FORP - Day 3

It was a hot and hard one today.  With most of the milling of parts complete, focus turned to the joinery of the bases.  I feel I got a lot done today.  I squared and made parallel both edges of my top.  It was a lot of work, using a portable power planer and finishing with hand planes.  Then I started work on the stretchers of the base.  I only got the short sides done, but I feel good about the fit.

The day started with cutting off the badly checked end.  This brought me down to just under 9 feet long.  Feeling a little like Crocodile Dundee here, "That's not a circular saw!  This is a circular saw!"

Then it was time to work the edges.

About lunchtime everyday, the shop dog shows up.  Wonder why?

Today our planing stops showed up along with some of our holdfasts.  These bits of hand forged iron from Peter Ross are truly beautiful!  They really are a treat.

After lunch I began laying out and cutting the tenons for the stretchers.  For these short ones, I chose to cut them with my handsaws.  But tomorrow I will probably use the bandsaw for the long ones.  The may just be too long to mess with handsaws.

Halfway there!  It looks kinda funny because the bench is upside down, but it is really coming along.

Hopefully by tomorrow's end, I will have an assembled base and my mortises cut in the top.  And hopefully all that will be left on friday will be fine  tuning and helping other folks.