Bench Build

[Biliphuster]

So, having recently moved and left my last bench behind, which was a terrible cobbled together affair, I am going to grab the chance to build a much better bench.

Timber is all 2x6 whitewood, with most components laminated together to form 4x6 or 6x6 sections. My hope is that by overbuilding it using large section timber, I can overcome my cack handed joinery and still end up with a rigid bench. An additional complication is that my workshop is temporary whilst I organise a new one, so the bench will have to come apart some time in the next year. The leg assemblies are therefor permanent, but the stretchers, aprons and top will all come off, and get recycled into the next incarnation of the bench.

First I laminated the parts together, I settled into a rhythm where I worked on one piece as the next was gluing.

I used a story stick to layout the measurements across both rails at the same time to ensure they were the same length.

Then carried the knife lines all round and chiseled in. There is no way I could cut a 4x6 off straight so the knife lines were essential. The cuts cam out reasonably well so I am quite happy with the method, even if it is time consuming.

 

[JSW]

Is that a tenon saw you're cutting 6x4 with???

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+To ... aw+/p51881

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I moved mine no problem, as I'd designed it so the top came off easily. Everything else was glued. As long as it isn't more than about 29" wide it'll go through a normal doorway, and very few benches are that wide.

 

[Biliphuster]

I'm fine for panel saws, I just find it easier to saw straight with a crosscut filed tenon saw. Turning it over half way through is no bother really, although all the stooping is beginning to get tiresome.

The room it's in at the moment is upstairs, and with the parts being so heavy I thought breaking down into smaller pieces would be an an advantage. It will end up 24" deep, 6' long and somewhere in the vicinity of 38" high. There is room to cut down the legs a little but I prefer working upright.

 

[Biliphuster]

Making steady progress so far, hopefully won't be long until I am up and running again.

First I laid out the length and mortice positions (including haunches) on the legs, again from a story stick.

Scribe in the widths (I am going for 1 and 3/4 inch mortices)

I am lucky enough to have appropriately sized auger bits for this

I drilled halfway through from one side then half way through from the other, this meant I could correct any wandering, where as going all the way through and finding the snail hole to drill back through means if I wander outside the lines it's going to show.

The I squared them up with a nice long chisel and heavy hammer. Note the legs are still over length at this point, as I didn't want to blow out a mortice, especially the top haunched one.

Drilling out and the chiseling square was definitely the way to go here, a 4x1.75x6 inch mortice would have taken me all day to chisel, and they mostly came out very well. Working with this 6x6 timber is making me think about timber framing more than furniture and boxes, maybe I'll have a go at a porch one day.

 

[Biliphuster]

Progress has been good on this build so far, I have been a bit less successful in updating though!

Once I had finished morticing I cut the legs to length and sawed the haunch sides.

Then it popped out with one good whack.

Cutting shoulders and cheeks took a while, but the one tenon I decided to split came out a bit wonky, so investing the extra time was worth it I think, besides, the time you save splitting you seem to lose paring. The results were pretty reasonable.

Glue up went well, the shoulders mostly came tight, although I was glad of the T bar clamping pressure to encourage the holdouts. I left some extra height in these to saw off for leveling and adjustment (I can take off up to three inches), which is as well, because at the moment it's like working on top of a car roof.

After they set I pegged the joints with 2 half inch dowels each. None of that fancy drawboring here, just thick tenons, wide legs and plenty of glue surface. Leaving the pegging until after the glue set made it about ten times easier than messing about during the glue up, I mainly pegged it in case the glue ever lets go for some reason.

I have actually gotten a bit further than this but the photos need to be transferred etc, it's great to have something to work on top of again. Being so high it makes you feel like a child using his father's workshop, very odd feeling.

 

[Droogs]

looks to be going well, hope you're enjoying the build

 

[sundaytrucker]

this looks like it is going to be a very robust bench, nice work so far.

 

[Biliphuster]

Thanks for the kind words Droogs and sundaytrucker. It's all coming together now, just a few last bits and pieces to finish off .

With the leg frames finished the majority of the work is done, next it's time for the long stretchers. First I cut the ends to a 1:6 dovetail.

Then I halved the thickness of the tail (I sawed along the lamination line, which seemed to work fine).

After that, I laid out the long stretchers on the leg frames, using 2 stretchers keeps the leg frames parallel since I marked out the shoulders of the dovetail tenons at the same time and hence they are exactly the same length(ish).

Cutting the sockets for the dovetails was easy after marking out, then I attached the long stretchers with screws so that when I need to move the bench I can unscrew them and move all the parts separately, I am hoping the dovetail and 3 No14 3.5" screws will hold it together for now. I was also pretty happy with the fit of the dovetails. This is the first time the size and scale of the bench becomes apparent.

With both stretchers screwed in and some of the top boards added (simple plank top screwed down from the top and well countersunk) I jerry rigged a clamping situation for the front apron. I clamped one board and planed only that while repeatedly test fitting the two glue edges together until no gaps remained, which (surprisingly) produced a perfect glue joint as the end result. I added a couple of dowels just to stop it skewing about in the clamps when gluing up.

With the apron made I attached the vice nuts into the back of it, rasping out a tapered round hole for the nut to sit in. This was made much simpler with the apron off the bench.

Finally I attached the apron to the front with more screws into the top and the legs, again so it can be removed for it's eventual journey to a new workshop.

Nearly there now, there is still a single top board to add and the rear apron but it is actually usable as a bench from this stage which is a huge relief.

Hope people are enjoying seeing this come together, it has certainly been enjoyable building it.

 

[DTR]

Looking good!

 

[sundaytrucker]

Nice progress you have made there. Out of interest are you hand planing or machining the stock to dimension?

 

[Biliphuster]

Thanks DTR, I am already itching to build something a little more refined than something where the smallest component is a 4x6.

Nice progress you have made there. Out of interest are you hand planing or machining the stock to dimension?

To my eternal shame I bought the timber in PAR. I did not fancy planing forty plus meters of knotty pine on a knee height saw bench three and a half foot long. I have to say I would do it again, the timber was a little pricey (obviously still nothing compared to the cost of building your bench out of rock maple or something) but it must have cut the build time in half at least, and by cutting out the most drudgerous half to boot. The timber was actually not too bad, for critical glue joints I took the time to plane them together to the best of my ability but for the leg, rail and stretcher laminations I just sighted down them, took off the worst of any twist or cup and let the clamps do my dirty work. I think I probably ended up with less than 2 meters of waste as I planned carefully, used scraps as best I could and was not picky about knots and defects.

 

[sundaytrucker]

To my eternal shame I bought the timber in PAR. I did not fancy planing forty plus meters of knotty pine on a knee height saw bench three and a half foot long. I have to say I would do it again, the timber was a little pricey (obviously still nothing compared to the cost of building your bench out of rock maple or something) but it must have cut the build time in half at least, and by cutting out the most drudgerous half to boot. The timber was actually not too bad, for critical glue joints I took the time to plane them together to the best of my ability but for the leg, rail and stretcher laminations I just sighted down them, took off the worst of any twist or cup and let the clamps do my dirty work. I think I probably ended up with less than 2 meters of waste as I planned carefully, used scraps as best I could and was not picky about knots and defects.

Haha, no shame in buying PAR. I only ask as I am hoping to get back to working on my bench build and bought PAR and while it was the best I could get, it was terrible. I was fortunate enough to be a be able to run some of it through machines but I am not looking forward to the next phase where it is all handwork, unless I 'win' a few eBay auctions this week!

 

[Biliphuster]

The bench is now finished, the delay was mainly caused by me trying it out rather than posting about it!

I finished out the actual timber of the build by adding the last top board and adding the rear apron. Then I added another board to the front of the legs to bring them flush with the apron, the front legs are now 8x6 in section and the added heft makes the bench a pleasure to use. Not visible but I added some screw support boards under the top to prevent the vice sagging over time.

Then I went about flattening the top, I used a 22" transitional plane with Clifton iron and a pair of Paduak sticks 36" long which I planed up to a perfect match as makeshift winding sticks (I later cut one of these down to 2 18" winding sticks).

I still need to sort out some storage, I want to move that stuff from under the bench, but it is more than usable now. The vice handles were the last to arrive, those crazy canucks at Veritas package square recess screws with the vice, so I swapped them out for some nice round head brass ones.

Overall I learn't a lot building this, mostly due to the scale of the pieces, even if the joinery was somewhat pedestrian. Having worked on the bench for a while I have also learn't some interesting things about working habits.

A 6'1" woodworker can comfortably plane on a 41" high bench.

The double screw vice grips incredibly well, much tighter than a standard record vice I used before. Especially between the screws, although the ends are also useful. I have bent the middle slightly, as it is only a 2x6 with 24" between the screws, I should get something beefier perhaps, but this works great for now.

1 3/4" is thick enough for a bench top, as long as you have aprons. I have morticed a couple of things and done lots of dovetail chopping without any bounce problems. The holdfast could hold a little better, I may block out the underside around the holes.

I would prefer having a tail vice, maybe this problem will go away when the holdfast grips better, but at the moment vigorous planing across a board will dislodge it over time.

A long planing stop is adequete for 90% of your planing needs. I have found I do not use the vice for face planing small to medium boards and just butt them up to the stop which is there most of the time.

The aprons reduce clamping potential. Again, maybe once I have blocked the holdfast holes this won't be a problem, but blocking out the whole bench is going to be a pain.

The vice does a good enough job of holding boards on edge, you don't need the holes in the apron for support pegs unless doing very long, heavy boards.

I could have put a much longer top on this base, even with a thin plank top. 2' overhang on each end would be absolutley fine and hugely increase the area of the top.

When I rebuild the bench after a move I think I will keep the base exactly the same, no changes needed as it's already basically completely immovable, but I will build a new top of about 3" thick, 8' long and incorporating a tail vice, the aprons will depart and be recycled.

Also I am leaving the right end uneven , no need to trim it and the pokey bits might come in handy for something one day (holding an assembled drawer for planing?)

 

[John15]

Congratulations on the bench build. Looks really strong.

John

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Congratulations on the build - thanks for posting

 

[DTR]

The aprons reduce clamping potential. Again, maybe once I have blocked the holdfast holes this won't be a problem, but blocking out the whole bench is going to be a pain.

In addition to holdfasts, I use a couple of long F-clamps that reach between the bench top and the bottom edge of the apron

 

[Biliphuster]

Thanks for the kind words John and Stanley, it has turned out better than I thought it would and I'm glad some other people enjoyed the build

DTR: the only long clamps I have are of the T-bar sort and so are rather unwieldy for quick clamping, I try to minimize my clutter so I don't see any F clamps in my future. Good idea though, hopefully I can coerce the holdfast into being a bit grippier.