________________________________
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&article=et_pv_030104_lovehandles

Hey Clif-

Beautiful bench! I was about to comment on the fact that the top was made
up of endgrain joined pieces and that I thought that joining endgrain
resulted in a less than strong bond, but then I realized that since the
pieces are laid out brick-fashion, there's enough side to side glue surface
between boards to counter this, in addition to the dowels. I assume
everyone else knew this since no one said anything, but it's new to me. 
Nice solution in a world where cheep or free hunks of wood are getting
smaller and smaller.

Maybe I'll bring a case of beer over to the guys at the pallet making plant
up the street and see if I can make some friends....

Art Bailey
Queens, NY

I can't speak for history, but the reason I did so was availible materials. The
crossmembers of the base were only 52" long, so the base was going to be
narrower than the top. 
I spent many hours sitting on my sawhorse staring at the top sitting on the
base deciding what relationship the top and base should have. I decided on this
to keep the arm part of the shoulder vise fairly small and give myself room to
store my sawhorse under the end-vise side of the bench.
On the other hand, I haven't had any problems with it. I can sit on the tail
vise (I've never been mistaken for an Olympic runner) side of the bench and it
doesn't tip. I also can pound on that end with no ill effects.

Maybe that does speak to history. I like the space on that side to pull up a
sawhorse and draw out plans or chisel. Maybe historically the space was to
allow someone to work in a sitting position and still have the bench in front
of them. Maybe there was some resource or building method that limited the
sizes of bases, too. 

Of course, all of that is based off of personal experience and no direct
reference to anything concrete from a historical perspective. 

-Clif in Dallas, TX
(pumped Jason is daydreaming of my bench)

--- Joe West  wrote:
> All
> 
> Why is the tail vise end of a traditional cabinetmakers workbench, like 
> Clifs, unsupported?  That end of the bench hangs way over from the legs.
> 
> Joe West

=====
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free.
      -Michelangelo

	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs  
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover 

Clif Palmberg wrote:
> I have received a few requests and questions on and off-list regarding
> the enclosed tail vise of the bench. I added about 25 construction
> photos of the bench in progress. The shoulder vise, enclosed tail vise
> and the journey from pallet to bench are covered. Take a looksie if
> you're interested at
> http://homepage.mac.com/maclif/shopprojects/workbench/index.html

Wow! *very* interesting approach to fitting the slab to the end frame.

http://homepage.mac.com/maclif/shopprojects/workbench/Images/02const.de-
tails/06rabbetjigres.jpg

This gets a good fit, whilst removing a minimal of material from the
slab.

This maximises stiffness and mass in the top, whilst still getting the
required fit. It also minimises labour, compared to fully surfacing the
entire underside.

It's also a perfect "parallel invention" of what used to be done with
floor boards before power saws and thickness planers.

(summarising from memory, "The Village Carpenter" by Walter Rose).

A sash rebate plane was run done the edge of each board, with its fence
referencing the finished (upper) surface. This created a very good
reference for the desired underside.

This underside was only thicknessed across it's full width where it
contacted joists. Each joist "station" was sawn down to the reference
plane, and then the waste chopped out with chisels, and finished with a
carpenters plain skew rebate.

     BugBear