The next stage in the bench build is to make the long stretchers.  I also want to make the deadman at the same time since it will ride on the lower stretcher.  The way I cut the joints I needed them the same thickness.

The first step, like all the rest is to mill the lumber and laminate.  Pretty boring stuff, but this part has something a little different.  I decided I wanted to cut the joinery for the deadman and lower stretcher before laminating.  The steps were like so.

1.) Hand plane deadman (and leg chop) surfaces

2.)Joint all long stretchers

3.) Thickness plane all pieces and make sure two “taller” pieces for long stretchers match thickness of dead man pieces.

4.) Cut joint for deadman and long stretchers

5.) Carefully laminate

6.) Joint and plane laminations

7.) Cut to length

8.) Cut Mortise and Tenon

9.) Clean up joints

Hand Planing

Since the deadman and leg vise chop are over 6″ wide, I cannot use my jointer.  I had to pull out my hand planes.  Recently, I bought a new (to me) scrub plane, so this was my first chance using it.  I also used my Jack plane to “joint” the surfaces.  This flat surface will go face down throug the planer.

After the hand planing dust and sweat settled I moved onto the jointer for the long stretcher pieces.  Next, I planed everything until I had two pararall and clean surfaces like I had in the past with the “pencil squiggle” method.  I also had to ensure that the four pieces that made up the deadman and deadman support were the same thickness.

The long stretcher dimensions were as follows

Front stretcher with 45 section:

3 9/16″ (2 15/16) Tall, 3 7/16″Thick, 43″ long (including 2″ tenon on each end)

Rear stretcher

2 15/16 Tall, 3 1/4 Thick, 43″ long (including 2″ tenon on each end)

Cut Joints for Deadman

Cutting the joint was pretty straight forward.  Cut a 45 in the stretcher and 45 in the deadman.  I laid out the joints on the boards so wouldn’t screw it up and set up my saw.

I cut the inverse on the deadman, but before I did that I needed some caffeine.

Carefully Laminate

After the joints are cut, now onto laminating them together.  Below is a picture of the sliding deadman being clamped up.  I made sure the surfaces near the 45  were as flush as possible.

Then I laminated the stretchers.  Once again, making sure the surfaces near the 45s stayed flush.  I didn’t use anything fancy to accomplish this. Just some clamps my index finger to feel for flush.

Milling the laminations

After the laminations came out of the clamps I cleaned up all the glue with the scraper.  It was pretty tough to do on near the 45 and I ended up gouging the stretcher  here and there.  Next, it was onto the jointer and thickness planer.  I could only get three sides of the one stretcher due to the 45s so I just used a shoulder plane and smoothing plane to clean up the the top surface.  It didn’t end up perfect,but it was pretty good.  I cleaned up the deadman with a chisel and tested the fit.  Not bad.

Cutting to length and Tenons

The tough part about this was figuring out how to get a decent tenon in the same area as the huge mortise for the Benchcrafed Crisscross.  The mortise for the crisscross is 1 7/16 deep  by 1 3/4 wide. I didn’t feel that I could get a very good tenon without going behind the criss cross mortise, so that is what I did.  I have an inch of leg material and then my 3/4 thick stretcher mortise.  For anyone reading this and planning on using the crisscross, make sure you get a plan together before determining the thickness of your stretchers.  I think I would have made mine one more lamination thicker to get a thicker mortise.

The layout took a while for the M&T.  The stretcher with the 45s in it was different dimentions  than the rear stretcher.  After layout, I cut all the mortises in the legs.  The leg that has the crisscross got a 3/4 mortise 2″ deep and 2″ tall.  The other 3 legs got a 1″ mortise 2″ deep and 2″ tall.  I made these stretchers a little higher off the ground for toe clearance than the short stretchers on the bench sides.  After the mortises were drilled on the drill press I cleaned up the corners with chisels.  This round of chiseling went much smoother and ended up much nicer looking than the last ones. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Tenon Time

Now onto the tenons.  I need some support cutting the long stretchers, so a rolling stand was in order.

The next picture shows how far offset the tenon is on the front stretcher to clear the crisscross mortise.

The other three were centered horizontally and vertically. Since the 45 degree section wouldn’t allow me to rotate the lamination, I had to cut some cheeks by hand.

After cutting each tenon, I would test fit, plane, chisel away the interfering material until it fit.  I was very excited to dry fit the base assembly.  So, I finished off my Sunday with this below.

I need to clean up a couple gaps (if I can) and start on the leg vise hardware next.