Time to cut out the sliding deadman. By now some of these steps should be pretty familiar.
![](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3NcySqPZRI/AAAAAAAABGU/piRLZd9T5Vc/s400/p2070033.jpg)
Ripping to width.
![](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3Nc0SVl2YI/AAAAAAAABGc/Fu-0khwnc_Y/s400/p2070039.jpg)
Jointing the ripped edge.
Before going further, I planed the piece down to final thickness. Since I had to take off about 1/4" from each face, I tried three different planes: my transitional jack with crowned blade, a metal fore plane with slightly more aggressive crowning, and my scrub plane, with the most aggressive blade (meaning the smallest radius to the crown). Then I jointed and smoothed both faces.
After having used the transitional for heavy work before, I was surprised and pleased to find the thicker blade in the metal fore plane made faster work of it. I measured the thick shavings with a dial caliper at about 30 thousandths. The scrub made about the same progress, but with deeper, narrower cuts. This is definitely a useful experiment to try with your various planes to see which one works most efficiently for you.
![](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3Nc2oLJaCI/AAAAAAAABGk/qKjQocgZ1FE/s400/p2070042.jpg)
Trimming to length. This needs to be a precise cut, although I still took a hair off the endgrain with the jointer.
![](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3Nc49AWnoI/AAAAAAAABGo/_vbQYwcNr2M/s400/p2070045.jpg)
Forming the V-groove in the bottom edge. First I cut down the center line with a tenon saw, then started cleanout with the chisel. I finished up with the shoulder plane, alternating from side to side.
![](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3Nc68IXKTI/AAAAAAAABGs/1unijvKf9mI/s400/p2070050.jpg)
Using a cutoff from the bottom rail as a reverse mullet to check the fit of the groove.
![](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3Nc9a46lEI/AAAAAAAABG0/j9RTMF2S3hY/s400/p2070051.jpg)
Cutting the half-lap tongue that will fit in the top track.
![](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3NdDg-kX0I/AAAAAAAABHI/rQPlV9GMTis/s400/p2070064.jpg)
Cleaning up the tongue.
![](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3NdBZLK_II/AAAAAAAABHA/brTGU3yvQy0/s400/p2070062.jpg)
A little further shaving of the top edge until it slid into the top track and dropped down on the rail.
![](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6qAGOXP58V0/S3Nc_DdCx9I/AAAAAAAABG8/Z7rMNvx7EVg/s400/p2070060.jpg)
The deadman slides smoothly back and forth along the length of the rail.
Next will be final shaping.
(Continue to part 15)
Nice work! I just finished my sliding leg vise recently and I am kicking myself for not using a shoulder plane to clean up the v groove on the bottom. I ended up using a chisel and a rasp and the shoulder plane would have been much quicker. Thanks for the tip for the next time I need a v groove.
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