The MkII Paul Sellers Workbench Build

[NickN]

 

[El Barto]

Very nice. Bet you’re pleased to have them out the way!

 

[NickN]

Very! Took a while but happy with results so far.

 

[thetyreman]

Very! Took a while but happy with results so far.

it's always well worth taking the time, the mortise holes look very clean

 

[NickN]

I've been hard at work in between work and family commitments getting on with this exciting (for me) project - really the completion of this will make working on my other projects so much more pleasant and straightforward, having the space and, importantly, the vice too.

Marking out for the tenons - a little more complicated than the 'cheeks only' approach used by Mr Sellers, but it's been extremely good practice for me at improving my sawing and chiselling skills.

Chiselling the small groove into the knife wall to make sawing that bit easier.

Sawing the shoulder with a 10" tenon saw.

Then sawing the edge cheek with a handsaw - I also did try chiselling this waste, and preferred that approach in the end.

Edge cheeks all tidy and ready for working on the face cheeks.

I tried sawing the face cheek waste away and again, actually prefer chiselling - this photo was my first attempt, since then I've improved significantly! I started well above the line to be sure the split wasn't going to go pear shaped.

Tidying up the face cheeks with a router plane. On the outer part I used a 4 1/2 smoothing plane, worked great.

Tenon completed, ready for rounding over the ends tomorrow.

 

[DBT85]

Some great looking work again!

Interesting to see you preferred splitting instead of sawing the cheeks.

The big question of course is, did it fit?

 

[NickN]

The big question of course is, did it fit?

Not straight off the saw or chisel, but happy to say that fairly minimal paring was needed to get a nice fit - so the marking out mut have been fairly close!

Made the four roundovers on the four lower rail tenons today - the upper rail tenons just get cut flush to the leg so as to accommodate the apron.

Planing the long edge rounded using the trusty 4 1/2:

Chiselling the short edge roundover using four chops, followed by a rasp then a file to get the curve just right:

After sanding to remove any file marks and the marking lines:

 

[gaz44uk]

Starting my own Bench in the next few weeks the photos and information is greatly welcome. Cheers

 

[Tasky]

Apron time for this fortnight!!

 

[NickN]

Yes, hopefully without dropping my chisel on the floor!

 

[thetyreman]

when you do the apron, I'd highly recommend doing that part as fast as you can, just incase it twists or moves, which is what happened to me, it twisted so badly that I just had to start again and make a new apron, which turned out fine in the end, the glue up was pretty stressful though, make sure everything's well rehearsed first and your power drill is fully charged (don't ask me how I know) or you'll be cursing like hell.

 

[Tasky]

Yes, hopefully without dropping my chisel on the floor!

St Paul has been doing things like that a lot, recently.
I'm almost wondering if he's doing it on purpose to appear more amateur-like, as intended by things like the change of scenery to the faux-garage and building a smaller bench with "just the array of tools our average viewer typically has access to"...?

 

[DBT85]

Looked like it just went while he was routing. I suppose he's quite used to plonking his tools down on the benchtop and them not moving as he's got a solid foundation.

Hoping next week to get some paint up in my workshop and get my wood to start my bench too. Already given myself a a little list of projects to get on with once complete.

 

[Tasky]

I suppose he's quite used to plonking his tools down on the benchtop and them not moving as he's got a solid foundation.

Yup, clearly he's used to having the tool well and forgot he's not built that part yet...
I just find it interesting that he'd actually leave it in the video and not cunningly edit it out.

 

[John15]

Yes, hopefully without dropping my chisel on the floor!

St Paul has been doing things like that a lot, recently.
I'm almost wondering if he's doing it on purpose to appear more amateur-like, as intended by things like the change of scenery to the faux-garage and building a smaller bench with "just the array of tools our average viewer typically has access to"...?

I haven't noticed PS dropping things a lot on the floor recently.

John

 

[NickN]

Episode 4 (or was it 3, I forget?) of the new workbench series was hilarious, first his freshly sawn legs fell over one by one, then a sash clamp fell off, followed by another one a few minutes later - it did cross my mind (especially with the latest chisel fall) like Tasky suggested that it may be an attempt to show easily made errors - but I think it just happened (and perhaps the decision not to edit it out was done with illustrating how quickly things can go wrong in mind).

I am hoping to get back into the workbench shortly, I've been busy making a castor trolley for the bandsaw but that got finished today, just remains to assemble and test the saw and then I can crack on with the bench. Aprons were done a few days ago, I hope that my experience doesn't echo that of thetyreman!

 

[Tasky]

like Tasky suggested that it may be an attempt to show easily made errors - but I think it just happened (and perhaps the decision not to edit it out was done with illustrating how quickly things can go wrong in mind).

I'd think it was left in on purpose to show mistakes, but then he had issues with a chisel ferrule and showed how to correct it.
He barely mentioned these other ones.

Not sure if he's putting on the 'absent-minded old man' thing, or if it's genuine.

 

[DBT85]

I honestly think its just genuine oddities. He's not making a new bench at an old bench, he's making it like most people will have to make it, on an uneven floor with saw horses an stuff. Stuff is always going to fall over, slide off, roll off etc. Happens all the time. Usually while you're holding something heavy and you need the thing that just rolled off and went slightly out of reach of your toes lol.

I like that they've left it in. You can watch it as someone who's not done this stuff and know that someone with experience but doing it the same way you have to do it also dings things, drops things, etc.

 

[nabs]

that makes perfect sense - when you are learning it is often just as relavent to see what happens when things don't go exactly to plan as seeing it done perfectly.

 

[bugbear]

that makes perfect sense - when you are learning it is often just as relavent to see what happens when things don't go exactly to plan as seeing it done perfectly.

Yes - it's one of the reasons teaching is a particular skill. If you're simply "d*mn good", and you demonstrate, the beginner may not learn much, other than how good you are.

BugBear