Building The Holtzapffel Workbench #7: Final Top Glue Up

Man, that’s a nice top!

With as much beef you have on those pieces more clamps wouldn’t have made much difference.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Hi Mike,

This is really beginning to come together. Did you use any biscuits to align the two halves together or did you just glue it up? I like the idea of using the planer to level the top. Much faster than using a hand plane and much less exercise as well.

thanks for the post. I am looking forward to seeing the final result.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

wow thats coming along great. i was thinking about building a workbench soon but if you say you needed more clamps i better get some more before i make a workbench. i think though that i will make an assembly table like Marc did because my concrete floors are nowhere near flat. i love seeing this project come along and i can’t wait to see the finished project. i eagerly await the next entry!

Gary you might be right, I was able to pull it together with what I had. The key I think was getting the the surfaces flat and square to each other. That wasn’t an easy task with their size. I did run them through my jointer, but it was hard keeping them square to small fence on my jointer. Overall I think I did pretty good.

-- Mike - http://inquisitivewoodworker.blogspot.com/

Boy, that looks really good! Will you be hand planing the surface for a final flattening with that jointer plane of yours?

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Yes it will need some hand planing to get the top flat, but it’s pretty close. When I decided to build a bench I knew I would need to plane the top. That’s one reason I got the large #7 Lie-Nielsen plane. I’ll be giving it a workout soon.

-- Mike - http://inquisitivewoodworker.blogspot.com/

Good looking top, Mike.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Mike,
With regard to the number of clamps used: The reverse of what you stated is true. The wider the piece the fewer clamps are actually needed because clamping force radiates out at about 45 degrees in each direction. As long as there is an overlap of clamping force you’re good to go. So on your top the middle joint has more than enough but the glue up of the skinny guy on the outside is probably lacking(if you glued all three pieces at the same time). Probably would have been better to use all the clamps on that one thin piece and then glue up the two remaining pieces later. To make an analogy think of edge banding a piece of plywood. If you rip the banding into a 1/4in thick strip and then try to glue it you’re going to need a LOT of clamps ( and have a tough time keeping it in place ;-). Better to glue a piece say two inches wide and then rip it to leave the 1/4 This exerts the clamping force over a much wider length of edge.

But at any rate that is a great looking top.

Mike,
Very nice top. Your efforts will be worth it both in the fine bench you’ll get to use and the inspiration to others.

Tom

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Looking great Mike, nice to see you’ve been making good consistent progress. Definitely on the home stretch :)

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

Thanks for all of the comments on clamping the top. I think all of you are correct. I now remember reading an article about clamping strategies. I think what grumpycarp said was covered in the article, now I need to remember which magazine I read it in. Did anyone see that article?

-- Mike - http://inquisitivewoodworker.blogspot.com/

fine woodworking last year some time

That top looks fantastic! I’m dreaming of getting to this point and having the awesome feeling of putting the jointer plane to a beautiful top like that. I’ve got a lot of steps before I get there, but, like Tom said above, this is an inspiration!

-- Kevin