After a long day of cleaning and reorganizing the work space, I was able to fit my tool cabinet above my workbench, and setup a decent work area. although this workbench is not 100% complete (some details that needs to be finalized), it is in functional state, and I consider it a finished project.

It all started here when I came upon an ad on craigslist of a bowling alley doing remodeling and replacing the rock-maple floors. they were giving away the floor slabs to any taker, this helped recycle the wood, and also they were able to avoid having to pay for it to be hauled away. After reading and seeing Karsons bench, and GaryKs bench, I was always keeping an eye open for bowling alleys with the desire to build a bench out of it, and so, when the opportunity knocked, it was very frustrating that I wasn’t able to actually go and pick it up, since it was way too big, and waaaaay too heavy… I decided to drop the idea and forget about it, when ryno101 contacted me and offered to join forces, and team up to get some bowling alley slabs – pointless to say – I jumped on the opportunity, which was too good to be true – get some bowling alley slabs, and hanging out with a fellow LJ. it was indeed good, but also true.

This workbench has been quite a bit of a project. more than I had expected, but all in a good way.

Working on a project of this magnitude sure does make any future projects seem more feasible. each mortise and each dovetail were huge and required a lot of work and a lot of clean overlap of cuts. I can’t wait to work on a smaller project where no such overlapping would be required.

there were almost every woodworking skill and technique that I ever did, or wanted to practice involved in this workbench, from mortise and tenons, dovetails, lamination, bent lamination, breadboard, and more.

This was a great project to work on, the benefits of the outcome are many. on top of getting a fantastic platform to do work on, I had a chance to practice different techniques, and get better at them. I cannot recommend enough to anyone that is thinking about it -to build your own bench, and to overbuild it as much as possible – challenge yourself! do more than you are comfortable doing! force yourself to learn new skills, or do the things you know – better! it’s a great opportunity to get better and rip the benefits immediately and throughout the project.

There are a few things that needs to be finalized on this bench such as the wagon vise, and a drawers cabinet underneath the bench, but those can be worked out as side projects while I focus some time on other projects for now. I do not use a tail/end/wagon vise much (until now) and mainly use a planing stop, so missing the wagon vise for the time being has no big impact, although it would be nice to have it.

I really like the leg vise (after I finessed it a bit), it moves real smooth, has a great capacity, does not rack at all (I was pleasantly surprised), and has a tremendous grab.

This project is blogged here and I will continue to update the blog as things gets added.

Dimensions:
32.5” benchtop height from floor
80” long
30” wide
5”x5” Legs

Materials:

Rock Maple for the top (bowling alley), and vises
Mahogany for Endcap, and trims
Hemlock FIR for the legs
Lee Valley tail vises for the vises screws

Finish on everything is 3 coats of Boiled Linseed Oil – first time I used this, and I really like it. it has a natural warm look, and since it’s penetrating oil, there is no hard layer on the wood, so you get the ‘wood feel’.

Thanks for reading,
Peace.

This is an old project, that I just ran across it’s photos, and thought I might as well post it here.

This was a storage cabinet for my NLE (Non Linear Editing) workstation (I used to do video editing, and computer animation). the cabinet was designed to be deep and high enough to completely fill the space under my desk to maximize storage space. it had 3 drawers (1 for paper files, 1 for DVD backups, and 1 for DV Media Backups, and raw footage). It also has a covered deep shelf for rulers, cutting boards, and other long/flat items that didn’t have a suitable place, and a top that was used as extra space to hold things when needed.

the cabinet is made entirely from 1/2” birch plywood, and was made with a cordless set of drill+circular saw (when I still had life in the batteries) and drywall screws… one of my first projects. the back is 1/2” birch plywood nailed in with pin nails and a hammer. then the entire thing was sanded and left unfinished.

Not really my FIRST workbench as I was using a couple of stanley foldable sawhorses/workbenches for several years prior, but this is the first one I built myself.

The top I got at a construction salvage warehouse. they referred to it as a “piece of wood” and sold it to me for $25. at first when I saw it I thought it was a laminated piece of maple, which was very exciting – but once I picked it up in one hand, I figured it’s most likely NOT maple. it’s some sort of light softwood. it was 24”x72” and made as a table top for arts and crafts table – not really for woodworking poundings… but it works just as well for that as well – just gets nicked a bit more easily then other materials.

I cut off 12” of it’s length, and ended up with 24”x60” top. the extra 12” strip I cut into 4” wide parts which I used for the vise faces.

originally I had the top mounted on a 2×4 that was mounted on the wall in our old place, which served as a foldable-get-out-of-the-way workbench, I was never able to really test it’s capabilities much as we moved from there shortly after I installed it.

I then read about building workbenches, and saw the video at finewoodworking.com where they showed how to build a basic sturdy bench – I used their general design, but instead of the MDF top they suggested – I used the one I already had, and sized all the parts accordingly. I also did not use their method of connecting all the parts using threaded rods, but instead, I decided to practice and made all the joinery glued Mortise and Tenon. sure, it will not disassemble for moving around -but this thing is damn sturdy I hand planed and chiseled M&T and dovetails on it , and it did not move an inch (I did have a couple of drawer cabinets in it though which added ~70lbs to it).

the legs are 4×4 douglas fir from Homedepot, and the rails and stretchers are pine/whitewood 2×4 scraps that I picked up from a construction remodeling site, as they threw these away with some other 2×10s

in the 2nd picture you can see I routed a slot in the top rails/stretchers. the top has fasteners that fit into those slots to keep the entire table together when moving it about, and when exerting force on the top while working.

I am now within reach of finishing my next workbench, and noticed I never posted this one, and thought this might be useful for someone that wants to build a workbench quickly, cost effectively, and one that is sturdy and can take the stress. this one certainly has, and can.

Thanks for reading,
Peace.

These are a few Hanukah Toys that I made for my daughter.

They are made of Apple-wood, and were the first project I got to use the bandsaw.

These are similar to a Top, but they have 4 sides, and a hebrew letter on each side representing a word in a 4 words phrase that says “a Big Miracle Happened There” if you live OUTSIDE of Israel (as the “there” refers to Israel) OR “a Big Miracle Happened Here” if you live IN Israel.

The miracle referred to is the miracle that kept the oil can full to last 8 days to light the menorah.

The funny thing is, that right after completing all the cuts, this Draidel would not spin- apparently the top was so sharp that every little thing would knock it off balance, I had to flatten slightly the bottom of these to give them a more forgiving pivot surface to spin on.

Happy Holidays everyone, and a Happy New Year!

So we decided to get our daughter her first bed. hurray!!

We thought a trundle bed would be the best solution, as it includes an extra mattress that we can use for guests/friends that sleep over. we looked around for beds that we liked, and the price ranges were at the $500-$600.

I figured I can build one for half the cost. and so it began.

The Posts
while driving around town one evening, I spotted some birch boards (mostly 3/4”x2-1/4”, and some 3-1/4”x3-1/4”) I immediately slammed on the brakes, put the car in reverse.. pulled over, and hauled those boards on my roof rack – I had some perfect Posts there!

I took the sizes of the boards I just got, and started designing a bed using Sketchup (one of my favorite tools in my arsenal). The initial design was based on the boards I had just picked up, and a frame+panel headboard/footboard – you can see it in this Blog.

Headboard/Footboard
I had then come about a headboard and footboard that were originally for a baby-crib, and were the width of a full size bed. since my bed is planned to be a twin size bed. I figured I can trim those down, and use the extra length of material to form some tenons that I can fit into my posts material. And so I did.

since the headboard and footboard were already fully assembeled and glued, it made it a bit difficult to cut them to size proportionally, and square to each other, especially since they had curves on the top part and didnt have any straight lines to be able to square anything to. But with the help of hand tools, a bit of patience, and a good amount of desire – the job was done!

The Rails
OK, so this is where money started coming out.. but not for long. I wanted the rails to be of exact size (1”x6”) and color (to match the birch posts) so I went to the local lumber yard, and picked up some hard maple. gotta love that maple! with a single coat of natural stain, and 3 coats of Poly, it matched the birch posts on the money!

The Slats
For the slats I opted to go with birch plywood 3/4” that I had laying around. I like the fact that the ply doesnt change with seasons, so it will not push and pull on the bed construction. Since plywood is somewhat more flexible then solid wood, I had the slats rather wide (9” each) and 1” apart from one another. not sure if thats an acceptable thing in the bed-making industry, but hey – I had it, and it fits perfectly, and seems to hold very well.

Total Cost and Labor
Mostly recycled materials!
Total money out of pocket is about half than what I’d planned for, and a quarter of what we would pay if we bought a similar bed from the store. plus, I was loving every minute of making this bed.

99% hand tools work (japanese saw, chisels, and hand planes) since working with the already assembled pieces took some precision work, but I love doing that- very zen like work.

Joinery
All Mortise and Tenons. the Rails are not glued, but tightened with bed bolts, and the protection-rail is just floating in the mortises, and can be taken out later on.

And Best Part is:
Telling your daughter that you build a custom bed just for her – priceless!

hope you like it, I know I do.

No, These are not BMW speakers – it’s easy to miss the fact that the middle character is a ‘&’ ... but it is. And these are so much better then any speakers BMW might have made anyways… lol

So I used to install home theaters in Los Angeles, and got this set of B&W In-Wall speakers. since I do not plan on cutting any holes in our walls (yet) as we’re only renting – I decided to build custom boxes for those speakers, and use them that way for the time being – until we get our own house, and can actually fit these inside the wall permanently.

Construction: 3/4” Birch Plywood for the sides, and 1/4” birch for the back.
Technique: Miter the edges to hide the joints.
Tools used: Circular saw to cut the pieces and miters (never again do I want to cut miters with a circular saw – ever!) and hand chisel to chisel out all the inside hollows for the speaker components.

not sure how well the plywood construction performs in terms of speaker resonance, I think it somewhat buffles the sound, but as a temporary solution – it works.

So we just moved back to Belmont from California and cant really finish unpacking as we have way too many shoes between the 3 of us to just have them laying around – we need a shoe cabinet. So I wanted to make something to address that issue, but also supply us with some soft of bar-top near the entrance where we can put things down – the solution = a side board cabinet made of 3 sections, brought together with a single top. this way – we can always use those 3 cabinets for other things if we ever move, or decide to change things around.

the entire project is made of Birch Plywood, with just the face frame made of ripped hardwood maple that I had around. For the entire project I used a single 4’x8’ sheet, and some scrap leftovers from previous projects to make the shelves and drawers.

Up until this project I was using a cordless Circular saw as my main power tool but after this project I decided to buy a table saw to aid with repetitive cuts and less overhead of measuring and positioning the straightedge and later trimming all the pieces to exact same size.

I was planning on making the doors our of single piece of plywood, but since I ran out of plywood when it came time to make the doors – I opted to go for the frame-and-panel construction method – but still use the plywood that I had, basically to maximize the plywood usage by replacing most needed wood with a 1/4” panel. * Unfortunately – when you rip plywood to thin strips (to make the frame for the doors) it tends to get less stable, and warp -so some of the doors ended up being cupped I kinda anticipated that- and for now, these doors work fine – and since it’s only the doors- I can always replace them later on with hardwood made frame-and-panel version. so all in all – the cabinet turned out pretty nice, and works like a charm, and we love the unfinished color of it too.