# Workbench Build



## Fitzroy (27 May 2017)

Don't get too excited as this will be a slow build! Plan to build a Roubo style workbench, following Chris Schwarz's plans in his workbench book. Bench will be built from sycamore, bought from a local chap off gumtree so not the best quality but also not too costly so I'll not feel too bad for each mistake. 

Boards are rough sawn c. 18' wide, 8' long and just under 2' thick. Air dried (stood in his barn) for 5+ years and then in my house (unheated room) for last 18months. A number of the boards have heart splits and a bit of cup and twist so I've my work cut out. Bench top will be 4" thick laminated from 4"x2" boards. 

Boards will have the waney edge removed with a hand saw as they are too unwieldy to put over the table saw. 





I naively thought I could get 3 widths out of most of the boards, but I was amazed by the movement that occurred as I cut a board in half, the straight edge from the previous removal of the waney edge was 1/2" out of straight once I'd cut the 4" width off the edge of the board. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised given the heart split in some of the boards. 

Luckily I'd cut the board wide at 5", and once the edge was straighted on the surface planer the narrowest point was still just over 4".




The bigger issue was once it flattened on face, removing cup and twist, the board ended up only just over 1 1/2" thick. I'm going to need 16 of these for the bench top. Gonna be more glue than wood!




You can also clearly see the sycamore was cut at the wrong time of year and not stacked vertical to let the sap drain. The result is some ugly grey staining in the wood.





The board's been left marginally over size, and we'll see how much it moves over the next period. At the moment I'm using it as a template to mark up the boards to cut from my sycamore stock.





I've once again learnt loads about choosing wood, thinking I'll get more usable wood from rough timber than I ever do, how much wood can move when cut, the importance of how wood is cut and dried, and how much of an office nancy I am (sore arms after making only four cuts). 

It'll be a while until the next post when I've got all the top boards ready for final sizing and glue up. 

F.


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## DoctorWibble (27 May 2017)

Looking forward to this one. Thanks for posting.

Not sure of your plan but if you cut to width then plane each board in turn you might find that in the time that passes between the first and last boards all the early boards will have moved out of flat. You can easily chase your tail and end up with a micro workbench. Maybe better cut them all to width, then plane them all, then glue up sharpish. 
You'll likely get away with leaving a little twist or bend in the face of the boards. So long as you have decent clamps and use plenty of glue.
And no need to straighten more than one edge. So long as the bottom edges of your glue up stack is flattish the rest can be taken care of later in the planer. That'll maximise your top thickness.
Once you've got them glued up you can slow down again as its unlikely to move very much thereafter. 

Good luck
Ken


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## Phil Pascoe (27 May 2017)

Biscuits can be very useful in this type of build.


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## deema (27 May 2017)

A 3" thick top will work perfectly, with lots of scope for an annual dress / flatten. I wouldn't get too stressed about it being 4" thick.


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## deema (28 May 2017)

Just a query, I would have thought that the through tenons on a Roubo bench would have made the simple task of flattening the top a lot more difficult and frustrating. Having to plane the end grain of through tenons is never pleasant when you are trying to get an 'absolutely flat and true surface. Equally with humidity changes, unless the top is quarter sawn the movement in the wood would have made the tenons proud of the surface at certain times the year??


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## Phil Pascoe (28 May 2017)

Fix your top down with these - http://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-an ... pack/69361 or the longer narrower ones. Why make work just because someone years ago did? You only need something to stop the top bouncing up, it's not huge stress. Mine is fixed with them, it is rock solid and easy to dismantle - it's been moved four times.


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## whiskywill (30 May 2017)

Fitzroy":a1wmqd27 said:


> Boards are rough sawn c. 18' wide, 8' long and just under 2' thick.



That must have been one monster tree. :wink:


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## Fitzroy (19 Feb 2018)

Said it would be slow progress. Now I have a workshop I’m back to thinking about the workbench. Moved the wood out the spare room where it has been sat for over a year, the wife is happier. Forgot how damn heavy the boards are, sore arms now. 

Looking at boards and marking up the cuts. 





Leg pieces, annoyingly I’m not going to get two legs out of each, so will have to laminate boards for the rear legs. 





First cut, did I put the cut marks in the correct place?





Manage to break the boards down on the table saw having set up a big outfeed table. Blanks cut for all parts except top laminate boards. 





Boards for the top, 6 done, 9 more required. 





Off cuts that should go to the fire basket but will likely sit in the offcut bin for several years before they are finally burnt. 





Hopefully I make a little more progress over the next 8 months!

Fitz.


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## Paul200 (20 Feb 2018)

That looks like a lot of hard work but I'm sure the end result will be worthwhile. Looking forward to seeing progress on this one. And your workshop floor looks great!

Paul


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## Buckeye (20 Feb 2018)

Fitzroy":36cwoigc said:


> Off cuts that should go to the fire basket but will likely sit in the offcut bin for several years before they are finally burnt.



LOL... sooo true


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## Fitzroy (18 Apr 2022)

Oh goodness where did the last 4 years go! At least the wood is definitely dry now. 

Lots of other projects completed so now it’s back to the bench. Boards now broken down into rough sizes for frame and top. Need to laminate some bits up for the legs and vice chop. 

Lots more shavings to make as I get components to size over the next few weeks. 

Fitz.


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## Fitzroy (19 Apr 2022)

Small stretchers machined all square. Always surprised how many shavings you get from the process. 

Need to decide if I use the antique wooden screw for the leg vice or get a modern metal one. 

Fitz


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## Fitzroy (24 Apr 2022)

Legs laminated and planed square. Long and short stretchers all machined up. Sliding deadman and chop for the leg vise also done. 

Four of 15 pieces for the top also first pass machining to size completed. The one I planed up a few months back has developed a bow, so I’ve left the others oversized in case they do also. 

A ton load of shavings to dispose of now.


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## Andrewy (25 Apr 2022)

Nice bit of ripple in one of your stretchers ... guitar bits


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## Fitzroy (26 Apr 2022)

Andrewy said:


> Nice bit of ripple in one of your stretchers ... guitar bits


It's been a real dilemma regards using the timber for a workbench rather than saving it for other projects. However, the deciding factor was that much of it has some significant grey staining, which is common in sycamore cut at the wrong time and stickered/stacked poorly. 

There is/were a few interesting bits of figure in the timber, but they are few and far between. I used the best bit for a coffee table, and I've now found peace turning the rest into a workbench. A guitar whilst an interesting thing to make would unfortunately get little use in my household which has the musical abilities of a kazoo.

Fitz.


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## Spectric (26 Apr 2022)

Rather than use all decent timber to achieve the desired thickness you could use scaffold boards and then your decent timber on top, a cheaper but just as strong option and it would also allow you to use some of the decent timber for other projects. Having watched the hooked on wood bench build, he used laminated structures for most of his bench components using ply, not sure if in these current times that would be cost effective looking at the price of ply at the moment though.


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## SamG340 (26 Apr 2022)

Fitzroy said:


> Oh goodness where did the last 4 years go! At least the wood is definitely dry now.
> 
> Lots of other projects completed so now it’s back to the bench. Boards now broken down into rough sizes for frame and top. Need to laminate some bits up for the legs and vice chop.
> 
> ...


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## SamG340 (26 Apr 2022)

I'll keep an eye out for the next post in 2092


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## thetyreman (26 Apr 2022)

'it does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop' Confucius


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## Andrewy (26 Apr 2022)

Fitzroy said:


> It's been a real dilemma regards using the timber for a workbench rather than saving it for other projects. However, the deciding factor was that much of it has some significant grey staining, which is common in sycamore cut at the wrong time and stickered/stacked poorly.
> 
> There is/were a few interesting bits of figure in the timber, but they are few and far between. I used the best bit for a coffee table, and I've now found peace turning the rest into a workbench. A guitar whilst an interesting thing to make would unfortunately get little use in my household which has the musical abilities of a kazoo.
> 
> Fitz.


That is very nice. yes, I am always on the lookout for something interesting to use for 'guitar bits' but like you say with UK sycamore it seems to be a bit of nice grain here.. another bit there.. never quite enough to do a full whatever you want it to do. I get a fair bit of it for firewood mostly and frustrating just to find a small piece of nice ripple/quilt now and again.. probably enough for a kazoo.


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## Fitzroy (1 May 2022)

All the top boards milled flat and thicknessed. 750litres, 3 large wheelie bins, full of shavings. 

Top has come up 630mm deep, which is great, gives me some leeway to bring a couple of boards thinner to align with the leg joinery. 

Hopefully get into some of the joinery soon, which is the more interesting bit. 





Not glued up, or I’d have given myself the worst flattening job in the world! Just clamped up in the hope of avoiding more movement. 

Fitz


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## Molynoox (3 May 2022)

Really enjoying this thread 
Martin


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## Fitzroy (3 May 2022)

On to the legs, I have two 140x130 ish solid pieces and two that are laminated at about 130x110. I really wanted to have four square at 130x130mm but couldn’t get that from my timber. So the bench will have legs the same width but not so deep at the back. Likely making extra work for myself and more chance to mess up but hey ho. 

One bit I enjoy is working with less than perfect timber and working out which face I want where. The are the four faces of the legs. 





As often happens I had to interrupt the woodwork for some tool fettlling. I trimmed the legs off square on the mitresaw which is not used for a while. The cut was not plumb on the first one and it burnt a bit. So a saw clean down and reset happened. I also had a crack at sharpening the blade with a diamond file. 48 teeth later it cut better, good enough to trim the legs but putting the blade on it from the table saw showed it was still not a patch on a fresh blade so I ordered a new one. 




Also the planer and thicknesser knives have a few nicks in them and are leaving trails and a bit of tear out so will need changing for the final sizing of the timbers. I broke out the jig for knife sharpening and sharpened the spare sets ready for swapping out. 




I ground back the knife edges on the belt sander, first time trying that and it went well, then put a new edge on using wet and dry. 

Fitz


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## Fitzroy (8 May 2022)

Legs and stretchers all brought to final dimensions. Pleased with how square they’ve all come up. I find with bigger timbers it can be hard to get them properly true. 













Unfortunately I can’t cut to length as the new blades I bought for the mitre saw turned out to be super sharp but I then had two issues of kick back, I think it’s because they are positive rake blades, so I’ve ordered an alternative. Not sure if it was my kickback incident or already like it but I found the saw fence to be bent, so had to order a spare. 



Most of the timber I use has been sourced locally off gumtree and so quality is not assured! This makes it interesting to try and decide what bit to use where and also the finished sizes can be variable. Picking the face for each leg I got four I really liked.





On a Roubo bench the edge of the top is flush with the legs so that a leg vice will function and the legs form part of the workholding approach. This means the leg frames need to be the same width as the top, with trying to make the most of the timber I was unsure what size the legs would turn out and how deep the top would be. Now with finished legs I could decide final dimensions. 

I’m roughly following the plans in Chris Shwartz book but again my timbers are not the same dimensions so it has to be adjusted. Mortice and tenon size was one thing to workout, settled on 32mm thick and 3” tall 

I’m fortunate to have a morticer so some experimentation with chisel size ensued. Use the 3/4” big boy or the 16mm. The sycamore is an interesting timber to work as it tends to throw off chunks, it’s almost a bit stringy at times. These chunks kept blocking the 3/4 chisel, and causing it to smoke or stop turning. I could not get it to cut well even with lots of fiddling with chisel to bit offset, so it’ll be 2x16mm cuts. 





Finally ready to start the joinery! Legs clamped together and reference lines scribed across. I was given the large drawing square many moons ago, it’s easy to adjust square and really useful for big projects. 





Mark twice and cut once, I tend to mark up in pencil first so I can ensure it’s sensible and then use a marking gauge. The sycamore is lovely and light making pencil lines super clear. Thankfully as I made a mess up, tenons marked on opposite sides oops!





Lines marked on with a dual marking gauge and marked from the same face. Set the gauge and it remains unchanged for the whole project. In the end the morticer will set the precise positions and tenons will be fettled to fit. 









Ran out of time to get cutting but ready for next time. 

Fitz.


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## Lorenzl (8 May 2022)

You get a better choice from Gumtree than I do here


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## Fitzroy (8 May 2022)

Lorenzl said:


> You get a better choice from Gumtree than I do here


It’s been slim pickings for the last 12months or so. The timber for this was grabbed back in 2017. I have a guy up in Huntly who often has some nice elm but not seen him offer anything for a year or two, he was getting on in years so perhaps retired now.


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## Lorenzl (8 May 2022)

We used to have a local recycled wood yard where a lot of the timber was lent up against trees and under tarps. You asked for what you wanted and were pointed to a stack to take a look at. It was before my time of woodworking and it is now long gone.
One of the old boy's ( 70+ ) there cut up the wood on an outdoor saw bench with a great big blade. When he took his gloves off he was missing over 50% of his fingers!


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## thetyreman (9 May 2022)

that's some pretty wood fitzroy! gonna look stunning when it's done


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## Fitzroy (12 Jun 2022)

There has been lots of workshopping and not much forum updating so incoming barrage of updates, some of it even gets into some mixed media woodworking/metal working, beware! 

After marking out in pencil and finding my errors, phew. Lines were knifed in using my tartan marking knives, the most amazing secret Santa gift ever, plug for UKSS23 early! Leg assemblies laid out to check all sensible before making any cuts.








Looking good on to some cutting, no going back now. Mortices were cut on the morticer, oddly I have no photos ho hum, mortices were 36mm wide and I have a 19mm or 16mm mortice chisel. I just couldn’t get the performance from the 19mm as it kept stalling, so went with the 16mm. This allowed a fully supported cut at each corner for best accuracy, then the rest cut out with a series of further cuts. This approach left a few tram lines in the mortices which were cleaned up with a chisel at the same time as the bottom of each mortice. 

Tenon shoulders were cut on the tablesaw using a saw sled and stop block. 









Tenon cheeks were cut off on the bandsaw, the 19mm M42 blade from Tuffsaws gives a great cut. 





I could get close to size off the bandsaw and planned to use a router plane to fit the tenon to the mortice but with such a long tenon, 80mm, the router plane was overhanging too far and it was not working out. In the end I chose to use the table saw and sled to take fractions off the face or each tenon and then sanded off the marks with a flat block.





A bit of fettling with each joint and the end assemblies came together well. 





There are only lower stretchers in the design as the top of the leg assemblies mortice into the 100mm thick workbench. The lower mortices intersect in the leg. I had to think hard to make sure there was always support below the mortice as I was cutting it, cocked your once and blew out some wood inside, not the end of the world but always annoying to make a mistake!





Stretchers and stretcher bolts next.


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## Fitzroy (12 Jun 2022)

As with much of my woodworking I don’t make things simple for myself, I’m kind of copying a couple of Roubo designs at the same time, so I’m having to think things through rather than just copy. One of the things I want is to be able to break the bench down in the future as a house move will likely happen at some point. To achieve this the stretcher tenons will not be glued into the mortices, the plan is to bolts the in like this.




You can allegedly buy bench bolts that do this. However, they were out of stock everywhere, they were expensive, they weren’t long enough for my leg thickness. Cue a cut scene to a mental image of how hard can metal working be!

I figured I’d take it in stages, then if I fall at a hurdle I’ll have to rethink. ebay had a length of 38mm diameter mild steel bar for sale at £12 inc delivery. It was just long enough to make 4 barrel nuts, assuming I could cut it up. It turned up a few days later, my mother was with us and received the delivery. ‘It feels like you’ve bought a bar of metal’ came the shout up the stairs, she had a good laugh when she found out she was spot on.

I’d bought 38mm bar stock as I have a 38mm forstner bit. I made cutting guide with a bored hole and a cut on the bandsaw. With a sharp new hacksaw blade it was pretty easy to cut. Soon there were four bits. 
















Some of the cuts were a bit rough, we’ll deal with that later.





Next up was drilling a central hole, the metal cylinders were clamped in the jig and a pilot hole drilled on the drill press. 








Success so an M12 drill bit, tap and die set were ordered for the princely sum of £4.45 inc delivery, you can’t overprice quality!

With all four pilot holed, the jig was modified further to give more space for the swarf from the larger bit. With the cylinder clamped back in the jig I aligned the pilot hole with the larger bit and drilled through. Lots of smoking swarf, likely 3in1 is not ideal cutting fluid.


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## Fitzroy (12 Jun 2022)

I posted in the metal work forum to get help with the tapping as I had never done it before. Two of the helpful suggestions were to start the tap by hand in the drill press, and ensure no movement in the workpiece. To keep alignment I drilled the hole, then tapped each barrel nut, this kept the hole perpendicular, I moved the jig from drill press to workbench each time. 












Jig screwed to the bench to stop it moving. Adjustable wrench to drive the tap was pretty good as I needed lots of torque. I was worried at first about how much torque was required but after a while I got the feel for it with a 1/4 forwards, a half turn back, add cutting oil, repeat over and over. 

As mentioned earlier I had the messy ends to clean up. A bit more head scratching later and the jigs final job, combined with the belt sander. 








Oh that brushed steel finish, sexy. 




This is how it’s supposed to work, but through the legs and tenon into the stretcher. But now I’d made the bench bolts I felt confident to get on with the joinery and get the stretchers in place.









Total cost for the four was £23.50, a grand saving of about £10, lol. But it was lots of fun trying something new. This wasn’t the end of the metalworking ‘fun’ though, more on that later.


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## Fitzroy (12 Jun 2022)

I’m sure I’ve banged on about this many times, but one part of woodworking I like is deciding which face of the timber to use. I personally like interesting grain patterns, the wife not so much. My workbench, my shed, my choice. 

Deciding faces and locations.





When planing this piece up I had a heart stopping moment when I thought I’d missed a nail. Having just replaced the planer blades I was upset. Upon investigation the nail turned out to be less shot, and there were multiple bits. Each staining is a single shot. Someone in times past had blasted the tree with a shotgun. 





Without a dimensioned plan it’s easier to work from the actual piece. Stretchers were clamped in place and shoulders marked up. Tenons were cut in a similar fashion to before. 









It was about this time I realised that the bolts I had bought were not threaded far enough. Luckily the tap had come with a matching die. But I had no die holder, back to eBay and cheerio to my £10 saving. Unfortunately the holder turned out to be made from cheese and the amount of torque to cut the thread far exceeded that used with the tap. 

I ended up making a holder for the die holder, and using wedges to keep the holder screws in place after they had stripped the threads. A socket and wrench were used to turn the bolt in the die. I had bruised palms afterwards such were the forces involved, but I managed. 









I did some testing regards drilling the hole through the leg and tenon into the stretcher. Opting for a 16mm hole to give sufficient space for any misalignment. I drilled a guide block on the drill press, this was clamped in place and the leg and stretcher drilled in one go with a long 16mm auger bit. 




Some judicious marking of the stretcher and a hole cut on the drill press for the barrel nut, much crossing of fingers and the holes intersected, woohoo.


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## Fitzroy (12 Jun 2022)

In the lower mortices the tenons interfere with each other. I was going to mitre the ends but decided to just trim the tenons shirt on the end pieces. I’m planning to drawbore and glue these, and there is still adequate length. So the frame has all joinery done and even without glueing is rock steady due to tight fitting M&Ts. 

I’m not going to glue the end frames for a while as there is more joinery for the worktop tenons and leg vice that will only be possible before assembly. 

For today I’ll leave the writeup here. 





Fitz.


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## Jameshow (12 Jun 2022)

Wow good work! 

love the bar cutting and tapping jig. 
Defo one to remember!


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