# First Workbench



## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

*Starting the Top*

This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.









When I got this wood (Oak) it was rough cut and laying on a scrap heap. I took the wood to a friends to get it cut into boards. The picture here is of my first batch of boards. When I realized I didn't have enough wood to make the top as wide as I wanted, I picked up some more (even rougher) boards and was able to get a couple more inches out of them to make the total width of the top 20". I wanted it to be 24" wide but 20" will have to do.









I started gluing up the top in groups of three. I used Titebond III and it seems to have worked pretty well and I hear others have used it for their bench tops.









I then glued up two groups of three boards together. I wasn't going to glue up more boards than this together because if I wanted to send them through my friends planer they had to be less than 11" wide. I decided, that since I have never really used my hand planes yet, that I wanted to see how flat I could get the top myself and if I couldn't do it I could always send it through a planer later.

















I started with my #5 Stanley Jack plane. This took a while because I didn't get as good a fit as I wanted to when I was glueing the boards up so it took a while to get them leveled up. The edges of the boards may have been level to each other but the top as a whole, as you can see from the picture, was far from it.









I then used my Record #7 Jointer plane to level up the top. This step went much faster than I thought it would.









Finally, I used my #4 Stanley smoothing plane. I couldn't believe how good a job these hand planes did! I don't think I'll need to use my friends planer at all now. I'm really glad I decided to try to hand plane the top. I learned a lot on how to adjust the planes and, sharpen the blades, and hold and move the planes across the wood.

I just have to do the same thing to the other side and this half of my bench top is done.


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## ShipWreck (Feb 16, 2008)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


Thank you for posting this project. I am a hand tool noob myself, and would be too intimidated to try such a larger project from the start. Have fun Nick, and keep posting some pics.


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## balidoug (Aug 13, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


Awesome work with the handplanes! well done.


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## AndyPanko (Jan 16, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


Looks good so far. Are your arms sore from all that planing???


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## Willeh (Dec 30, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


A great reference is Christopher Schwarz book(s) on workbenches. You're off to a good start, i look forward to seeing the progress. Schwarz recommends keeping your bench to a max of 20" wide for good reason.. When you build it, keep the legs front and back flush with the front edge of the bench top, that way you will have a 3D clamping surface. At 20" wide, you should be able to hang a carcass off almost any side and over the end if your bench to work on it..
Keep up the great work, an oak top should last a lifetime!


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


Thanks everyone for the encouragement! 
Andy: I was pretty tired afterwards that for sure but surprisingly this morning my arms don't hurt that much. I think the table I'm working on is low enough that I end up using more of my back than my arms.

Willeh: Christopher Schwarz is one of the main reasons I got interested in hand tools! I follow his blog and have some of his DVDs but I haven't read any of his workbench books yet. But in one of his DVDs, I thought he said that the optimal width for a bench is 24" because of a lot of cabinetry being that wide which makes it possible to clamp three sides to your bench top.


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## Sarit (Oct 21, 2009)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


I wonder if its better to biscuit or dowel the boards to get them to line up or if its better to just glue them up as they naturally lie so that the internal stresses don't cause the top to warp over time.


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## redryder (Nov 28, 2009)

NicholasS said:


> *Starting the Top*
> 
> This is my first real woodworking project. I made a couple small things like a dovetail marker but I count that as practice and this as my first real project. I did a lot of research and am taking inspiration from Bob and Dave's good fast cheap workbench and a little bit of the Roubo workbench that everyone seems to be building. I looked at a lot of benches people at LumberJocks have built and got a lot of helpful advise from people here.
> 
> ...


My first workbench top ended up on the burn pile. I wish I had seen this video first. I learned a lot that would reduce time and labor. It is four and a half minutes long from "American WoodWorker". Much to the point Sarit above made….....................


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

*Finishing the top*

I took a long hiatus from working on my bench but started in again a few months ago and. I put together the other half of my bench top just like the first half. I put it together in two halves because I wanted to take it to a friends to get it planed perfectly flat and his planer couldn't plane the whole top in one piece. I changed my mind though and did the whole thing by hand. At one point I thought I would have to give up because I just couldn't get the two halves square and fit together without any gaps. It looked really bad at one point and I stopped working on my bench for months and had pretty much given up on the idea of doing it by hand.








I wanted to get done with this step so bad I just glued it up and thought I would just plane it flat but it would have been impossible and structurally unsound so I unglued it and gave up … or so I thought.

One day I went to my workshop (ie basement) and sharpened up my planes and started working on the bench top just to try one more time before getting it machine planed. I didn't think I would be able to get it to the point where I thought it needed to be but I thought it couldn't hurt to try. I worked on the sides of the two halves for a few minutes with my newly sharpened planes and then laid them together to see how far off I was and to my great shock they joined up almost perfectly! A few more passes with my jointer plane and they were ready to glue up. I then planed the face side as smooth and square as I could get it and the top was assembled.








The bottom was still nowhere near square but I thought it only really mattered if the top was square and if I went to all the effort of squaring up the bottom I would lose a lot of the thickness of the bench top. I couldn't believe how nice the top turned out considering when I got the "boards" they still had the bark on them and were sitting in a pile of junk wood ready to be burned.

The top had a lot of holes in it so I filled them with an epoxy. I hope the epoxy holds up over the years. It seems pretty strong to me but that doesn't mean after enough years of the wood shrinking and expanding it won't just fall out. 








Now it's on to the base!


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## jap (Oct 10, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *Finishing the top*
> 
> I took a long hiatus from working on my bench but started in again a few months ago and. I put together the other half of my bench top just like the first half. I put it together in two halves because I wanted to take it to a friends to get it planed perfectly flat and his planer couldn't plane the whole top in one piece. I changed my mind though and did the whole thing by hand. At one point I thought I would have to give up because I just couldn't get the two halves square and fit together without any gaps. It looked really bad at one point and I stopped working on my bench for months and had pretty much given up on the idea of doing it by hand.
> 
> ...


good work


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## MarkSr (Oct 14, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *Finishing the top*
> 
> I took a long hiatus from working on my bench but started in again a few months ago and. I put together the other half of my bench top just like the first half. I put it together in two halves because I wanted to take it to a friends to get it planed perfectly flat and his planer couldn't plane the whole top in one piece. I changed my mind though and did the whole thing by hand. At one point I thought I would have to give up because I just couldn't get the two halves square and fit together without any gaps. It looked really bad at one point and I stopped working on my bench for months and had pretty much given up on the idea of doing it by hand.
> 
> ...


Good Job NicholasS, did you glue that top in three sections or just two? Just wondering, either way it was a tough job and it looks like it came out very nice.

Keep sending in the pics so we can see the finished bench


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

*The Base*

I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.









Next, I chopped out the mortises in the legs for the stretchers using a chisel. 









Then I cut the tenons on the stretchers. I used a small backsaw to cut down the cheeks and split the waste out down to the cheeks with a chisel. The process went much faster by chopping out the waste rather than sawing it out. 









I then dry fit all the pieces together and, while some of the joints are a little loose, I think it turned out pretty good for the first mortise and tenons I've ever done.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

NicholasS said:


> *The Base*
> 
> I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.
> 
> ...


a great start!


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

NicholasS said:


> *The Base*
> 
> I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.
> 
> ...


I love it. Whats next?


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *The Base*
> 
> I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.
> 
> ...


Now I am building the Shaker clock from Paul Sellers' online Masterclasses (https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com)


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *The Base*
> 
> I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.
> 
> ...


I see you made your tenons similarly to how I'm making mine… the easy way 

Looking good so far, keep at it.


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## MarkSr (Oct 14, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *The Base*
> 
> I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.
> 
> ...


Hi me again, been following your project, looks good. Just a quick question, and I am asking this for my own bench which I have not started yet, (still working on buildting the shop) but fighting to decide on a final design for my bench. I have noticed you centered your long streachers, instead of keeping the edges flush with the legs. Is there a reason that you centered them? I have found no real answers that explained why the differences, (except if you were working on full doors, or so). I am not criticizing, but I am asking if there was anything that made you decide to center the streachers?

And on the other hand I would ask anyone else is there a reason they decided to bring the streachers out flush with the legs.

Still learning a lot and a lot to learn. Should have used that for my signature sign off. Maybe I will right now.


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *The Base*
> 
> I built the base out of pine 2×4s. I glued up three boards for the legs. I used a longer board in the middle to create a tenon which saved a lot of time by not having to cut the tenons out by hand.
> 
> ...


I actually never thought about making the stretchers flush with the legs. Most of the benches I have seen in books have the stretchers centered, so thats what I did. I can't think of many advantages of doing it that way and as long as your legs are flush with the front of your bench top I think that's all you would really need to be able to hold long boards or even a door. Maybe other people who are more experienced would have a better response to your question, I am quite new to woodworking.


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

*Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*

When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.









I think I might have gotten a slightly nicer looking mortise by just using a chisel, but it was much faster to drill out the waste and chisel out whatever was left.










Next, I installed the vise. I cut a recess into the front of the bench and the idea was that the back face of the vise would then be flush with the front of the bench but I cut too much out but it should still work ok.









Finally, I drilled some dog holes/holdfast holes in the front and back of the bench top, in the two front legs, and three holes aligned vertically with the vise dog.



























The last step was to glue up the base and put the top on. I did not glue the top to the base to make it easier to transport. This bench took me a lot longer than I ever thought it would, but I finished it, and it was done almost entirely with hand tools.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

NicholasS said:


> *Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*
> 
> When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.
> 
> ...


very nice work!

those mortises in the top (and the entire bench) are HUGE, they don't have to look too pretty as they are hidden (top) - as long as they provide enough friction to keep the workbench together they are perfect. drilling them is much faster, and with proper planning, you can drill out most material leaving enough left over to clean up with a chisel to still keep it nice and crisp…. practice makes perfect. so far this looks really good. how tall is this workbench? it looks somewhere around 36-40" from the picture but it could be deceiving…


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*
> 
> When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.
> 
> ...


It's 36 inches tall. I read up a lot about how tall to make a hand tool work bench and heard lots of suggestions on how to come up with the hight but ended up making it a little taller than I thought I would need it. That way if it is too tall I can always cut the legs a little shorter. I didn't want to make it too short and have no way of fixing it.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

NicholasS said:


> *Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*
> 
> When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.
> 
> ...


you can always raise a workbench up by placing blocks under each leg.


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## MarkSr (Oct 14, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*
> 
> When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.
> 
> ...


NicholasS, great job, a lot of work with just hand tools but also twice the enjoyment and satisfaction.
Enjoy, you will never forget this, your first work bench.

Good Luck and happy wood working.


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## Kreegan (Jul 10, 2012)

NicholasS said:


> *Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*
> 
> When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.
> 
> ...


Looks good. You might want to consider adding a face plate to the back of your vise to bring it flush with the bench edge. That will allow you to hold wide boards much easier. A wood block with a few rare earth magnets embedded would work fine.

Rich


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## NicholasS (Dec 15, 2011)

NicholasS said:


> *Mortising the top, adding holding accessories, and final glue up*
> 
> When mortising the top I did not make a mortise going all the way through the top but only about 2 inches deep. I chopped out one of the mortises but drilled out the other three.
> 
> ...


There are holes in the back of the vise to drill in a face plate and that was my original idea and will probably be what I will do.


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