Byron Black Workbench [Beginner] Final Submission [Complete]

[ByronBlack]

Day 4.

Nothing much to say really. I got more of the machining completed. All the leg components are now square and true. I only have the bench-top staves to joint and thickness, and then i'll be ready for some glue-ups. The machining is very laborious, however I can't even begin to imagine trying to do it all with hand-planes!

Another 1.5 hours today, for a total of: 10 hours so far.

 

[motownmartin]

Keepit up Byron, looking good so far, are you working from plans or is it all in your head :?:

Martin

 

[ByronBlack]

Martin - it's mostly from me coconut! But I did go to the trouble to scribble down a few idea's and sizes. Basically, i'm ripping of Lord Nibbo's bench, but with a few additional features and some slightly different sizes.

 

[motownmartin]

Martin - it's mostly from me coconut! But I did go to the trouble to scribble down a few idea's and sizes. Basically, i'm ripping of Lord Nibbo's bench, but with a few additional features and some slightly different sizes.

Yes, Lord Nibbo's Bench is a beauty and he's probably proud that you are using his bench as a benchmark, sorry my attempt at humour :lol:

Martin

 

[lurker]

Byron,

Just a suggestion I saw in a book.

I find square dogs better than round.

Rather than finishing your top & then drilling a row of round holes in it, why not cut a row of square slots (dados)in one of those boards before you laminate then?

 

[ByronBlack]

Hi Lurker,

I did consider that approach, but dismissed for a couple of reasons, the first being I'm not confident of getting the staves perfectly lined up to get a good square hole, and secondly, I already have a number of accessories,clamps etc that work in the round-holes in my MFT and I like the idea of being able to use my workbench as an extension to that. I appreciate the idea though, and one I will be using for the back of the bench where I intend to have a row to accommodate tools rather than a tool well, this way it's less critical that the holes are perfectly aligned.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Byron, fwiw I think round dogs are much more useful than square section ones. Because they can be swivelled round, they are much better for clamping objects that are not square.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

BB - the way to get a square hole is to rout them out of the piece of the bench top before it's glued in place with all the others. Doing it this way, you can also angle the holes by about 10 degrees so that when something is tightened up the pressure forces the job onto the bench top - Rob

 

[ByronBlack]

Rob - thats why I don't think I could get the holes lined up! Because when gluing the staves together I'm not confident of them not slipping and therefore having a half the hole askew.

I've also got 20mm dowels ready and waiting to be turned into bench dogs

 

[motownmartin]

I think what they mean is to make the hole in one side of the stave so you wouldn't have to line it up.

Martin

 

[ByronBlack]

Oh I see.. sorry, was being a bit dim there!

 

[paulm]

I use round holes on the bench and find them very flexible in use (in a good way !).

They take the Veritas Wonderpups of course and the new hold downs if they ever arrive via surface mail from far away (four weeks and counting !).

I turned my own bench stops to suit, some with a square head, some with round, but quickly found that putting a slight vertical taper on the head parts meant that as work was tightened up against them it pushed the heads towards the vertical and gripped better.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[Paul Chapman]

when gluing the staves together I'm not confident of them not slipping

On the question of boards slipping when gluing up, what I sometimes do if I have to ensure that they line up not only across their thickness but also along their length, is to rout stopped slots along the length of the boards (they don't have to be continuous) and insert loose tongues, and then also short stopped slots across the thickness of the board and insert tongues that way also. That way you can be sure that the boards will line up perfectly in both directions. You could, of course, also use biscuits or dowels.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Benchwayze]

Well, I picked up my tops from Hampshire. (Thanks Bob) So now all I have to do is decide where the bench will go. In the workshop, or will I buy a new shed for use as as an extension-handwork area? Some tops I will use for a PC station mind!)

Either way, I will wait for 'The Workbench' to arrive from Amazon on Monday.
See, procrastinating already.

John
:lol:

 

[ByronBlack]

John i'm not sure if your reply is in the wrong thread, because I really have no idea what your post meant - sorry

Update

Day 5

I got all the primary milling complete, the workbench staves have all come up a treat! I'm hoping not to get too much movement as I want as much weight in this top as possible.

Here's a pic of all the milled lumber in stick:

I checked the stock that was jointed earlier in the week for the legs - hardly any movement at all which was nice. I gave each mating piece a quick tickle on el-rusto for the glue-joint.

I then glued up the stock for the legs using Titebond:

So, tomorrow, i'll be cleaning up the legs and planing to final size along with the trestle feet that I laminated last week. I'll also get the trestle tops laminated, so on monday I can cut the mortice and tenons (drawbore) and assemble the two trestles ready to accept the 2 pairs of stretchers!

6 more hours spent yesterday and today taking me up to a total of: 16 Hours so far.

A question:

I wish to put a bit of shape on the feet - I don't know the term, but it's like a bullnose that's flat on the bottom, with the curve going upwards and stopping at a raised profile

So, without a bandsaw, what is the best way to do this?

 

[ByronBlack]

Day 6

Today was quite productive. Now that all the tedious primary milling is out of the way, and the legs are complete after lamination; I could get on with crosscutting everything to final length.

I had a small problem. My festool can only cut to a depth of 50mm, and the legs and feet I needed to trim were 70mm, so I had to make a cut, turn over and make another. This left an uneven finish on the end grain. But, I had this tiny little wooden Sorby plane which I sharpened up and with somewhat of a scraping action I managed to square of the ends and take the sharp arris of the corners in a rather smooth manner.

Here's the little plane (sorry for the duff photo):

So, to summarise:

- All timber is current ripped to width, and milled to thickness.
- The trestle legs, and the feet are final sized and cut to final length.
- The trestle tops are currently in the clamps being laminated and will be run through el-rusto for final thicknessinng and cut to length tomorrow. Tuesday & Wednesday so should see me cutting the M&T's and assembling the two trestle ends.

Has anyone got any suggestions for the question above about shaping the feet? At the moment i'm thinking a coping saw and some files - is there a better way?

Time spent today: 4 hours, gives me a total of: 20 hours![/i]

 

[woodbloke]

BB - difficult to visualize what you want to do, a quick sketch of some description would help - Rob

 

[ByronBlack]

Hi rob, heres a ropey sketch of the kind of profile I would like to add to the feet: It's a side on view:

 

[wizer]

or jigsaw? Or just carve them. Whatever way you do it, they will need to be cleaned up with spokeshaves and or scrapers.

 

[BigMac]

Template and a router? Or are they going to be too deep / rounded in the other direction as well?