# Workbench mortises and lamination question



## notdan (Aug 12, 2014)

I'm going to be building a workbench soon and I thought of a shortcut for the mortises. I wanted to see if it would work or if it is for some reason a bad idea. I'll be using standard 1 1/2" thick lumber for the top, legs, and stretchers. The legs will be 3 boards laminated, the stretchers will be 2 boards laminated, etc. So I was thinking, rather than gluing it all together, then chopping out the mortises, could I cut the mortices first (easily with a handsaw) out of the middle piece before gluing it all together? It would be like cutting a large notch out of the board. So on the top, the 2nd and 2nd to last boards would get cut. For the legs, it would be the middle piece that got the notch. I'm thinking the main trick would be making sure the boards are the same thickness but seems easier than chiseling large mortises. Does that sound like it would work?

I hope that makes sense. I have a sketch to help explain what I mean:


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## TheWoodenOyster (Feb 6, 2013)

Yes, that will work fine. You're right about it being way easier too.


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## JJohnston (May 22, 2009)

That will work, you just have to:

1. Remember not to put glue on the face of the uncut piece where it forms the wall of the mortise when you laminate the pieces.
2. Have a way to clean the glue squeezeout out of the mortises.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I'm trying to size up how big of a bench I'll be able to build when I get a bunch of stuff out of my shop and I'm planning on pre-cutting the mortises just like you've describe for mine.


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## Wally331 (Nov 8, 2012)

thats basically how i did mine. you can dry fit and then tune the tenon to perfect width or thickness by just clamping that front piece on. A lot easier to do before you glue it up.


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## Lucasd2002 (Sep 12, 2014)

If you're laminating boards for the legs and stretchers, the tenon can be an entire board, which eliminates all cutting for the tenon.

Also, see link below for tip about packaging tape for the mortise during glue-up.

http://www.startwoodworking.com/plans/rock-solid-plywood-bench


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## brtech (May 26, 2010)

I built mine that way, using the entire width of the board as the tenon. So, for example, the stretcher is two short boards sandwiching one long board. The legs are two long boards sandwiching two short pieces. The top piece starts a board height below the top, and ends where the lower stretcher starts. A short piece starts below where the lower stretcher starts and the bottom of the leg. The top stretcher drops in from the top of the legs so the stretcher is flush with the top of the legs. The bottom stretcher has to be inserted in the leg mortices. The legs do need a classic drill & chop mortice for the long mortices, because they go through the faces of the boards, but the long stretchers are made up the same way as the short ones. I chose to screw my top (laminated 2×4s) to the top stretcher, but I considered making the center of the leg stick up to become a through tenon to a top mortice, where I would have made the top lamination have openings for those tenons.


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## BinghamtonEd (Nov 30, 2011)

I haven't done that on a workbench, but I have done it when I lamintaed legs for a bed. I used a dado blade to notch out the middle piece, then glued up the 3. Way easier and cleaner drilling and chiseling. Just be sure to leave the mortise a hair deeper than the tenon. For through mortises, you can glue pieces to one side of the lamination, using your tenon clamped in place as a space, then attach the other side of the lamination.


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## notdan (Aug 12, 2014)

Thanks so much for the advice. I wouldn't have even thought about the glue, haha, I'm sure I would have smeared it all over. I'll post updates with how it goes.


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