Workbench #3: All Done!

First off all; Merry Christmas. May you be surrounded by love on this special day.

Having some time off yesterday I dived into the project with gusto. The first order of business was to laminate the three seperate pieces of the top together. I used 16 ounces of glue to put that table together. And as you can see I dont have enough clamps. But can onereally ever have enough clamps?

I then finished the base and cut the shelve inserts. I almost screwed the upper shelve into place when I remembered that the base still have to attached to the table top.

Using the leftover rails from my son’s old Ikea bunkbed I then centered and attached the base to the bottom of the table. I was worried about racking and was pleasantly surprised that the base was just about 1/2” out of square. Nothing that couldnt be pushed out when screwed down. (Note that at least 6 hours have passed since I glued the table peces together)

And after some heavy lifting with the help of my children we flipped it over. The bench top alone weigs 96lb’s! That sucker is heavy. I was delighted that it stood level without a whobble!!! I added the shelves.

I unpacked my side of the garage, cleaned it, and moved everything back in with the new bench in place. I already loved it! Stuff that was on the floors beneath my sawhorse tables legs now had homes under the bench. The top shelv is perfect for my longer clamps and some other favorite tools that always cluttered the workspace.

Then I started sanding that sucker flat. Thank goodness was easy sanding pine because even though I thought the laminating produced a good result it became fairly obvious that it was going to take some effort. I cant tell you how many times I wished I had a belt sander, or a hand plane, or an industrial size thickness planer. But my little &30 random orbital sander performed marvelously! It took me about two hours to get it level to a bubble and smooth as a babie’s butt (220 grit).

Last night I wiped on some BLO and just sat there looking at it. I am very happy with how this turned out. I alo cant wait to complete my first project on it. Which is a make-up mirror combo set for my daughters birthday

-- “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” ~ JRR Tolkien