The objective today was to fix the problem on the tail vise mounting stock.
I realized yesterday as I was writing the notes for Day 26 pictures there was a problem with the mounting bolts for the tail vise stock. The sliding nut assemblies were engineered as two aluminum pieces so the bolt could move in accordance with wood movement. Well, I drilled all of the bolts holes at 3/8″, so if the tail stock moved the bolt holes in the top had no slack in the to allow the movement. DUH !!
I was so happy to have the top flipped on it right side. But…. It had to be fixed. I flipped the top back over, removed all of the bolts. I had a 9/16″ bit which would give me lots of movement room in the top. I enlarged the holes and was ready to re-assemble.
I did however had a little bit of binding in the shaft and the alignment of the tail vise was not perfect. So I took the chance to use a drum sander on the drill press and relieve ( fancy words for making it bigger ) the hole on the left/right axis. This worked perfect.
The tail stock back on, I got the tail vise adjusted and re-bolted the 4 bolts. These went in so easily. I was so happy. If you have ever messed with bed bolts, barrel nuts and the like, you know this can get really fun getting the bolt and threaded hole aligned. These came together like magic.
All of this completed, I flipped the top again. Planed off the tail stock piece that was proud of the top. I also finished chiseling the tail vise slot to gain an extra inch of travel.
In Day 28, I will be milling and sizing the shelf pieces. I also plane to start finishing the base and top seperately. This will take a few days.
Bench Build Blog Index
Please enjoy the full set of day 27 pictures with detailed comments:
