# Split Top Roubo Bench Build



## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Preparing for the build*

Like many of us I have looked at all of those pictures of other people's roubo workbenches with a jealous eye for quite some time. The ones built with Benchcrafted hardware just seemed to be top notch in quality, and they look like woodworker candy. I've had this build on my to-do list since 2011 because I don't have a woodworking bench with woodworking vises or anything to hold my work down. I'm forced to use my old Unisaw as a bench and the best I can do is use a clamp to hold a piece down, and it's not easy nor is it very efficient. What I need is a real woodworking bench.

Last October I decided I was going to build it so I re-arranged the stuff in my garage/workshop to see if I had the room, and I did, barely. I can fit an 84" long bench in there but I have to build a mobile cabinet for the planer/spindle sander/belt sander. With the space issue figured out I went ahead and took out my old general working bench made from tubafors and plywood and used it's pieces to build a smaller bench in my shed. I resolved to work on no further projects until the bench is done.










Mmmmm, candy.










My first batch of 8/4 Hard maple. More to come next week.

I placed my order at Benchcrafted on the first week of January (yes this was my resolution for 2015) for the bench builders kit. I bought the Glide M Solo kit and it arrived just yesterday Feb 9th. Today I drove up to Portland, about an hour drive one way, and went to Crosscut Hardwoods. They have the best price on 8/4 eastern hard maple I've found recently at 5.29/BF. I just got home with about half of what I need. I was able to pick through the pile and I needed either 10" or 5-6" wide boards to reduce scrap but most of what they had left was 7-8" wide stock. So I have to wait 'till next week when they get their next shipment and I'll go back up and try to finish the load.

I've been wanting to do this project in the worst way, and I know it's going to be fun and challenging. I hope you return to read about it in the next several weeks.


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## djang000 (Jul 24, 2012)

ic3ss said:


> *Preparing for the build*
> 
> Like many of us I have looked at all of those pictures of other people's roubo workbenches with a jealous eye for quite some time. The ones built with Benchcrafted hardware just seemed to be top notch in quality, and they look like woodworker candy. I've had this build on my to-do list since 2011 because I don't have a woodworking bench with woodworking vises or anything to hold my work down. I'm forced to use my old Unisaw as a bench and the best I can do is use a clamp to hold a piece down, and it's not easy nor is it very efficient. What I need is a real woodworking bench.
> 
> ...


I'm myself in the process; I'll follow your progress with great interest!


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## kenn (Mar 19, 2008)

ic3ss said:


> *Preparing for the build*
> 
> Like many of us I have looked at all of those pictures of other people's roubo workbenches with a jealous eye for quite some time. The ones built with Benchcrafted hardware just seemed to be top notch in quality, and they look like woodworker candy. I've had this build on my to-do list since 2011 because I don't have a woodworking bench with woodworking vises or anything to hold my work down. I'm forced to use my old Unisaw as a bench and the best I can do is use a clamp to hold a piece down, and it's not easy nor is it very efficient. What I need is a real woodworking bench.
> 
> ...


Good luck, a bench makes a difference in how you work, I think you must have one to do "serious" woodwork. I will be watching your progress as well.


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## daddywoofdawg (Feb 1, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Preparing for the build*
> 
> Like many of us I have looked at all of those pictures of other people's roubo workbenches with a jealous eye for quite some time. The ones built with Benchcrafted hardware just seemed to be top notch in quality, and they look like woodworker candy. I've had this build on my to-do list since 2011 because I don't have a woodworking bench with woodworking vises or anything to hold my work down. I'm forced to use my old Unisaw as a bench and the best I can do is use a clamp to hold a piece down, and it's not easy nor is it very efficient. What I need is a real woodworking bench.
> 
> ...


I'm trying to figure out how high I would need, I see the palm of your hand,but being in a wheelchair that would almost be the floor,so should I go elbow height? any thoughts from anyone?


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Preparing for the build*
> 
> Like many of us I have looked at all of those pictures of other people's roubo workbenches with a jealous eye for quite some time. The ones built with Benchcrafted hardware just seemed to be top notch in quality, and they look like woodworker candy. I've had this build on my to-do list since 2011 because I don't have a woodworking bench with woodworking vises or anything to hold my work down. I'm forced to use my old Unisaw as a bench and the best I can do is use a clamp to hold a piece down, and it's not easy nor is it very efficient. What I need is a real woodworking bench.
> 
> ...


Woofdawg,

I remember, in my internet travels reading about this bench, a version that the person said it was for wheelchair access. I remember because it looked very different. When I get time in the next couple of days I'll try to find that for you. Good question.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Still gathering supplies*

So this is taking too long, I'm impatient. I called the wood supplier last week and was told that more 8/4 hard maple would be in the store on Tuesday. I called Tuesday and was told Wednesday. Called Wednesday and was told Thursday. I give up, so I went south to anther supplier in Eugene and I was only able to find one suitable board to complete the legs and one really nice 8/4 piece of walnut for the chop and the deadman. While I was there I got a call from the shop in portland that they had indeed received the batch of hard maple. This was all yesterday, so today I went up and was able to almost fill out my materials list except two boards for the top and a small chunk of walnut for the end cap.

I got it all home and stacked. My sawhorses are feelin' the strain. The seem to be holding up well though.




























I have enough to start though. I have to work tomorrow and I have a new ripping blade arriving on Monday, so I should be able to start milling boards on Monday. I have enough top boards to do all of the laminations except the dog hole strip and the face strip so I should be able to get all of the first round of top glue-ups done then.

Well, that's all I can talk about for now. The work starts for real on Monday. Woo-Hoo!

Wayne


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## djang000 (Jul 24, 2012)

ic3ss said:


> *Still gathering supplies*
> 
> So this is taking too long, I'm impatient. I called the wood supplier last week and was told that more 8/4 hard maple would be in the store on Tuesday. I called Tuesday and was told Wednesday. Called Wednesday and was told Thursday. I give up, so I went south to anther supplier in Eugene and I was only able to find one suitable board to complete the legs and one really nice 8/4 piece of walnut for the chop and the deadman. While I was there I got a call from the shop in portland that they had indeed received the batch of hard maple. This was all yesterday, so today I went up and was able to almost fill out my materials list except two boards for the top and a small chunk of walnut for the end cap.
> 
> ...


Carefull with the sawhorses. I had similar in plastic where my top was resting for a glue up. And I got wake up in the middle of the night by a loud noise. Went downstair to see my top on the floor. It created 2 nice holes in the laminated floor where the clamp hit first. The glue up was still intact though!


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Still gathering supplies*
> 
> So this is taking too long, I'm impatient. I called the wood supplier last week and was told that more 8/4 hard maple would be in the store on Tuesday. I called Tuesday and was told Wednesday. Called Wednesday and was told Thursday. I give up, so I went south to anther supplier in Eugene and I was only able to find one suitable board to complete the legs and one really nice 8/4 piece of walnut for the chop and the deadman. While I was there I got a call from the shop in portland that they had indeed received the batch of hard maple. This was all yesterday, so today I went up and was able to almost fill out my materials list except two boards for the top and a small chunk of walnut for the end cap.
> 
> ...


I thought about it when I got it home. They have a slight bow to them right now. Today my new ripping blade arrives so now I can unload the saw horses and start working.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Milling*

I was tasked by my boss to modify a part for the machines that I work on. A 6' long and half inch square piece of plastic that is a guide rail. I had to rip it on the table saw and ream out the screw holes. I made them order me a special plastic cutting blade that arrived on Monday. Last week in anticipation for continuing my bench build, I had ordered a new ripping blade so consequently I was on hold until both blades arrived. The plastic one came first so I got that little job out of the way first, then put on my ripping blade. A Freud LU87R010 24 tooth flat tip grind blade. Man, I'm telling you this is night - and - day compared to the 50 tooth combination blade that I smoked last week trying to rip this 8/4 hard maple. It left a good finish when it was good, but even when it wasn't so good, it still wasn't bad. When the grain is straight, it just motors through it with no issues.

I digress. . . . On to the project. I first started off my picking and choosing which boards will supply which parts of the bench. I thought I'd had this already done at the lumber yard but taking a second look at these boards kind of made me sick. The end grain checking on some of them was just horrendous and I had to re-arrange many pieces as a result. So now I'm missing only a half of a leg, and about half of the shelf boards, and one plank for the top.

My first mistake was that I didn't wear work gloves while milling these things. I did a little bit of cutting yesterday but the bulk of the work was done today, and I just came in from cleaning up the garage and jumped in the shower and it was then I realized how many nicks, cuts, and slivers I had accumulated today. It was rather a painful lesson.



















The planer got a lifetime workout today, I milled the legs, the short and long rails, and all of the top boards. I just wanted to focus on the back half for now, so the drawing says the back top half should be 11 3/16" wide. It uses 7 boards in the pictures so I selected 7 boards and continued running them through the planer until the stack with a clamp on it measured 11 3/16" wide. This little process produced the biggest pile of sawdust and shavings I've ever made. When it was done I was feeling it in my back so I went to glue up the first planks.




























I wanted to take this part in bites so I selected 3 boards, arranged them the way I wanted them to show and went to work. The mistake I made here is that I used Titebond 2. It took much longer that I thought it would to get the glue spread on both faces, put them together, spread glue on the other two faces, put them together, line them up and get all of the clamps on. It was an ugly process but I think I did ok. The boards are lined up pretty well. I don't have a biscuit joiner and can't afford a domino so it's all done by eye. Lesson here is: Use Titebond 1 for longer working time, and get a glue roller. This credit card thing is ok for small surfaces, but is totally outmoded on glue ups of this size.










So I have more planing to do for the front half but that's later. I also final-ripped all of the back half boards to a width of 4 3/8" at glue up time. I want to make sure I have enough to end up with no less than 4" thick.










Well, my back is trashed, my hands are cut, my arms are tired, and somehow I ended up with a charlie-horse in my right forearm. Not sure how that happened, but I have to start my work week tomorrow so I gotta go.

More next week.

Wayne


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## HerbC (Jul 28, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Milling*
> 
> I was tasked by my boss to modify a part for the machines that I work on. A 6' long and half inch square piece of plastic that is a guide rail. I had to rip it on the table saw and ream out the screw holes. I made them order me a special plastic cutting blade that arrived on Monday. Last week in anticipation for continuing my bench build, I had ordered a new ripping blade so consequently I was on hold until both blades arrived. The plastic one came first so I got that little job out of the way first, then put on my ripping blade. A Freud LU87R010 24 tooth flat tip grind blade. Man, I'm telling you this is night - and - day compared to the 50 tooth combination blade that I smoked last week trying to rip this 8/4 hard maple. It left a good finish when it was good, but even when it wasn't so good, it still wasn't bad. When the grain is straight, it just motors through it with no issues.
> 
> ...


"My first mistake was that I didn't wear work gloves while milling these things. ..."

No, that was not a mistake. Read how I had my accident and see that it was largely due to wearing gloves while working with woodworking machinery: My Story

Good luck with your build but remember…

Be Careful!

Herb


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Milling*
> 
> I was tasked by my boss to modify a part for the machines that I work on. A 6' long and half inch square piece of plastic that is a guide rail. I had to rip it on the table saw and ream out the screw holes. I made them order me a special plastic cutting blade that arrived on Monday. Last week in anticipation for continuing my bench build, I had ordered a new ripping blade so consequently I was on hold until both blades arrived. The plastic one came first so I got that little job out of the way first, then put on my ripping blade. A Freud LU87R010 24 tooth flat tip grind blade. Man, I'm telling you this is night - and - day compared to the 50 tooth combination blade that I smoked last week trying to rip this 8/4 hard maple. It left a good finish when it was good, but even when it wasn't so good, it still wasn't bad. When the grain is straight, it just motors through it with no issues.
> 
> ...


What planer do you have? Is that a Delta? My planer snipes so bad the Boy Scouts keep coming over for their hunts.

I've got a workbench that has been on hold for a long time while I make the bar clamps that will hold the top together.

Good to know about Tightbond II. I use the original because it's the cheapest, and didn't notice a glue-drying-too-soon problem.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Milling*
> 
> I was tasked by my boss to modify a part for the machines that I work on. A 6' long and half inch square piece of plastic that is a guide rail. I had to rip it on the table saw and ream out the screw holes. I made them order me a special plastic cutting blade that arrived on Monday. Last week in anticipation for continuing my bench build, I had ordered a new ripping blade so consequently I was on hold until both blades arrived. The plastic one came first so I got that little job out of the way first, then put on my ripping blade. A Freud LU87R010 24 tooth flat tip grind blade. Man, I'm telling you this is night - and - day compared to the 50 tooth combination blade that I smoked last week trying to rip this 8/4 hard maple. It left a good finish when it was good, but even when it wasn't so good, it still wasn't bad. When the grain is straight, it just motors through it with no issues.
> 
> ...


It's the delta 22-590. It works pretty well, although the rollers allow the wood feed to stall if they get too dirty. Keeping them clean helps but I've never had that problem with a planer before.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*More gluing*

Since I began woodworking almost five years ago and slowly building my shop, one of the things that has proven difficult for me to prioritize was buying clamps. We all know the old saying "You can't have enough clamps". And while this is true, the projects that I have mostly done didn't require very many clamps. And the larger projects I did, I just made do with what I had. This bench project has spurred me to start buying parallel clamps, but at $40 + a pop and with so many other things to buy for this project including wood, I fell behind on buying clamps and barely have enough to laminate the top halves. And while my lamination is drying, I have no clamps to glue the legs or the other top half or anything else at the same time. What a pain.










I had glued up three boards last week, and yesterday I glued up four using a brand new bottle of Titebond 3. The stack of four dried overnight and today I glued the stacks together. One snag: One of the stacks seemed to have a bow in it. I found I could clamp them together but the smaller stack just bent around the bow. I took this opportunity to run it through the jointer a few times and it flattened it out. This was no easy task on a 6" jointer but I got it done.



















I had fired up the planer yesterday and got all boards to final thickness. This is more sawdust I've ever made.

So with the back half in it's final glue up I made a router jig to cut out the dog holes. I used a piece of MDF that I had laying around, drew my outline from the drawings, and glued on two guides for the router, and then glued on a fence. After it was dry enough I ran the router along the guides and cut the template. I then used the template to draw out the dog holes, spacing them according to the drawing. My top is going to be 84" long instead of the 87" as designed and I'm cutting from the left end by the leg vise so it won't interfere with the end vise. That whole thing is rather particular about dimensions so I don't want to mess with adjusting anything down there.
































































As a result of me shortening my top, I have to take out one dog hole, so there will only be two instead of three dog holes to the left of the leg vise.

I also put my combination blade back on, it's all clean now, and cut the long and short rails to final length. That blade is sweet when it's clean. I tortured it a couple of weeks ago and wasn't sure if it was ok, well it did a great job today. I took off my new 24 tooth flat top grind ripping blade and cleaned it today. It had a bit of pitch on the teeth and I just wanted to keep it cutting sweet.

This is my four day weekend so I have two more days to work. Tomorrow I'll glue up a few boards for the front half, then figure out a way to flatten the bottom of the top. I think I'll do what the Wood Whisperer did and make a router sled. It's time consuming, especially since I don't have a large diameter bit, but I don't have a solid surface to mount this thing on to hand plane it, and I really don't want to try passing in over the jointer.

Bye for now,

Wayne


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## siavosh (Apr 11, 2013)

ic3ss said:


> *More gluing*
> 
> Since I began woodworking almost five years ago and slowly building my shop, one of the things that has proven difficult for me to prioritize was buying clamps. We all know the old saying "You can't have enough clamps". And while this is true, the projects that I have mostly done didn't require very many clamps. And the larger projects I did, I just made do with what I had. This bench project has spurred me to start buying parallel clamps, but at $40 + a pop and with so many other things to buy for this project including wood, I fell behind on buying clamps and barely have enough to laminate the top halves. And while my lamination is drying, I have no clamps to glue the legs or the other top half or anything else at the same time. What a pain.
> 
> ...


Build is coming along nicely. That bench top is going to be indestructible!


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *More gluing*
> 
> Since I began woodworking almost five years ago and slowly building my shop, one of the things that has proven difficult for me to prioritize was buying clamps. We all know the old saying "You can't have enough clamps". And while this is true, the projects that I have mostly done didn't require very many clamps. And the larger projects I did, I just made do with what I had. This bench project has spurred me to start buying parallel clamps, but at $40 + a pop and with so many other things to buy for this project including wood, I fell behind on buying clamps and barely have enough to laminate the top halves. And while my lamination is drying, I have no clamps to glue the legs or the other top half or anything else at the same time. What a pain.
> 
> ...


I'm keenly following this series, as I am in the long, detoured process of building a workbench myself. I, too can not justify spending oodles of money on clamps, knowing how much they cost and knowing how many I need ( is "more" a number? Close to infinity?). My bench is going to be about 3' by 8' by 39" tall.

For the clamps, I am making 16 bar clamps using Izzy Swan's method as described here:

Izzy bar clamps

My bench is being made with 2×4s, and I'm not even milling them up at all. I, too will be using The Wood Whisperer's router sled approach for flattening the top. I only hope that by the time I am done, I have more than a 1/2 inch of top left!

I really like your method of creating the dog holes, and wish I had known about it before I put in mine. My method was to buy a 1×3 board (should have used 1×4, but oh, well), and cut it into small pieces, and then glue those pieces onto another board, leaving a 3/4 inch gap between each (as measured by the edge of a piece of the 1×3 itself). Your method looks much more accurate.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *More gluing*
> 
> Since I began woodworking almost five years ago and slowly building my shop, one of the things that has proven difficult for me to prioritize was buying clamps. We all know the old saying "You can't have enough clamps". And while this is true, the projects that I have mostly done didn't require very many clamps. And the larger projects I did, I just made do with what I had. This bench project has spurred me to start buying parallel clamps, but at $40 + a pop and with so many other things to buy for this project including wood, I fell behind on buying clamps and barely have enough to laminate the top halves. And while my lamination is drying, I have no clamps to glue the legs or the other top half or anything else at the same time. What a pain.
> 
> ...


I'm glad someone is reading all this. So far it seems no one is really interested. Maybe it's my writing. Oh well. The dog holes really aren't my method, I'm just following the directions.

Thanks for the interest, and good luck with your bench. I hope you get it done soon. I hate having to wait for a new toy.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*. . . and more gluing and planing*

This morning I was out in the shop by 10am, eager to go. Motrin is a wonderful thing. I took the now full width back half out of the clamps and grabbed a glue scraper and went to work. I was able to only get a little bit of the glue runs off, so I switched to my jack plane. I had a bit of an alignment issue with these boards so I had some fairly high spots to flatten out. I did the bare minimum with the plane until I was worn out, it didn't take long.










Then I mustered all of my strength and lifted this beast up and put it on the jointer and a roller stand. It was a bit dicey at times but I was able to joint off about 3/16" by doing each side at a time. I'll weigh it later but I estimate it to be around 130lbs. I got the high spots flattened out to a point that seemed ok to plane from. I really just eyeballed it but it really was ok. Set up another roller stand for the planer and moved the top again. I had jointed what will be the top surface, so I now planed the bottom surface.



















I need to get this flat before doing anything else to the top. It has to be able to sit flat on the base, and only then will I flatten the top.

In the meantime, I was able to coax wifey-poo to come out to help me glue up the front half of the top. While she did an exemplary job of squeezing the glue out onto the faces, I spread it out with my credit card glue applicator. We glued together five boards and this time I used some cauls when I clamped them together so it should be much easier to deal with tomorrow.

I did realize that I made a mistake yesterday though. The drawings are very good, I just have to say that. But there is one spot that in my mind at least, it seems to lend itself to misunderstanding. It shows the shape and dimensions of the dog holes and you have to make a router jig with it.










It shows the dog with the pad facing the right. So I cut out my jig the same way. I then used the lines that I had drawn on the board to place the jig and routed away. The problem is that the dog holes are supposed to be routed in the board with the pads facing to the left. The difference is that the filler strip should be between the dog hole strip and the top. The way I did it, I have to have the filler strip between the dog hole strip and the front face of the top. I don't think it's a big deal, and I suspect this is a common mistake, oh well.



















Well that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll take the front half out of the clamps and then glue up at least two legs. I don't have a stick of maple for the front edge of the top or the plane stop strip, so I'll have to make another trip to the lumber yard before next week.

Update: Ok, so I just checked and it weighs 107lbs. So I was off a bit.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Flattening and starting on the tail vise*

Last night I snuck out to the shop to take the clamps from the front top that I glued up earlier that day and used them to glue up two of the legs. I just had to get it done before bed. This morning I just let them sit as I had other stuff to do.

I started with flattening the bottom surface of the front top. I had to run it across the jointer in halves like I did with the back top and I thought I did ok but I realized that after running the top surface through the planer, that surface was not square with either of the sides. Both were twisted and bowed and showed opposite square error at the same place. ??? It took me a while but what I came up with was to reference my adjustments from the bottom surface and I ripped both sides on my trusty Unisaw. I had to flip end for end on each cut because the top is too thick. It's still not perfect but it's much better than it was, but it did cost me 3/16" in width that I'll have to make up with the gap stop.

With that sorted out, I put it back on the sawhorses and drew the guide lines for the gap I have to cut out for the tail vise. The directions say to cut the tenon first. I really only had a couple of circular saws that could do this job, and with a guide rail clamped to the top I should have worked, and it almost did, but I think it just needed a new blade, or a more steady hand. I dunno, the kerf was a bit wavy despite the guide rail.

Then I had a thought. If I supported it well enough, I may be able to do it on the table saw sled. I had wifey poo come out to help me again. I had the top clamped to the sled fence and while she pushed the sled, I controlled the overhang. It worked pretty well and I ended up with a nice crisp and straight tenon shoulder. I just used mallet and chisel to knock off the faces of the tenon and it looks perfect.










So then I went to work with the router hogging out this chuck of hard maple for the tail vise.










This was a lot of work, and it's still not completed. I ran out of daylight and it got cold. I really just have some finish work with a chisel to complete this part, so it will have to wait until next Sunday when I'm done working.



















Thanks for reading, have a great day.

Wayne


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## Tugboater78 (May 26, 2012)

ic3ss said:


> *Flattening and starting on the tail vise*
> 
> Last night I snuck out to the shop to take the clamps from the front top that I glued up earlier that day and used them to glue up two of the legs. I just had to get it done before bed. This morning I just let them sit as I had other stuff to do.
> 
> ...


Progress is always a good thing!


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Fixing mistakes*

I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.










Oh, well. I was able to chisel the bottom very flat but I just took the high spots off of the side. I wanted to leave it a bit more open at the top and then cut a scrap piece to fit. I didn't want to use glue with this kind of thing because it will have a huge gap on the side and it serves as the mounting surface for one of the tail vise rails so it has to be rock solid and not move at all. I'd never worked with epoxy in woodworking before so I did some reading. I see that West Systems is pretty common for woodworkers but for this job I can't afford what they want for the smallest setup. Maybe later I can get set up with it, but for now I just need a single small job's worth.

I went down to the big box and picked up a couple of Gorilla Glue epoxy syringe packages. I figured one should do it but if not I'll have a second one.



















So I got it all taped off and mixed the first one, and I tilted the filler piece out so I could get the epoxy in the bottom, spread it on the sides and then tilted it back up and poured it in the gap. Good thing I got the second one because I used all of that too.










While it was curing, I went back to the lumber yard and got a board for the front face of the top, and another walnut piece for the end cap. I still need another board for the gap stop, but that's later I guess. The lumber selection is getting pretty thin, lots of defects.

So I spent the rest of last weekend marking and drilling out holes in the end cap. This is a fairly dark picture of it but I'll show it again. More to come shortly so thanks for reading.

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Fixing mistakes*
> 
> I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.
> 
> ...


I've been wondering where you've been.

I agree, West Systems is very expensive. And, I think it has a very low viscosity.

I have been trying to complete my own workbench, and have been thwarted at every turn. I need a bunch of bar clamps for obvious reasons, and so I decided to make Izzy Swan's version with wedges, but unfortunately they did not work for me. I've got four 2×4s glued up, and I want to then glue a couple of those together. The problem is they're so warped that I can't get enough clamping pressure to secure them while the glue dries.

I think I'm going to just run a couple of rails along the bottom, screw them into the tops, and fill the gaps from the top some how.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Fixing mistakes*
> 
> I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.
> 
> ...


I just looked at the video, that's a pretty sweet design for a bar clamp. Making a bunch of those would be pretty easy, and cheap. Let me know how it works for you.

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Fixing mistakes*
> 
> I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.
> 
> ...


They were very easy to make. I made 16 in one weekend. Unfortunately, they are not appropriate for what I need. You see, the wooden planks (two sets of four 2×4s glued up) are warped with respect to each other. Too much warpage that a wedge can't close.

My plan was to use my only pipe clamp to wrench the two planks together, and then secure them while the glue dries with the home made bar clamps. Then, move the pipe clamp to the next location that needs tightening and continue down the 8 foot line.

The problems were that the screws weren't sufficient on the heads of some of the clamps. This is probably due to incorrect grain orientation (something I rarely look at and do not know what is the right orientation). Also, on some of the tails, I did not drive the wedges in far enough to prevent them from sliding back. Finally, as I would hammer in one wedge, the shock would shake loose another clamp's wedge and then I would have to start all over again.
All of this is happening while I'm frantically trying to get everything together before the glue dries.

Really these two planks are just too warped to make this any kind of feasible. I bent my 1/2" pipe clamp and the handle, and I twisted right around the handle on my 8" C-clamp which I was using to try to get the two boards roughly flat. I purchased a 3/4" pipe clamp, but the handle does not lend itself to increased leverage necessary to pull the planks together fully.

As Izzy Swan states, you really want boards that are jointed and ready to go for this type of bar clamp.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Fixing mistakes*
> 
> I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.
> 
> ...


Man, sounds like a real pain in the neck. If you have a warping problem, maybe you could try face jointing one side flat and then plane the other side. Do this on two boards and laminate them to get your thickness.

Sounds like the clamps only work with moderate pressures. Nice try though.

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Fixing mistakes*
> 
> I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the tip. I can't see myself trying to pass an eight foot by about six inch plank across my jointer and get it any kind of flat. Maybe if I had infeed and outfeed supports. But, it seems to me with a hunk of wood that size, you take the tool to the wood, not the wood to the tool.

I did purchase a 22" jointer hand plane, but I have absolutely no experience planing. Instead, I'm throwing the bench together, warps and all, and I'll use The Wood Whisperer's method for flattening the top. I know it'll end up with voids, but I think I may be able to route a straight channel through the voids and insert additional wood to fix it up. Then I might be able to use my jointer or my jack plane to level the extra wood to the rest of the top.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Fixing mistakes*
> 
> I forgot to update last week. I didn't get much done because I was busy fixing a mistake. In episode 6 I showed a picture of the end tenon and the lead screw channel cut out. The weird thing is that the huge mortise cut into the end of the tenon. The mortise was too wide and I didn't notice until last week I was thinking about it when I was in bed. That's when I do my best thinking. I got up in the morning and checked the drawing and I was right. The drawing says the mortise should be 2 - 5/16" from the edge of the top. When I was preparing for the mortise, I looked at that dimension probably 5 or 6 times before I cut into it and I saw 2 - 15/16" every time. The old saying of measure twice and cut once, well, I don't know what to say here. I didn't think I was in a hurry or anything like that, I just saw the wrong number and convinced myself that it was the same each time I looked at it I guess.
> 
> ...


I was thinking the same thing for my tops. I've already got it all worked out, I just need a couple of 2×6 boards and a new flat bottom large diameter bit. Rockler has a 1 - 3/4" for less than $30.

Are you blogging your build here?

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Install the tail vise, done with the top*

Yesterday I took the end cap and cut out two mortises first using a spade bit and then chiseling it square.




























I had to trim the tenons down a bit to fit in, and when I was squaring the small mortise, part of the end grain wall broke away leaving me with a big gap. I really didn't want to make another end cap and do all of this work again, so I think I'm going to go with it for now. If I decide later I can't live with it, I can just take it off and make another one. The plan is to just have it bolted on with the big gnarly SPAX screws that Benchcrafted recommends for using a tenon instead of dovetails for the face board. I decided I didn't want to tackle the dovetail for this project.

Next up was to drill the 1 - 3/4" recess with a forester bit 3/16" deep for the washer, and bore through with a 1 - 1/2" forester bit for the lead screw.










Then I could put the lead screw in and bolt in place and see where my rails need to go. I marked them leaving about 1/16" or less wiggle room, then routed them out. During this process I've had the big SPAX screws in and out so many times that I can almost run them in by hand most of the way now. They still tighten very nicely.





































I had to remove the vise one last time then run both top halves through the planer and I ended up right at 4" thick. I know I'll have some discrepancy between the two when they get put on the base but I plan on hand planing that out, it shouldn't be too much.










The last thing for today was to crosscut both halves to final length. I decided to make it 84" instead of the designed 87" long. I've got a small shop and losing 3" isn't a real big deal.










Well, that's pretty much it for the tops until they're mounted on the base. Next up is starting with the legs and rails.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Wayne


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

ic3ss said:


> *Install the tail vise, done with the top*
> 
> Yesterday I took the end cap and cut out two mortises first using a spade bit and then chiseling it square.
> 
> ...


Keep doing the good work Wayne she's going to be a fine

workbench.


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## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

ic3ss said:


> *Install the tail vise, done with the top*
> 
> Yesterday I took the end cap and cut out two mortises first using a spade bit and then chiseling it square.
> 
> ...


Looks great, i will be by to pick it up soon. Lol


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Finishing up the tail vise*

Yesterday the last thing I did was cut up that big walnut board and laminate two pieces for the leg vise. Took it out of the clamps this morning and I think I'll wait for this Sunday before going forward with it.





































After I was done yesterday, I was in the house and heard this big crash. I never did find out what it was until this morning I saw the walnut glue up had fallen off my table saw and bent one of my hand screw clamps. Oops.

In the meantime, I worked on the dog block for the tail vise. Yesterday I used a piece of scrap and routed a dog hole using my handy router jig and glued up a 3/8" backer to it like the dog hole strip. This morning I took it out of the clamps and planed it to thickness so there was 1/32" gap on each side in the slot. Then cut the notch out and screwed it in. It took a bit longer to get this far than it sounds, I was really taking my time here. Once I got it mounted and tested the travel with no rubbing, I took it back out and ran it across the table saw to cut off the top making it sit flush.










I also had to get a few dogs made up. This was easier than I thought it would be. I only made four, I don't really think I need more than that and I don't want to spend all day doing it.

The last thing was to ease the edges on the dogs and the dog holes. I only did the tail vise end but I'll do the rest later.










Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Mounting the Criss-Cross*

Yesterday I picked up a 1 - 1/4" forester bit and a 3/8" x 10" long brad point bit at Woodcraft. The forstner bit is for drilling the hole through the chop and leg for the leg vise. The bit is too short to make it all of the way through the leg so I also need to get a forstner bit extension. The 3/8" bit is for the pins that hang the Criss-Cross on the chop and leg. The chop is 9" wide so this was barely able to make it through. I didn't want to hassle with drilling from each end and the inherent inaccuracy that I'm sure would show up, the pin is a beefy one and not able to do a zig-zag very easily.










First thing was to hog out the mortise that will hold the Criss-Cross. I used a 1 - 1/2" forstner bit. I also had to sharpen it when I started cutting into the hard maple.




























My first time assembling the Criss-Cross. I had it in backwards, evidenced by the fact that it wouldn't go down into the mortise. I had to push the pin out and turn it over.










Much better.










After getting them together, I realized that there was no toe-in as described in the instructions. Had to take it apart and put in the bearing plates on each side. After those were in I had a toe-in exactly what it said I should have. Just a bit less than 3/8" at the bottom.










The 10" long bit was $16 at woodcraft. Fairly expensive but I know it saved me some heartache today.










So then I centered up the mounting plate over the hole and center marked the screw holes with a brad point bit in my hand. Then drilled them out and tapped the threads. I had to test this on a piece of scrap, as I've never tapped threads for a machine screw in wood before. I got the screw in and I found that it will hold a lot of torque. I was really pulling on it and was not able to get the threads to strip. Ok, I'm impressed.










So that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll get a piece of MDF and trace a side profile for the chop and cut it out. Not sure how it will look exactly, but I have an image in my mind.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Mounting the Criss-Cross*
> 
> Yesterday I picked up a 1 - 1/4" forester bit and a 3/8" x 10" long brad point bit at Woodcraft. The forstner bit is for drilling the hole through the chop and leg for the leg vise. The bit is too short to make it all of the way through the leg so I also need to get a forstner bit extension. The 3/8" bit is for the pins that hang the Criss-Cross on the chop and leg. The chop is 9" wide so this was barely able to make it through. I didn't want to hassle with drilling from each end and the inherent inaccuracy that I'm sure would show up, the pin is a beefy one and not able to do a zig-zag very easily.
> 
> ...


That reminds me, I need to find out the diameter of the pieces of my "cabinet maker's vise" to make sure I get the correct bit.

I'm making a router sled to flatten my bench's top, and the simple sled uses two pipes as the runners, but I do not have a bit 1 5/64" in diameter. It's 3/4" pipe, but I forgot to check it's outside diameter. I see that 1 1/16" Silver and Deming bits are really expensive, at $35-40 each, but I can get a forstner for under $10.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Mounting the Criss-Cross*
> 
> Yesterday I picked up a 1 - 1/4" forester bit and a 3/8" x 10" long brad point bit at Woodcraft. The forstner bit is for drilling the hole through the chop and leg for the leg vise. The bit is too short to make it all of the way through the leg so I also need to get a forstner bit extension. The 3/8" bit is for the pins that hang the Criss-Cross on the chop and leg. The chop is 9" wide so this was barely able to make it through. I didn't want to hassle with drilling from each end and the inherent inaccuracy that I'm sure would show up, the pin is a beefy one and not able to do a zig-zag very easily.
> 
> ...


Do you have some pictures? I'd like to see what your sled setup looks like, I need ideas for mine.

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Mounting the Criss-Cross*
> 
> Yesterday I picked up a 1 - 1/4" forester bit and a 3/8" x 10" long brad point bit at Woodcraft. The forstner bit is for drilling the hole through the chop and leg for the leg vise. The bit is too short to make it all of the way through the leg so I also need to get a forstner bit extension. The 3/8" bit is for the pins that hang the Criss-Cross on the chop and leg. The chop is 9" wide so this was barely able to make it through. I didn't want to hassle with drilling from each end and the inherent inaccuracy that I'm sure would show up, the pin is a beefy one and not able to do a zig-zag very easily.
> 
> ...


I'll try to post some tonight.


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Mounting the Criss-Cross*
> 
> Yesterday I picked up a 1 - 1/4" forester bit and a 3/8" x 10" long brad point bit at Woodcraft. The forstner bit is for drilling the hole through the chop and leg for the leg vise. The bit is too short to make it all of the way through the leg so I also need to get a forstner bit extension. The 3/8" bit is for the pins that hang the Criss-Cross on the chop and leg. The chop is 9" wide so this was barely able to make it through. I didn't want to hassle with drilling from each end and the inherent inaccuracy that I'm sure would show up, the pin is a beefy one and not able to do a zig-zag very easily.
> 
> ...


Here is a blog entry that I hope explains what I will attempt to do: My blog


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*A chop is born*

Today was a light day for me as I'm running out of things I can do until I get more wood, so today I cut out the side profile of the chop.










I had this piece of thin ply laying around so I ripped it down to size and put my alignment marks on it, then drew the shoulder using a french curve template. Using the centerline I was able to do both sides.




























I clamped it on edge and sanded the template profile smooth then traced both sides on the chop.



















I cut a bunch of relief cuts then cut out the profile on the bandsaw. I had planned on using the router with a straight profile bit to do the final shaping but I don't have a bit that's long enough with a top bearing. So I went ahead with the bandsaw and I was about to leave it until next week when I remembered my oscillating spindle sander that I've had for six months and never used. So that's what I used to smooth it all out, then I put it on the bench and went at it with my new Preppin' Weapon sanding block. Again, first time use. I found I could use it on the convex curve ok, but the concave curve was not so good. I was about to cut a sanding strip but I used my old credit card/glue spreader thing. I found if I backed the card up with one of the steel pins from the Benchcrafted kit it actually left the curves quite nice.










The only thing I can do until I get more wood is to make a mortise router template for the legs. After that, I'm at a standstill, so I guess that's tomorrow's project.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Finish up the leg vise*

Had a surprise today, more funds available in the budget than I thought so I went to the lumber yard and got the wood that I needed. Got it all milled up and the front rail is now in the clamps. Due to my clamp shortage, I'll have to glue up the last leg after I get home from work tomorrow night. But that's good because it'll set me up perfect for next weekend's activities.

I picked up a 2 - 5/8" forstner bit for the plastic bearing ring, a 4" forstner bit extension for the 1 - 1/4" bit so I can drill through the leg, and a router edge guide for cutting the mortises in the legs. Today I just wanted to get the leg vise done.














































So the leg vise works, I don't have the plastic bearing ring mounted yet, I'll do that after the base is done and I can really test it for alignment. But for now it just works. I think the only thing about this Benchcrafted kit that I don't like are the six wood screws that mount the acme nut and the plastic bearing ring on the leg vise. They're flat head button head screws. I'm sorry but I really don't like flat headed screws just in general, but when they have a button head, all of the torque is at the outside edge of the head which just happens to be where the metal tapers down to nothing. These little bastards strip out on me every time.

Oh well, enough of my rant. Next week I have two new legs to mill down and a bunch of mortises and tenons to cut. Then it'll be time to assemble the base. Woo-Hoo I'm almost done.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Wayne


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## ruddhess (Feb 1, 2015)

ic3ss said:


> *Finish up the leg vise*
> 
> Had a surprise today, more funds available in the budget than I thought so I went to the lumber yard and got the wood that I needed. Got it all milled up and the front rail is now in the clamps. Due to my clamp shortage, I'll have to glue up the last leg after I get home from work tomorrow night. But that's good because it'll set me up perfect for next weekend's activities.
> 
> ...


Always nice to have more funds than you thought. Everything looks really nice. Everything is so nice and clean with sharp corners, etc. Looks precise! Maple and walnut? Good contrast. I'm not sure what a button head screw looks like. Are the screws slotted for flat head screw driver? I never liked those kind of wood screws either. I recently got a box of 50 count 3" screws that I call "bunk bed" screws because they remind me of those screws that you sometimes see on manufactured bunk bed furniture. They are finished with a slick black coating - glue does NOT stick to them, which is exactly what I needed as I've been using them to hold stuff together during glue up (boring out the 3/16" screw pilot holes to 5/16" and using some old oak dowels as a kind of wood nail to finish). The reason I mention this is the type of multi-pointed "star" type of driver and screw head on them - it is REALLY strong and easy to drive with power drill - they don't want to slip - good grip with driver. Maybe you could find some replacements for what Benchcrafted sent with the kit? Cool that you are nearing completion on a very nice looking workbench!


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Cut tenons, make mortise jigs*

Whew, my workweek is finally over and now I can have some fun. I've been thinking all week about today, particularly what I still need to get to push this project along. I needed a jig to cut the mortises, and I was looking at pattern bits and I came away with an education. Top bearing straight cut pattern bits are expensive. I didn't want to spend that much so I went to woodcraft last week when I bought my last pieces of wood for the leg and rail, and picked up a guide bushing from Whiteside. I went with Whiteside at $16 instead of the cheap one because they include a centering mandrel. I think this is important because if the bit is not centered properly you can induce an offset if the router is rotated when routing out the pattern. I learned this a few years ago when I did some router inlay work. I also picked up a couple of hard maple dowel stock from Woodcraft for the draw bore joints.



















So I laid out the lines for the mortise and the template edges on the legs, and then my wife called me away to go meet some friends for lunch. I didn't want to leave it but I had to, and when I got back I made two jigs based on an article in wood magazine I think. I have a jig for the front and back rail because they are on the narrow face of the legs. I also made one for the top and bottom short rails, they attach to the wide faces of the legs. I also put two fences on each of them so they can be used to mortise on each side of the faces. See I was thinking ahead here, and I didn't want to make six jigs. For the tenons that are wider I will put in a spacer in the jig.










I was waiting for the glue on the fences to dry and I just decided to call it a day a bit early. Tomorrow I'll rout the mortises and dry fit the tenons. I'm not at the finish line but I can see it from here.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Final assembly of the base*

I was out in the shop/garage at 8am today and didn't finish until 7pm. I don't recall taking a lunch break, or any break for that matter, the day just flew by. But I did get a while lot done.

Yesterday was all fitting the mortises and tenons. That took all of yesterday and I left it dry fitted together.










This morning I had five things to do before I could drill holes for the draw bore joints. I ran the legs across the table saw to chamfer the bottom edges, check the leg vise operation with the base dry fitted, drill the access hole for the first dog, drill holes through the two top rails for the big SPAX screws that will hold the top on, and cut a dado groove on the inside of the lower rails for the shelf supports. I blasted through these pretty quick like, but I did find an issue. After drilling the dog access hole, I saw that it was too close to the mortise for the upper rail and it partially cut through. The drawings don't have any dimensions on the hole that I could find, so I guess they figure you'll just figure out where the dog actually will land on the leg and drill it there. Well, mine was a bit too close I guess. I never did figure out where I went wrong with this because the dog hole strip was made per the drawing, I dunno.










I cut up a dowel made from hard maple that I got a few days ago into 2 1/4" lengths, 16 of them. One I had to make short because I don't want it to protrude into the dog access hole on the front right leg.

The only real issue with doing the draw bore joints was the first one I had marked the tenons with the hole center, and I measured away 1/16" instead of closer 1/16" for the final hole. This had the result of the peg wanting to push the joint apart as it's driven in. I only did the first hole on the first tenon before I realized my mistake. So I just glued in a short plug and cut it flush with the tenon, then drilled another hole. No sweat.









































































With the two ends done, I got out my 1/2" auger bit and drilled the holes for the knockdown hardware. I drilled the legs on the drill press, then fitted the joints and drilled as far as I could with the 1/2" drill using the leg hole for a guide. I was drilling the leg vise leg and my first chosen position was too close to the criss cross mortise and I ran my auger bit into the steel friction plate that's mounted in there. I soon found that it wasn't cutting worth a damn, so I was able to sharpen it enough that it would cut, but just barely. I had to put a lot of pressure on it in a very slow speed. I think also that this is end grain and it cuts differently.




























I had just a couple of slight alignment problems with the barrel nuts but I was able to get them to thread by reaming the holes a bit with the auger bit. I didn't think it would cut laterally at all but it did.

With the base assembled, was able to get it on the top in one piece by myself by standing it on end and tipping it over onto the top. I got it where I wanted it and marked the tenons, then cut the mortises first with the router and then by hand. My first fitting was too tight so tomorrow that's what I have to do, is pare back the mortise walls and fit the tops.



















Well, it's getting close. After tomorrow the only real job left is flattening the tops and I think that's going to be a next week thing, I need to get some rails and plywood.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Wayne


----------



## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Pretty much done*

I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.










Well this morning I just had to get the tops to fit on the tenons, so after trimming back a couple of mortise surfaces they both fit down snugly, a very sweet fit. As a bonus, the sides of the tops ended up flush with the legs.



















I had to go to the big box to get a Torx T50 socket driver for the four very large SPAX screws that hold the tops down. The socket was only $2, usually the ones I see are $4 or $5. So after that, I set about cleaning up the shop so it can be turned back in to a garage. My scrap total was pretty minimal I think. I have a small pile that will burn, some longer pieces are in the shed for future use, and then I have some pieces for the shelf.



















Oh yea, the shelf. I still have a few things to do before it's really done, but it's good enough that I can end this blog where it's at. I need to make the shelf mounts, the shelf boards, the deadman, the deadman runner, flatten the top, and shape the top of the leg vise chop with a curve or something similar to ease the top edge, and drill a bunch of dog holes in the top and the front right leg.

Last thing will be finish, what to finish it with. I've read where Chris Schwarz says any kind of oil, or leave it bare. He really sounds like it doesn't matter much to him, except when it's done with smooth shinny top, and finished in general with the perfection of furniture. I recognized this when I started. I've certainly made mistakes on this build, there are some ver minor alignment issues but nothing that can't be fixed with a few strokes on a hand plane. They're not major and don't affect the functionality of the bench, so I'm not going to worry about it. It's a bench, it's going to get the crap beaten out of it over its lifetime, why make it have a beautiful finish.










I'll probably put some B.L.O. on it and call it good, but I like the look of it bare so much that it may take some time for me to do that. We'll see. It took six weeks to get it done. I was able to spend every day that I had off work on this project. Yes, I have a very understanding wife. So a six week long build for this bench is just about right. I know a lot of guys end up going many months, I'm just glad that I now have a real workbench with woodworking vises to work on. My next task is another piece of shop furniture: I need a cart to hold my planer, oscillating spindle sander, and a belt-disc sander.

Well, thanks for reading about my progress. Comments would be lovely, tell me what you think about finishing a bench, I'd like to know.










Have a great day.

Wayne


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## racerglen (Oct 15, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


Nice one Wayne, a lot of work for a great finish !


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## revrok (May 1, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


Looking gorgeous and very usable (not one of those afraid to nick a new bench or scratch my new pickup!)


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## wunderaa (May 15, 2012)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


Killer. Well done! There's a lifetime of use ahead of you on that bench!


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## BareFeet (Jun 20, 2011)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


You killed it, Wayne. Nice work!


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## woodcox (Nov 21, 2012)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


Congrats with finishing such a nice bench Wayne! After it is completely done, be sure to give it a good smack with a hammer just to get that feeling out of the way


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## siavosh (Apr 11, 2013)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


That's a great-looking workbench it's going to be a great asset to your shop


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## Lucasd2002 (Sep 12, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


Wayne, I really enjoy reading through this blog.

For the dog hole board, did you resaw one board or use two separate boards milled to the two thicknesses you needed (of course, the one with the square holes being much thicker)?

I think I read that your filler strip was about 3/8" thick.

I don't have a band saw so I was thinking of other ways to make the dog hole components.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


I used one board, it was 8/4 rough so I was able to get max thickness out of it. I resawed almost 1/2" off and planed both halves, the filler being 3/8". It worked perfectly, I just didn't want to buy a board just for that filler strip.

The only three ways I know to resaw a board 4" wide are: bandsaw, table saw with two passes flipping it over (less than ideal but it works), and manually with a handsaw and lots of skill.

How is your build going?

Wayne


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## Lucasd2002 (Sep 12, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


Thanks Wayne.

Now that you mention it, I think I remember reading somewhere about a safety recommendation of taking a pass from each side on the TS and leaving a small amount in between to be finished with a hand saw. And then, off to the planer.

So, your dogs/holes ended up around 1" to 1-1/8" square?

I have the benchcrafted tail vise sitting in a box at home and haven't even read the directions.



> How is your build going?


Ha! Nothing yet. I think about it, but not much action. Working 6+ days a week and a 2 y/o at home don't help. Thinking about getting some 4/4 red oak for it. We'll see.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


The drawing calls for a 1" wide dog hole. Your laminations should be about 1 3/4" thick each, so that's what they based the dog hole strip on. Get a board to 1 3/8" thick using whatever method. Then rout the dog holes exactly 1" deep, leaving 3/8" at the bottom. Then glue up the filler strip at 3/8" thick, total thickness 1 3/4".

I remember those days with a little one at home. The great thing about it is when you get up there in years a bit, the better the memories of today become, regardless of how tired you are now.

Keep the faith,

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


I hope you keep blogging the remaining tasks, at least your top flattening. I'm interested in how you make out. Though, by these pictures, it already looks very flat. But, I guess compared to my top, even the Earth looks flat.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


I does look pretty flat until you sight down the length. The front half has a slight bow, sagging at the ends. The back half I believe is flatter. I'm picking up a big router bit today for flattening, and I need to get a couple of 2×6 boards to use as the rails for the sled. Oh ya, I also need some plywood for the sled.

I'll keep it going until I'm all done. How goes your progress?

Wayne


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Pretty much done*
> 
> I put in an eleven hour day yesterday on this thing, the work was really kind of fun compared to the tedious work of digging out mortises of the day before. I've never tried the draw bore method of locking a mortise and tenon together. I didn't even use clamps.
> 
> ...


I was on Easter vacation this past weekend. I'll be tuning up my hand planes so that I may properly joint the edge of a couple 8' 2×4s for the rails of my router sled flattening machine. T-nuts came in as well as needed forstner bits. I will attach the extruded aluminum to the edge of the 2×4s with bolts through the t-nuts, and drill access holes to tighten them up. Sort of like how you pull the rails of a bed frame together. Pictures will do justice once I get to that point.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*The worst Easter ever*

So, my task today was to cut up a piece of maple I bought the other day to make the gap stop and get it glued up in the clamps and then go over to family for Easter dinner.

I set up the band saw and set about resawing the board into two halves. It went fine for the first 3/4 of the board then it was binding the blade and was not tracking straight, and not wanting to cut. I made a couple of adjustments, everything else looked fine in the setup. It just wouldn't cut and was binding horribly. So I took it over to the leg vise and clamped it in, and went at it with my japanese pull saw, the one that has cut my hands so many times so far on this project. Well after cutting my left hand yet again, the freakin' handle broke off and bent the tang.

I decided to finish the cut with my old dull hand me down panel saw. This worked ok but the kerfs missed each other. I had started cutting from each end earlier. They missed each other by about 1/4".

Put the board up on edge on the workbench top and got my 3/8" stanley chisel. This isn't anything nice, it's what I use for grunt work 'cause it was cheap. I drove the chisel in the edge to connect the kerfs to get these two pieces separated. The chisel went in all the way and got stuck. I tried to pull it out and the handle broke off. #$&$**&%#^#$%^&*((*&^%$#


Code:


#$%^$#

#$%^.

After I got the chisel out I tried to hammer the handle back on but it is broke, trash, along with my pull saw and my resaw blade. DAMMIT!

Time for dinner, I've had it.

After dinner we came back home and I went back in with a renewed attitude toward my work ahead. I fired up the planer and got the two halves flattened and at the right thickness, then cut up pieces for the spacers and glued the gap stop together, and it's even straight.

So next thing up is to make the runner for the deadman. I had a perfect piece, all I had to do was cut the 45 degree bevels and glue it onto the front rail. Started setting up the table saw, tilting the blade and I noticed it was binding. I instantly remembered that I had the zero clearance insert in and that doesn't allow for blade tilt at all. I got it back to 90, took out the insert and then I found it: one of the teeth is bent to the left. ^&%*(#&%^%(#*&#%@%[email protected]&$(%)_*$^&%&%*($(%&^%&$*($.

I just bought this thing, it's a Freud ripping blade, the best ripping blade I've ever used. I bought it just for this bench build and now it's ruined, along with my resaw blade, and my pull saw, and my chisel.* F#&%!!!!*

Sorry for my crappy attitude, but I've had it. I wasn't in the mood to take pictures of the carnage, so this will have to do for the week, maybe longer. I need a new blade, I need to get my combination blade sharpened before I can continue to do anything on this so I think I'm out of commission for a while.

I think I'm gonna' go cry myself to sleep.

Bye.

Wayne


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *The worst Easter ever*
> 
> So, my task today was to cut up a piece of maple I bought the other day to make the gap stop and get it glued up in the clamps and then go over to family for Easter dinner.
> 
> ...


Momma said there'd be days like this


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## Bigrock (Apr 16, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *The worst Easter ever*
> 
> So, my task today was to cut up a piece of maple I bought the other day to make the gap stop and get it glued up in the clamps and then go over to family for Easter dinner.
> 
> ...


Hi:
Have you thought about sending it back to Freud? Or did you bend the tooth tilting the blade? You may want to send it to one of there service for repair and sharping? I have done this a couple of times and it's a lot cheaper than a new blade.
Have Fun


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## GregInMaryland (Mar 11, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *The worst Easter ever*
> 
> So, my task today was to cut up a piece of maple I bought the other day to make the gap stop and get it glued up in the clamps and then go over to family for Easter dinner.
> 
> ...


Oh my Wayne, I feel your pain. I have been there and completely done that.

Your Freud blade is not ruined-it just needs a bit of love. Give Ridge Carbide at http://ridgecarbidetool.com/ a call and explain what happened. My guess is that they will be able to fix it $5.00 per tooth.

Oh, regarding your bandsaw, if you need a new blade or need to trouble shoot, call Louis Iturra of Iturra Designs. Louis is a walking encyclopedia of bandsaw knowledge. Give him a call at 888-722-7078 or an email at [email protected] Unfortunately he has no website. Here is a link to his 2010 catalog that someone digitized: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25128636/Iturra_Design_catalogue_2010.pdf

Good luck and relax, you will get through this.

Greg


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## LJackson (Jan 13, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *The worst Easter ever*
> 
> So, my task today was to cut up a piece of maple I bought the other day to make the gap stop and get it glued up in the clamps and then go over to family for Easter dinner.
> 
> ...


This sounds more like my kind of stories. Well, mostly I just break wood, less so my tools. I wonder why your band saw is binding. Usually, I just push harder.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Ok, I think I've recovered now*

After a long morning drinking my coffee and thinking about alternatives to keep working, I drove to the lumber yard and got a piece of baltic birch to make the flattening sled out of. When I came back I took my bent saw blade out and put a crescent wrench on the bent tooth. I moved it about three times and I think it may be useable. I soaked it in simple green to get the pitch off and I'll try it tomorrow. I'm expecting that it'll be a little rough but that's ok. I'll just delegate it to rough ripping work and get another blade for finish work.

With my newfound success in the area of saw blade salvaging, I took the gap stop out of the clamps and it fits perfectly in the top. Took it to the jointer and then sized it on the table saw, then set up the dado blades for the bottom recesses. I had an idea here. The bottom has a dado at each end where it sits on the top rails. It seems to me that it would be too much work to reach under the top and push up, then pinch the board at the top and have to pull it up. I could wear my hands out doing that. Why not make the dado on the left side have a 45 degree cut side on the inside, then a finger hole on the right side at the end to pick it up.






I think this is the only original idea I had so far for this project. I'm sure some folks out there have done this already, but I've not seen it. It works great too. I can lift the gap stop up using one finger now!














































I still had some time so I decided to make the remaining dogs. It's a bit tedious but I just think the top looks better with the holes filled with something, although it does look a bit funny from across the shop. Looks like it has teeth.

Tomorrow I'll cut up the baltic birch and make the sled, then prep the 2×6 rails. Don't know if I'll get to flattening anything yet.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Wayne


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## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

ic3ss said:


> *Ok, I think I've recovered now*
> 
> After a long morning drinking my coffee and thinking about alternatives to keep working, I drove to the lumber yard and got a piece of baltic birch to make the flattening sled out of. When I came back I took my bent saw blade out and put a crescent wrench on the bent tooth. I moved it about three times and I think it may be useable. I soaked it in simple green to get the pitch off and I'll try it tomorrow. I'm expecting that it'll be a little rough but that's ok. I'll just delegate it to rough ripping work and get another blade for finish work.
> 
> ...


Looks great, i like the finger hole idea.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

ic3ss said:


> *Ok, I think I've recovered now*
> 
> After a long morning drinking my coffee and thinking about alternatives to keep working, I drove to the lumber yard and got a piece of baltic birch to make the flattening sled out of. When I came back I took my bent saw blade out and put a crescent wrench on the bent tooth. I moved it about three times and I think it may be useable. I soaked it in simple green to get the pitch off and I'll try it tomorrow. I'm expecting that it'll be a little rough but that's ok. I'll just delegate it to rough ripping work and get another blade for finish work.
> 
> ...


That looks like a wonderful bench and a good idea on the gap stop also.


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## exelectrician (Oct 3, 2011)

ic3ss said:


> *Ok, I think I've recovered now*
> 
> After a long morning drinking my coffee and thinking about alternatives to keep working, I drove to the lumber yard and got a piece of baltic birch to make the flattening sled out of. When I came back I took my bent saw blade out and put a crescent wrench on the bent tooth. I moved it about three times and I think it may be useable. I soaked it in simple green to get the pitch off and I'll try it tomorrow. I'm expecting that it'll be a little rough but that's ok. I'll just delegate it to rough ripping work and get another blade for finish work.
> 
> ...


After it is all finished you have one more task - Putting the first really undoable scar on it !!

Then it is a real workbench.


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Top flattening, parts 1 and 2*

I didn't write the final post last week as I was pretty busy with my 20th wedding anniversary. Last weekend I had planned on flattening the tops on my last day off but only got half of it done.

I had decided to use the router to flatten it, using a sled and rails. I saw the technique on the Wood Whisperer video and thought it was a good idea. So I went to the big box and got two 2×6 kiln dried 8' long boards for the rails. The first thing it to make the edges straight and then rip the other edge to make it parallel.










I thought I needed to first flatten the bottom surface so I did each half in turn. The top is sitting on two narrow boards that are exactly the same height and straight. Of course my concrete floor has some dips and hills in it that aren't apparent until you put a straight edge on it. The boards had to be shimmed and I went for level here so I could tell that they both sat parallel to each other. I have a high accuracy level that's 0.05 mm/m. So when the two are set and shimmed for support, I lifted the front half and set it on the boards careful not to disturb the placement.

So then the rails go on the sides of the top and I put just light clamp pressure, just enough to hold them in place. I set the router to take the slightest shaving off of the lowest point, then repeated with the back half.




























When the front half was done, I still needed to dig out the channel for the deadman to ride in. This was the perfect time for this before placing the tops back on.










With the tops off of the base, I also filed a bevel on the left short top rail between the tops, so the gap stop will ride up a little easier.

Another thing on the list was to seal up the end grain on the bottoms of the legs, so I flipped the base over and put as much poly as it would take. I was careful to only put it on the bottom and the bottom bevel, end grain only here. I think I'm going to put either BLO or danish oil on it, but that will be later. But I want the legs to be as sealed as I can make them on the bottom.

So with the tops back on the base I was running short on time, I had a dinner date. But just like me, I couldn't just walk away. I set up the rails using the boards that had supported the tops on the garage floor. I clamped these boards cross ways at the ends and used the protruding ends to hold the rails, then clamped the rails. They were still straight and I got it all set up quickly, so I went to work with the router sled.

And then it happened. . . .










I was going too quickly and the bit walked out of the collet and did this. It cut almost 3/16" deep, way deeper than I had ever intended to cut. I think it was a number of things that caused it. Me going too fast, I never cleaned the oil from the shank of the bit, it's a new bit, and I also hadn't cleaned the collet or even checked if it needed to be cleaned. Oh well, it was a good time to stop and get cleaned up.

I'm proud of myself, I didn't even sulk about it. I did my work week and just decided that the 3/4e top will be just a bit thinner than I had hoped. 4" was the magic number but it ended up at 3 3/4" instead. No biggie.

I had left the rails on all week, so when I went back to it today I checked them for straight, and they were not. Got them straightened out again and flattened the top, using my mistake from last week as my depth gauge. This time I cleaned the collet, cleaned the bit, and went slow and methodical and I got it done.














































I'm so glad that this is over, I had been kind of sweating this part almost since I started this project. I have decided though that if I ever use this process again, I'm going to find some straight metal rails and use those. Dealing with wooden rails that never are able to stay as straight as they need to be is a real pain.

I sill had some time left in the day so I went ahead and cut the beveled rail for the deadman to ride on. This was how I bent my saw blade a couple of weeks ago, but this time I remembered to pull out the zero clearance insert before tilting the blade. So I got that done and screwed on the front rail, then cut pieces for the shelf supports and put them on.










I also put some time in easing all of the edges. That took some time and my back is sore now. Tomorrow I've got some honey-do's and I hope I can get back to this, but there's always the next day. I have to make the deadman and the shelf, and that's it. I'll be done. Woo-Hoo!










Have a great day and thanks for reading.

Wayne


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## ic3ss (Oct 19, 2010)

*Done!*

My morning was taken up entirely by straightening out a snafu with my medical insurance co. and the doctor's office. What a pain. Sometimes I wonder why I have health insurance.

Anyway. . .

When I did make it out to the shop, I had this cutoff piece of walnut left over from the leg vise chop that was perfect for the deadman. I'm not really done with it at this point, all I did was rip it and cut to length, cut a rabbet at the top and the V groove at the bottom. It fits right in there but I think later I'll cut a pattern on the sides to dress it up a bit. I don't have any holdfasts so I'll wait to drill the holes until I get them.

All that was left was to make the shelf. Yesterday I installed the shelf supports and I had these cutoff pieces left over from making the top that I set aside for the shelf. I picked up a new resaw blade from woodcraft last week after my day of ruining tools described a few posts ago. I got a 3/4" TImberwolf 3tpi blade. Man, this thing cuts nice too. The blade I ruined was 3tpi also but it never cut as nice as this thing does.

So I got the 8/4 maple boards cut up, ran through the planer to 3/4" thick. Set up the dado stack and cut rabbets on each side and even beveled the edges to make the planks look nice. A very nice finishing touch I think.




































































































Well, that's it for my Benchcrafted Split Top Roubo build. Beginning to end it's taken me 8 weekends to get it done. Not bad compared to many of these that I've read about, although I do have an advantage. My work schedule is 3 days one week and 4 days the next. That means I only work half of the days per year. I pay for it though in that I have a 12 hour workday with a two hour commute. Having 4 day long weekends are very nice to have when I'm working on something like this so I'm able to get a lot done.

I tried to weigh the bench but my scale can't handle the weight. I'd like to know at some point. The only thing left is to drill dog holes in the top, the right leg, and the deadman, but I'll wait before doing that. I don't have anything that uses the holes right now. And eventually I'll put some oil on it.

Well, thanks for reading, I hope this blog will be of service to someone interested in building this bench. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work, but it's well worth it.

Have a great day!

Wayne


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## smitty22 (May 1, 2010)

ic3ss said:


> *Done!*
> 
> My morning was taken up entirely by straightening out a snafu with my medical insurance co. and the doctor's office. What a pain. Sometimes I wonder why I have health insurance.
> 
> ...


Yes, it is helpful and inspirational! Congratulations on a wonderful bench.
Thanks a bunch. 
Dale


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## oltexasboy1 (Sep 25, 2013)

ic3ss said:


> *Done!*
> 
> My morning was taken up entirely by straightening out a snafu with my medical insurance co. and the doctor's office. What a pain. Sometimes I wonder why I have health insurance.
> 
> ...


That's a real work of art. congrats. One suggestion, work on it for awhile before you decide to make any major modifications. When you get holdfasts, Grammercy has good ones , 2 for 35.00 and they are made correctly to use in that thickness bench. I drilled 2 holes in the R/S leg to hold them, in easy reach but out of the walk way. You will want and need at least 2 holdfasts.I was like you I had never had a "real" workbench before and I had no idea how much easier it is to work on. Good work and enjoy. Mine ain't near 'bout as pretty as yours but I still enjoy it.


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## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

ic3ss said:


> *Done!*
> 
> My morning was taken up entirely by straightening out a snafu with my medical insurance co. and the doctor's office. What a pain. Sometimes I wonder why I have health insurance.
> 
> ...


Hey, thats really a nice bench, wish i could bend for the maple, but too expencive here, $7.31 per bd ft. I am using SYP, much easier to work and a lot cheaper. The draw back to SYP is i can never get the look you have. So i believe you have a real keeper. I got a lot out of your blog and though i have built several benches, I a still finding and learning how to do new things. I did learn a few things here so, THANKS AGAIN


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## nashley (Nov 25, 2014)

ic3ss said:


> *Done!*
> 
> My morning was taken up entirely by straightening out a snafu with my medical insurance co. and the doctor's office. What a pain. Sometimes I wonder why I have health insurance.
> 
> ...


Very well done! Congrats! I'm currently working on plans for a very similar bench so I will add this to my favorites.


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