Woodworking 101 Day 6

I fit the end rails onto the top today and made a few passes to mill the area where the inner front rail will be mounted and where the slide for the shoulder vise will be mounted. Until I get the screw for the shoulder vise or the bench vise in hand, I won't be able to really put the darn thing together as there are holes to be drilled and patterns to be traced that are justa whole lot easier to do when you can take one little stick over to the drill press instead of trying to drill a plumb hole in the side of a table with precious little back support. The same can be said about the bench dog holes. Much easier to do that once the dogs are actually in hand.

Of course, I should have ordered all those parts back when. But I didn't and now I have to wait. Especially for the shoulder vise which is out of stock but which should be available for shipping in less than week according to Lee Valley.

In response to a comment from GuyK in the last post:

The router table is handy but has limitations. It's a bench top model that I can put away and take out when needed but that means the top is small...very small. Guy, just make sure it's a good sized table. Mine is only a dinky little thing and when I want to do a long piece it can difficult with no support on the far end. One of the things I'm loking forward to when I finish this workbench is the ability to clamp a piece and be able to use the router on it. I might consider building a router table as my next project.

Another problem is that I only have the one router. To use it on the table and then have to take it off to freehand something is a real pain. The router is also an inexpensive, non-plunging type. Okay for the table but much less versatile for freehand work.

Oh, and don't let my writing fool you, I'm just guessing my way through this. The lumber is not the dimensions the plan called for. They used Douglas fir whil I'm using standard pine/hemlock from the lumber yard. Their 2x materials are 1-3/4" and not 1-1/2". The result is I've got to make adjustments as I go along. Sure hope the vises fit!