# Flattening my workbench



## scholar (10 Feb 2011)

Paul's thread on retrofitting Veritas vices reminded me that I was going to post some pictures of my recent flattening of my workbench.

I have had this for a few years, having bought it from the great Tom Lie-Nielsen himself at one of the (much missed) Axminster shows.









btw, I definitely did not pay the £1300 that the sticker was asking for - it was the final day of the show and Tom did say I made him cry...


The advice from Lie-Nielsen is to flatten the top every year or so and I had never done this, although tried rather half-heartedly once, but didn't get very far as the maple is blinking hard and the grain direction is all over the place, so I repeatedly put it off.

I finally decided to bite the bullet when I needed to glue up and cramp some 8' flat panel doors to the bench and I wanted to eliminate all risk of twist as they needed to match precisely in pairs (to be joined by Soss hinges, but that is another story).

I pretty much followed the really helpful guidance here http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/flat ... outer.aspx, although I made a more robust solution for the side rails for the router sled to run on as shown below.








I used a hefty joist of 2" pitch pine that was just long enough to make the rails for both sides. I jointed the two top edges with my Festool circular saw using a guide rail which was the easiest way to get two straight edges.

I added the support legs which had an 8mm bolt screwed into a t-nut on the bottom of each - this allowed for micro adjustment of the height of each to get the two rails exactly in the same plane. I did this with two spirit levels as winding sticks and checked my result using the string method described in the Highland Woodworking link above. Having got the two rails in the same plane, I then mapped out the high and low points using a combination of precision shims and a straight edge across the two side beams - I found the bench had a crown in the middle approx 2.2mm higher than the low point that was in one corner with most of the rest of the perimeter of the bench being about 1.3mm higher than the low point.

I then readjusted the position of the rails (using the straight edge and shims) to give the minimum amount of shaving off the top - Then cramped both rails good and tight to the bench - then rechecked my levels using the winding sticks and string.








The router sled was made with some hefty mdf - fitted the biggest router bit (11/4" CMT) I could find at Axminster, set the router depth to the low point, switched on, held my breath, said a prayer and went for it.

It was really quick to do the routing.








I intentionally left the lttle nibs at the edges so I could check that all had gone to plan, just trimmed them off with a chisel (had to be a Lie-Nielsen for this special occasion).

The router left a very flat finish which I lightly sanded with my belt sander.








This probably looks a bit brutal, but the frame on the sander allows for very precise ajustment of the sanding action.








This was the first time I had properly used this sander (an ebay bargain as they are eye-wateringly expensive) and I am mightily impressed with its precision.

I then followed up with my scraper plane (I confess to buying this new for the job). 








Again, I am very impressed with the tool - left a lovely silky finish.

Then coated the top with the recommended mix of 50:50 Boiled Linseed Oil and Turpentine. The chap in Axminster suggested (having been on the Lie-Nielsen visit) that they now recommend adding 10% of some polyurethane which apparently helps to keep it cleaner, but the only poly I could find was a bit yucky so I left it out.

The finished article:














Overall, as with many jobs, all the effort was really in the preparation - the actual flattening was very easy and satisfying. I think my adjustable legs for the side rails were a key part of making it go right - also making everything really hefty was important given the length of the bench.

Just thought it might encourage others to take the plunge if your bench needs some tweaking.

Cheers


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## Blister (10 Feb 2011)

Very interesting project 

I was not aware you had to maintain the tops of a work bench 

Nice tools as well :shock: 

Thanks for showing this :wink:


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## Alf (10 Feb 2011)

scholar":d9zjuc3g said:


> ...the grain direction is all over the place...


Really? That seems a pretty poor show for a pricy bench sold with hand tools in mind. I'm surprised.

Interesting. I've heard about this method, and seen one blurry pic, but nice to see the process all laid out. I'm shortly going to be flattening my bench too, but I've done it before and know it'll be okay the old fashioned way with a jointer plane. Just hard work! :lol: 

Cheers, Alf


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## scholar (10 Feb 2011)

Alf":28rx28g8 said:


> scholar":28rx28g8 said:
> 
> 
> > ...the grain direction is all over the place...
> ...




I think the grain is pretty much par for the course with rock maple - whilst no doubt possible, it was really such a disheartening prospect to attempt to do this by hand.

Probably the right answer is to keep on top of it. I think they use the rock maple for its density, but I am not sure it is the ultimate in stability terms - nevertheless, I hope I will not have to do this again for a good long while.

cheers


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## gasman (10 Feb 2011)

Really good thread which has given me much to think about - thanks very much


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## bugbear (11 Feb 2011)

Alf":3pl5z280 said:


> scholar":3pl5z280 said:
> 
> 
> > ...the grain direction is all over the place...
> ...



Checking your grain directions before glue up is a tip I post in virtually every "planning a bench" thread I see.

BugBear


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## Sportique (11 Feb 2011)

Thanks, great method and very well illustrated - but I'll have to manage without all the L-N and Festy stuff :mrgreen: will have to use Bosch router, Makita belt sander, Stanley plane and Lidl chisel on my home-made bench (hammer) 

Dave


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## monkeybiter (11 Feb 2011)

My bench is a grotty old thing I was given by a neighbour, about 7.5' x 4', ingrained muck, been outdoors for years. I'm amazed that I flattened the top in quite a similar manner. The top was very rough and nailed together. I first found the nails, punched them about 3/4" deeper, then did the sliding carriage thing using angle iron but with a circular saw instead of a router, because I didn't have any cutters long enough to reach deep enough, leaving 1/8" fins along the length of the bench. I snapped/chiselled the fins off, then used a router on an MFC sled to flatten the surface. Then I covered it all with 19mm ply with mitred 2"x2" edging to keep it in place on the bench.
Certainly not up to your high standard, but the similar method struck me, and it's more than good enough to be covered in my clutter most of the time


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## woodbloke (12 Feb 2011)

I've seen this sort of thing done before using a router and it seems to work very well...nice job and some half-decent toolery gloatage to boot! I'd just add that I'd recommend not using the bench in front of that window. Whilst it seems like a good idea to have natural daylight falling on the work surface, too much sunlight is really dazzling on the eyeballs. The exception of course, is if the window is North facing in which case you should be fine - Rob


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## scholar (12 Feb 2011)

woodbloke":pwrhus9v said:


> ...I'd just add that I'd recommend not using the bench in front of that window. Whilst it seems like a good idea to have natural daylight falling on the work surface, too much sunlight is really dazzling on the eyeballs. The exception of course, is if the window is North facing in which case you should be fine - Rob



I do like the position of the workbench having alot of natural light - it is pretty much North-facing so perhaps that is why I do not find any problems with it - there is also a smaller West facing window at the left end of the bench.

The workshop was originally the "schoolroom" in our Victorian house built for a country squire with young children (he was getting on a bit and this seems to have been his second family - not quite sure if it was on the wrong side of the sheets...
Anyway, hence the moniker "scholar".

Thanks for all your comments


Cheers


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