This was a hectic week with my wife out of town. I’m thankful for all the friends and family who helped keep us on track and kept us company. With all of that extra rushing around this week, a little shop time did me a lot of good tonight.
Tonight I took a step that was long overdue. I cut the rabbet for the tail vise in my workbench. I want to say my new workbench, but it’s been my new workbench for a few years now.
Just say cobbler’s children.
Now, though, I’m going to need that tail vise to hold the sticking board for the moulding. I’m also overdue for the shoulder vise and tool tray. Those are coming soon too.
Of course, a rabbet is an occasion for hand tools. I started with the rabbet plane in my gauge line. It was tricky at first, but I found that a more aggressive gauge line helped guide the rabbet plane. I was having a bit of trouble with the rabbet plane, and realized the sole needed jointing.
Here, my rabbet plane is getting a little help from a friend as well.
I switched to my moving fillester and found that it works very well, but the depth stop didn’t quite want to reach bottom.
After the rabbet plane got his sole straightened out, he was back to the rescue to finish out the rabbet.
If you’re thinking my tail vise is on the wrong side, you could be right (and wrong at the same time). It’s a left-handed workbench. Since then, I’ve discovered the benefit of learning to plane with either hand. Go figure.
Now the holes are marked for mounting the tail vise hardware, and that’s a good place to stop.
life, revisited 