Workbench Wednesday (a day late) – Cypress Planing Board Finished

With the sliding-dovetail “legs” installed I trimmed the dovetail tenon flush with the side shoulder and underside of the slab.  This allowed me to affix a simple edge-planing shelf.

Rather than punching through a square planing stop or two I opted for dovetailed end risers for my planing stops.  I find these preferable in almost every way since they require very little effort or precision (I just set the angle on the table saw and cut everything in about five minutes) and screw one half of them into the end of the slab, spaced according to the tapered risers.

I gave every surface a slathering of some ancient Moser’s Polymerized Tung Oil Varnish whose entry into my inventory is lost in the distant mists of time.  Each coat, thinned by about a quarter with naphtha, took three or four days to harden fully but I very much like the result.  It really toughened up the cypress surface,

Thus this simple prototype is completed and ready for work.  I found out immediately that it to too high of a work surface for actual planing, but when placed on my lower mini-Roubo the work height was perfect.

Now all I have to do is carve out some time to re-saw my walnut slab given to me by Tall Tom and make a pair of workbench accessories, a mini-bench and a planing board.