The end cap for the vise jaw had too many wood options and I really didn't feel like making another routing template to cut the part with. I've found that when I push myself to do something I really don't feel like doing it's better to do something else. When I get to that point I work on something that's easy to make and doesn't need much wood. This approach has several advantages. It keeps the woodworking momentum going, let's me use some of the ever increasing scraps stash, provides an opportunity to play with a wood I haven't worked with yet and yields almost instant gratification.
In this case it was making "square" dogs for the dogholes I'd been working on. Having the Sjoberg "loaner" metal dog, I had the pattern so it was just a matter of finding some scraps to make them from. As luck would have it, a friend had just moved to Southern California and left me a couple of boxes of his "scraps stash" - mainly 4/4 cut offs from a large free standing cabinet he'd done. Bubinga, padouk, black walnut, some rock maple etc.. What I think is bubinga looked interesting and it's certainly hard enough so that's what I used. The grain on this stuff is wild and I thought it'd be prone to horrible tear out, but hey - "it's just scrap". A very low risk mini-project. Turns out bubinga is easy to work with hand tools
A little band sawing, a little sanding, a little block planing, a little drilling and some small screws - bubinga dogs with beech, or is it birch, springs. A little more sanding and they fit the dogholes nicely. A soak in teak oil, half a roll of paper towels and I've got a nice pair of wooden dogs. The oil really popped the strange grain pattern in the bubinga, Looks like tortoise shell. Koooool.
Why not break out the UniMat and do a little turning? And as long as I'm turning why not turn a few in walnut and thread the ends? Damn, now I'm going to have to make some threaded holes in the front apron.
Then it was back to Das Bench - getting the top of the apron flush with the top of the bench core. Earlier I'd try to Neander it and plane the apron to the core top. Even with a very sharp Hock iron and chip breaker set to a very fine cut in one of the Stanley #5s I read he grain wrong and gouged a HUGED chunk of the top of one of the apron parts. That spooked me. Looked at the Sand Hawg (I swear that's the name on the side of the belt sander) and imagined the damage a lapse in attention would cause and reached for the Dewalt random orbital sander - starting with 80 grit to get semi-close and then swithcing to 100, 120 and then 180 as I got really close.
A block of wood with a nice square cut on the end and a nice flat bottom I began sliding it on the top towards the arpon. When it slid over the apron top I was good. But when it went "THUNK" I'd mark the area with a pencil to identify where further sanding was needed. Knee deep in spent sanding disks it was done. Went over everything - top and apron with 220 grit and then mixed up some super blonde shellac. Some gloves, a carefully folded piece of T-shirt and it was spit coat time. Wipe this way acrossed here, then that way acrossed there and in 15 minutes the first of many coats of shellac was done. Then it was wait semi-patiently for about an hour, sand lightly with 320 to get the fuzz off, wipe the dust off and do it again.
Between coats I drilled some 5/8" holes in the front apron and tapped the hole for the wood screws. Three in the face of the front apron will be used for simple vise like Ken Vaughn has on his bench