Post by craigmarshall on Feb 6, 2008 21:52:49 GMT
Hi,
I have tried to build my own work bench in the past, but failed miserably - you can see a picture or two here if you're interested:
picasaweb.google.com/craig9/FailedLivingRoomWorkshopProject
But - I think it's time to try again! Spurred on by Wizer's recent workbench page, I've decided to buy some cheap bits of oak from my boss, it's stuff he's cut up years ago and air dried in the workshop.
The bench is 74mm thick, and will be about 7ft long and 30 inches deep. The surface will be about 38 inches from the floor. Please excuse the mix of imperial and metric...
Anyway, onto the pictures!
This is after I've chainsawed and bandsawed the rough stock slightly over length (I had to use the chain saw because the chop saw only cuts up to 2 inches thick ;D), then I planed it all up and joined 3 of the 7 pieces together. I have just four dry biscuits per joint, about half an inch down from the surface of the bench, just for alignment. I'm relying solely on the titebond3 to keep it all together, there's a lot of gluing area!
(You can see our twelve foot southern yellow pine bench in this picture too :-))
Here's the second mini glue-up happening:
And then the three big pieces go together like this:
(You can see in this picture how my bosses "urko" clamps have been extended - these are my favourite clamps in the workshop! They have a t-bar instead of a normal handle, so it's much easier to apply a bit of pressure, and most of them have had a cork face added too, which prevents damage to soft materials and adds grip. Why can't clamps have swivel heads on both ends?? It would mean you don't get any torque applied at all for edge joining boards etc.. It doesn't matter for this project where there's a 3-inch registration, but for edge joining 25mm or less boards etc, you have to be really careful.
This is why it's substandard oak - it's turkey oak, we think. There was a worm problem a while ago, which we've dealt with with some pesticide, this batch of wood hasn't got any worse since we sprayed it all about 9 months now, so hopefully they're gone for good. They've only managed to eat about 0.0001% of the wood anyway, so the structural integrity is hopefully unaffected. Just a cosmetic thing I hope. It's a shame to waste the wood, so I'll use it for something rather than waste it.
I set up the planer fence as accurately as I could so I have a flat bench top. I don't want to have to break out the hand planes on this big slab of wood! Well - it's looking promising! I have filled the worm holes and the odd knot hole with light colour water based filler and given it a quick sand, looks a lot better:
Well - that's the story so far.
Next part to do is the frame. I might actually do a sketchup drawing first though to make sure it comes out like I want it to.
I plan to have four upright legs from floor to bench, and two 3x3 rails for each side, one at the very top against the bench, and one 3 inches from the floor to leave room for toes. I need to figure out a way to cut these frame members, so I might have a chance to practice my hand sawing.
The other thing I wanted to mention was that eventually, I want underbench storage and I want at least three sides boxed in, to prevent dust getting on my tools. Is it better to think about that now while I'm thinking about the frame - i.e. make each side like a frame and panel affair, or shall I just think about it later when it's all built?
Cheers,
Craig
I have tried to build my own work bench in the past, but failed miserably - you can see a picture or two here if you're interested:
picasaweb.google.com/craig9/FailedLivingRoomWorkshopProject
But - I think it's time to try again! Spurred on by Wizer's recent workbench page, I've decided to buy some cheap bits of oak from my boss, it's stuff he's cut up years ago and air dried in the workshop.
The bench is 74mm thick, and will be about 7ft long and 30 inches deep. The surface will be about 38 inches from the floor. Please excuse the mix of imperial and metric...
Anyway, onto the pictures!
This is after I've chainsawed and bandsawed the rough stock slightly over length (I had to use the chain saw because the chop saw only cuts up to 2 inches thick ;D), then I planed it all up and joined 3 of the 7 pieces together. I have just four dry biscuits per joint, about half an inch down from the surface of the bench, just for alignment. I'm relying solely on the titebond3 to keep it all together, there's a lot of gluing area!
(You can see our twelve foot southern yellow pine bench in this picture too :-))
Here's the second mini glue-up happening:
And then the three big pieces go together like this:
(You can see in this picture how my bosses "urko" clamps have been extended - these are my favourite clamps in the workshop! They have a t-bar instead of a normal handle, so it's much easier to apply a bit of pressure, and most of them have had a cork face added too, which prevents damage to soft materials and adds grip. Why can't clamps have swivel heads on both ends?? It would mean you don't get any torque applied at all for edge joining boards etc.. It doesn't matter for this project where there's a 3-inch registration, but for edge joining 25mm or less boards etc, you have to be really careful.
This is why it's substandard oak - it's turkey oak, we think. There was a worm problem a while ago, which we've dealt with with some pesticide, this batch of wood hasn't got any worse since we sprayed it all about 9 months now, so hopefully they're gone for good. They've only managed to eat about 0.0001% of the wood anyway, so the structural integrity is hopefully unaffected. Just a cosmetic thing I hope. It's a shame to waste the wood, so I'll use it for something rather than waste it.
I set up the planer fence as accurately as I could so I have a flat bench top. I don't want to have to break out the hand planes on this big slab of wood! Well - it's looking promising! I have filled the worm holes and the odd knot hole with light colour water based filler and given it a quick sand, looks a lot better:
Well - that's the story so far.
Next part to do is the frame. I might actually do a sketchup drawing first though to make sure it comes out like I want it to.
I plan to have four upright legs from floor to bench, and two 3x3 rails for each side, one at the very top against the bench, and one 3 inches from the floor to leave room for toes. I need to figure out a way to cut these frame members, so I might have a chance to practice my hand sawing.
The other thing I wanted to mention was that eventually, I want underbench storage and I want at least three sides boxed in, to prevent dust getting on my tools. Is it better to think about that now while I'm thinking about the frame - i.e. make each side like a frame and panel affair, or shall I just think about it later when it's all built?
Cheers,
Craig
