Jarrah Carving Bench Project

Finally, the carving bench.

It took HOW many years to get this far? It's finally ready to go.

carv bench 1

An early shot from the side with the elastic. I later installed
springs on the support struts. Overall table height is 42".

carv bench 2

From the front you can see the release mechanism and pull plate for the tilting top. The poplar legs of the piece are made exclusively with mortise and tenon joints. The 2 jarrah crosspieces (from left to right) are pegged, not glued. This permits me to drill out the pegs and break down the legs if I want to move it, though the frame, at 25" square, is small enough to fit through most doors with the benchtop removed.

git stand 3

This is 350 year old jarrah from Australia, also known as Swan River Mahogany. (Phullystash) The top is 40" wide, 24" deep, 7/4" thick, and weighs a lot. I drilled extensively for the Veritas bench pups and left 1/4" slots between the 8" planks for quick-grip clamps. This should allow for any conceivable clamping need. Now to make a few different shaped heads on wooden dogs to supplement that array.

carv bench 4

This is the lowest of the 3 tilt settings for the top, the highest being nearly vertical. This picture also shows the shelf on the bottom which I'll use for sandbag ballast. It's made from 3/4 shop ply and 2x3 poplar. the finish on the base is 2 coats of Waterlox followed by deglossing with Johnson's paste wax. The top got two coats of Waterlox as a sealer, then a brisk removal of the overlying film and a coat of apricot oil. This reduced the slipperiness of the top (versus a film finish) while popping the grain to show its full beauty. It smells marvelous, too.

carv bench 5

Here is the top release mechanism. I lost the first spring so I tacked a piece of cord across it to keep it in place. The pull is connected to the pivoting feet by the nylon cord. The feet hold the struts out so they can slide over the metal keepers. The top is tilted beyond vertical in this picture to pull the struts out of the way. I may put another cord on the top to keep that from happening, and to better secure the top in that fairly unstable near-vertical position. (No tipovers, please!)

git stand 6

This is the support spring setup which I used to replace the black elastic straps which tended to stretch too much and weren't as clean looking.

carv bench 7

Here's a shot of the release mechanism pull, drilled for two-finger use. (You can probably see why I replaced the elastic.)

carv bench 8

Now I'm off to prep some boards for relief carving...

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