Nicholson Bench #10: The Top

Over the last few days I was able to get the top on my bench mostly complete. I started by working one face of the boards with a jack plane to remove twist and flatten the boards. I broke down and dressed the second side with a power planner I borrowed from a friend.

Once all the boards were dressed I laid them out on the table and planned the edges square and put a little spring in the boards.

The spring allowed me to clamp up the assembly with only one clamp as I don’t have nearly enough of these in my shop.

The top then had to be ripped to width which was a little bit of a trick where I actually kneeled on the top while I ripped the lenght.

Here is the top in place but I can’t attach it just yet.

There will be a wagon vise in this top so an area had to be cut out of the top. I don’t have a bowsaw that can reach in there so it was chopped out like dovetails.

Here it is removed and ready.

One last thing to do before the top is attached is to cut some dado’s for the crossmember that will later support the mechanism for the wagon vise.

Now just a little clean up and the top can be attached and then the edges planned flush to the approns.

-- Mike, Western New York