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7K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  Beginningwoodworker 
#1 ·
Replacing an old bench

For the last few years, I have been doing the majority of my work on an old bench that was in my basement when I moved in. As a work surface for dropping old oily lawnmower parts or fiddling with a child's broken toy, it was adequate. For woodworking, not so much. The height of the bench is about 36 inches and the width was a little over 3 feet. The boards have shifted over the years and the surface was very uneven. The amount of nails and screws made it impossible to safely flatten and posed too much of a danger to my blades to attempt to reuse the lumber. This is what it looked like before complete disassembly -



I needed a bench with a thick, flat surface, some heft and rigidity for planing. I have a basement shop so the dimensions are going to be 5 feet long with a depth of 20 inches. Design is from a variety of sources including a weekend workbench design by Shop Notes and some articles by Chris Schwartz. No drawers will be added as I need a bench not a cabinet. Aprons and drawers will only get in the way of clamping so I will work on some cabinetry for storage in the future and will make a foldaway assembly table for finishing and assembly work. This will strictly be used for working the lumber into parts. This will not be designed as robust as other workbenches I have seen on here, but should fit the bill to end much frustration I have experienced in the past.

Legs are not mortised but half lapped with the side stretchers. The legs and stretchers are 4×4 generously donated by a friend -





For the top, I picked up some SYP from a local lumber company. They only stocked 2×8s so had to rip to size the boards. I ran the faces through a planer not to flatten but to give a decent face to face glue-up. Due to the amount of sap in the wood, I gave each board a wipe down of acetone. This was advised in an article by Schwartz as it cleans the surface but also evaporates quickly. Sappy pine can resist glue absorption so a thorough wipe down removes any substances that causes the pores to resist soaking up the glue. I utilized about every clamp I had in the shop (and probably came up a little short) and was able to get a decent face to face glue-up. After that, I used a scrub plane, jack plane, and jointer plane to flatten the surface. Scrub planes can be aggressive in stock removal. I have a planer for thicknessing so I actually set my scrub plane with a more gentle sweep so that I can flatten in a hurry, but not at the cost of losing too much thickness. After flattening and smoothing, I mixed some glue and fine saw dust to make a paste to fill in any slight gaps. Gaps were surface only (I didn't have perfectly flat stock) and did not run deeper than probably 1/8th of an inch. It just makes for a more pleasant appearance.





All the knots are on the bottom of the bench (that is what is currently shown) so that imperfections are not on the work surface. It will also make planning out the layout of dog holes easier because I will drill from the bottom and I can work around all knotted surfaces. I will add the front stretches to the legs, mount the bench top, and surface the top next. I have a wood vise I found at a garage sale for 5 bucks. It is a HF model but will suit my purposes just fine. I have a couple days off next week, so hopefully I will have some pics of a finished bench then.

Thanks to all for looking and keep the saw dust flying,

David
 
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#5 ·
Thank you cabmaker. The comments are appreciated.

Dr. Bertelson - I am not so cocky as to lecture an OB physician on the thought that all labor comes with some pain :) Fortunately this is not my first child so I know that the elongated head will eventually reform itself to be normal, the blue body will eventually be pink, and the crying only means it is healthy :)
 
#12 ·
You have really been busy buddy, looks really good. Got my 18" Ricon in the snowstorm yesterday, worst damn day of the year. Great guy though he slid all the way back to the garage and help me wrestle all 390 lbs into the garage. Tore up the yard pretty bad.
 
#13 ·
Thanks everyone for the comments. "No-nonsense" is a good way of putting it Martyn. A simple bench that does what I need it to do as adverse to a complex one that doesn't. Definitely not a slam against your bench Jim. That is an incredible piece of design and effort. I don't think I would describe my piece as Baroque and to quote a Disney pun, "If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it…" Dennis, always a pleasure to exchange with you. I may be absent at times but am still tinkering :)

canadianchips I like the look of age and appreciate character in any piece. Unfortunately, the bench was created by the previous owner of this house whose "character" is seen in many projects in this house :) His bench was a classic representation of poor design and the excessive use of hardware in attempts to cover it. I am glad it is gone. I didn't show the true gore of the piece, otherwise you would truly understand.

Mike glad you are not reporting that you lugged that megalith on your own. I will give you a hand with the beast next week.

Thanks for commenting Roger, I will hopefully have a finished project to display soon.

Thanks again all,

David
 
#14 ·
Wrapping it up

Had a rough for for a couple months will little time in the shop. Some for obvious reasons, the rest mostly due to work. I know my voice has been out there in the forums, but the majority of the posts are done from my work computer as adverse to the home computer.

I finished flattening the top of the bench and added dog holes for the hold fasts and the bench dogs. The top has been especially challenging due to the space in my shop. I don't like working in tight spaces. I have about a 20×15 space to work, much of it occupied by stationaries and lumber. Hard to believe that five years ago all I had was a miter saw and a drill.

I like moments when I feel like I am half way intelligent when it comes to a process. The dog holes I was concerned about. The bench top is slightly over three inches thick and I didn't want the holes to come out quicker. When I first started woodworking, I had the illusion that I could drill a straight hole by "dead reckoning." What I learned shortly thereafter is that my dead reckoner came disassembled and apparently has to be built up by years of experience. Getting there. Plan B was to take a strip of 2×4 and drill three 3/4 inch holes in it. I think took a forstner bit and put it in a handdrill and used the 2×4 as a guide. This bought me another inch and a half. With about 2 and a half inches to guide me, I took a longer auger bit and finished it up. The result was a series of holes straight enough to use for the dogs and the fasts.



I didn't want a bench made out of swiss cheese. So the holes were limited to 9 on each side of the bench with a series of 6 on the left and right side. Spaced out by the holes I made in the 2×4. I may have to add more, maybe not, going to see how this works for me. All I have to do now is just add the holes to the legs and mount the wood vise, The vise will cover up a couple of the holes from underneath but the low profile dogs I have will sit fully in the holes without obstruction. I will drill the leg dogs by following the same process as the top, so that I can mount a board on its side to hand plane the edge. No aprons surrounding the top as I want to be able to clamp around all areas of the bench without obstruction. I have come to the conclusion that my best option for utilizing my rough lumber is to hand plane the edge and the face and finish off with a thickness planer. My shop just can't afford the space of a full fledged jointer.

So, there you are, bench as is. Crude but effective, kind of like me :)



Question for fellow jocks - When flattening, I could not help but get tear out since I varied the grain direction of the top. I had to do a fair amount of sanding while attempting to not lose the consistency of the surface. My guess is that many flatten with planes and then use a high quality belt sander that has a true level surface to finish the job. Am I correct on this? Or do some of you have a planing tip to help eliminate that tear out?

David
 
#15 ·
Hi, David.
First of all, nice bench!
Have you considered a router sled jig to flatten the top? That's what I did, and would do again.
Check out the the various RS jigs available through the LJ search function.

Secondly, well-secured aprons of hard stock might give you added clamping edge at the four leg-meets-table positions.
 
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