Prototype workbench build - WIP

[MattRoberts]

If you are anything like me Matt, things get dropped into drawers when I'm tidying up and if that drawer is too deep the item is never to be seen again.
I would always rather have more shallower drawers than a few deep ones, that way I can see at a glance what is in there when I open it.

It's a good shout. I've recently just built a mitre station with a ton of drawers for storage, and at the moment everything I have in the shop has a place to be, so I'm not even sure what I'd store under the bench! I'll have a think when I come to build them.

 

[Hornbeam]

Hi Matt. How thick did you decide to make the top. I regularly use G clamps to hold work down ont te bench for jobs like routing etc. Most of my clamps are 6" so with a 4" thick top I can just about get 2" thick timber clamped. Having an apron or a very thick top might make this facility more difficult. Anything over 4" thick is probably overkill

Ian

 

[MattRoberts]

Hi Matt. How thick did you decide to make the top. I regularly use G clamps to hold work down ont te bench for jobs like routing etc. Most of my clamps are 6" so with a 4" thick top I can just about get 2" thick timber clamped. Having an apron or a very thick top might make this facility more difficult. Anything over 4" thick is probably overkill

Ian

I'm using CLS, so after it's dimensioned it's about 80mm thick. I tend to use F clamps, and have a variety of capacities that will easily cater for decent sized work. However, I imagine I'll do the majority of holding with the vices to be honest

 

[MattRoberts]

With the rails clamped in place, I marked the tenons to determine how much is sticking out on each tenon.

I then did all of the layout for the tusk mortises, giving a good 5mm additional depth to ensure there's enough room for the tusks to pull them tight, even if the soft wood compresses slightly. You can see there's only about 30mm to the end of the tenon - not an issue with hardwood, but as I say I've seen this amount of wood pop out in the past when a lot of pressure is applied.

Then it's back to drilling and chopping the mortises, which is becoming a real pain by now. Fortunately these are the last mortises to chop until I do the bench top, so at least I can have a break from it!

I used a couple of bits of scrap ply to support the tenon whilst chopping, and it seemed to work ok.

I then cut four wedges from some sapele, and shaped them using the belt sander. It was very much a case of trial and error to get the angle and the fit right to ensure that when seated properly the tusks stick out an even amount above and below.

Once one was complete, each remaining tusk needed to be individually fettled, as the mortises weren't all precisely the same.

It's nice to get a little bit of contrasting colour / wood into the bench, as it's all been a bit bland up until now

 

[El Barto]

That looks very cool. You're right about the contrast of colour.

 

[Bodgers]

It is looking good. Is that a Japanese chisel you are using? My bench build will be starting soon and I was thinking of getting a couple of Narex mortise chisels.


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[MattRoberts]

It is looking good. Is that a Japanese chisel you are using? My bench build will be starting soon and I was thinking of getting a couple of Narex mortise chisels.


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Thanks!

Yes, but it's just a cheap one with no hollow grind. I've yet to sharpen them properly to determine performance. I ended up using my trusty Stanley chisels for the majority of the work!

 

[MattRoberts]

With the leg units pretty much complete, it was time for some clean up with the number 4 and my cabinet scraper. This type of work is really hard to do on a bench that racks about 4 inches each time you push against it!

I also added chamfers to the majority of edges, and they cleaned up quite nicely

On to the drawboring!

I used a long 3mm drill bit to locate the holes all the way through the material, as my pillar drill doesn't have enough travel in it to make it all the way through.

I then drilled a 10mm hole one each side of the workpiece, using the 3mm pilot holes as a centre guide. Once the holes were created, I could slot the tenon in and use the brad poiint bit to mark the location of the hole on the tenon.

I then used a centre punch to re-locate that mark about 1-2mm closer to the cheeks, to allow for the drawboring.

On to the glue up of the leg components. I used glue sparingly as the dowels will be providing most of the strength, and hammered the dowels home. I had mixed results - I wish I hadn't used softwood dowels, or perhaps I wish I'd used a more appropriate drill bit and dowel diameter combination.

I was using 12mm softwood dowels and a 10mm drill bit. It was a really tight squeeze, but I didn't have an alternative to hand. It was such a tight squeeze, that some of the dowels ended up being obliterated by my somewhat enthusiastic hammering.

On a couple of occasions I had to drill out some broken bits of dowel and insert new ones. I think I'd definitely use hardwood dowels next time and have an appropriately sized drill bit making the holes. I also didn't get much of a feel for the joints being drawn tight by this method - presumably because the softwood is so soft that everything just compressed. I guess it was a good job that my mortise and tenon joints were nice and snug themselves.

After the glue had dried I could clean up the dowels with a flush trim saw and a bit of sanding.

 

[MattRoberts]

With the legs complete, it was time to move on to the top.

I cut the wood to rough length and then oriented it the best I could trying to get the least amount of knots on the top and a decent alternating grain orientation from board to board. I marked the two halves of the top and numbered the boards. There are a total of 16, with 8 boards in each half of the top.

I glued them up in 2s or 3s, as I didn't want to stress the clamps too much. I'm also looking to drill some dog holes in advance using the drill press, so I'm going to be keeping each half of the table in separate components until near the end. I also need to limit how wide each glue up is so it will fit in the planer.

Once the glue had dried, I spent a good few hours planing and thicknessing the components as well as the two end caps. I kind of wish I'd thicknessed the end caps separately so they were slightly taller than the rest, but of course I didn't realise that until later

After emptying my full sized dust bin a good few times and completing the thicknessing, I was able to attach some of the components together. I used the domino for alignment, and they went together really smoothly.

A bit of clamping and they can sit to dry.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I kind of wish I'd thicknessed the end caps separately so they were slightly taller than the rest, but of course I didn't realise that until later

If you offset your dominos slightly, you could still have the ends slightly proud which would allow for easy cleaning up - any discepancy would be on the underside where it'll not be seen.

 

[MattRoberts]

I kind of wish I'd thicknessed the end caps separately so they were slightly taller than the rest, but of course I didn't realise that until later

If you offset your dominos slightly, you could still have the ends slightly proud which would allow for easy cleaning up - any discepancy would be on the underside where it'll not be seen.

Unfortunately it's not the end caps that are being dominoed on. They're being attached as breadboards with dovetailed ends.

Not to worry though, as I'll need to flatten the whole top anyway

 

[MattRoberts]

With sections of the top separate, it allows me to drill the dog holes using my shiny new 20mm Fisch forstner bit - what a lovely bit that is! The Veritas inset vice says it can handle dogs 195mm apart, but I drilled them a bit closer than that just to be sure and to ease the need to travel the vice huge amounts each time.

I used dominos again to attach the sections together - they're lovely and accurate for alignment.

While the sections dry, it's on to creating the breadboard ends. I cut the majority of the waste with the table saw.

It was then a simple task to clean the waste with a chisel.

With the sections all glued up aside from the two end lengths, I could clamp all of the pieces together and trim them to length.

My track saw doesn't quite cut through the full 80mm or so, but it's close.

A couple of minutes of effort and they're planed flush. Not that it really matters, as I'm about to chop them anyway, but it helps with the marking.

I use the track saw to cut the shoulders and chop the waste away with a chisel, cleaning it up with a shoulder plane. I also chamfered the edges to ease the tenon in the breadboard mortise.

It's a snug fit, but not too tight. Hopefully I won't have issues with the tenons expanding and warping the ends - it should be fine.

I marked the dovetail ends of the two lengths. No special ratio or anything, I just winged it.

I cut close to the lines, and then pared back with the chisel. This wood is so soft, the edges can flake away or crumble with the slightest of pressure, and they often did!

I marked the tails and chopped the pins out. Again, this was really difficult to maintain any semblance of accuracy with this super soft wood, plus it's my first time doing any kind of dovetails...

The end result was ok - I'd like to hope that with a bit more practise and with wood that doesn't crumble so easily, I might be able to get them a bit better next time.

After a dry fit, I was ready to do the final glue-up for the top. I did it in two halves, using two spacer blocks to maintain the stop / tool holder section in the centre. I'm pleased I had these two super long sash clamps - I'm not sure how I would have done it otherwise!

I only applied glue on the breadboard tenons close to the sides of the bench top, leaving the area close to the centre of the bench top dry, so it can expand into the centre.

 

[dzj]

You've weakened the top tenon (marked A) with that through tenon just beneath it.
A twin tenon on the end of that cross member that doesn't cut the top tenon's fibers would've been a safer bet.

 

[MattRoberts]

You've weakened the top tenon (marked A) with that through tenon just beneath it.
A twin tenon on the end of that cross member that doesn't cut the top tenon's fibers would've been a safer bet.

That's a great call, thanks. I'll update the design

 

[MattRoberts]

After a quick plane, they don't look too shabby.

I marked the mortises for the legs into the top, and then flipped the top upside down to cut the lines.

I then went through the long and boring process of freehand routing them. I know, it's cheating, but they were deep mortises, and I wanted them to be nice and perpendicular, plus I wanted to test this technique out. It actually turned out quite well, freehanding near the line and then finishing off with a chisel.

After a test fit, the legs were wonderfully square - a complete surprise I can assure you!

The top slid on with a satisfyingly tight fit. I'm actually going to leave the mortises dry I think, as I don't see much of a reason to glue them, plus it means I can disassemble the bench in the future should I need to for whatever reason. It's starting to look like a workbench (to me at least)!

On to the centre tool rest. I decided to splash out and use a nice bit of walnut (my absolute favourite wood).

I ripped a board in two, and then thicknessed them down to approx 1/3 of the thickness of the gap in the table.

I added sections from an offcut in the centre and on the ends, and glued the whole lot together.

After some clean up and a bit of hand planing, the end result looks pretty nice (aside from the completely unmatching grain colour in the centre!)

I added a couple of hardwood scraps to either end of the gap in the centre. These will allow the tool rest to stand proud one way.

With the tool rest in place I was able to mark the notches that will receive the scrap blocks I just glued in.

I made sure to leave 1mm or so when marking, so that when reversed, the tool rest stands ever so slightly proud, and I can plane the entire top of the bench and the tool rest flat.

Here it is in place, ready for a damn good thrashing.

And after a lot of sweating and swearing at the opposite grain direction from one board to the next, it's finally flat!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I did a centre strip similar to that for mine - after a couple of months I replaced it with a solid one as I found the tools in the middle got in the way and pencils, drill bits, sawdust etc. fell through it.

 

[MikeG.]

..........On to the drawboring!

........

I've got a tip there, Matt. For a start, I'd have drilled the holes closer to the edge/ shoulder, but that's not really important with such long tenons. More importantly, if you drill the hole for the peg before you chop out the tenons, not only do you avoid the breakout where you go through into the void, but much more importantly, your hole remains more accurate. Dropping through the mortice gives it a chance to start again slightly out of line, the way you did it.

That aside aside.......you've built yourself a nice solid-looking bench there. If you are filling the void underneath with drawers, are you going to put a diagonal brace or ply backing in place, for further racking resistance?

 

[MattRoberts]

I've got a tip there, Matt. For a start, I'd have drilled the holes closer to the edge/ shoulder, but that's not really important with such long tenons. More importantly, if you drill the hole for the peg before you chop out the tenons, not only do you avoid the breakout where you go through into the void, but much more importantly, your hole remains more accurate. Dropping through the mortice gives it a chance to start again slightly out of line, the way you did it.

That aside aside.......you've built yourself a nice solid-looking bench there. If you are filling the void underneath with drawers, are you going to put a diagonal brace or ply backing in place, for further racking resistance?

Argh, that's a great tip Mike, thanks. Will definitely do that in the future.

I'm pleased to say that there is zero racking as it is, having used it for quite a bit of hand planing already. As and when I add drawers, I'll probably attach them in a way that they brace the whole structure anyway

 

[custard]

Looks terrific!

And having that central slot will allow you to use F-Cramps to secure a workpiece from the rear rather than front; which is useful for veneering, laminating, copy routing, shooting an edge, and lots of of other woodworking applications.

 

[MattRoberts]

Looks terrific!

And having that central slot will allow you to use F-Cramps to secure a workpiece from the rear rather than front; which is useful for veneering, laminating, copy routing, shooting an edge, and lots of of other woodworking applications.

Thanks custard, and a special thanks for the walnut too - it's part of the offcuts you very kindly gave me before

I've already been using the centre gap for clamps as you say, and find it very useful. I may not end up using the tool rest for tools, but I'll definitely be using it as a plane stop / domino stop