WIP: Lathe workbench

[sploo]

I'm in the process of making a workbench to take my lathe. The idea is to build something similar in height to the official stand, with strong sides that will allow me to bolt on the extension bed (for large diameter turning).

From the front it should look a bit like this (though with doors and drawers):

From the side/rear:

I managed to source some reasonable quality 94x44mm redwood, and despite the fact it was already planed it did need some extra work. It was well worth the effort with the planer and thicknesser, and I ended up with 92x41.5mm stock that was pretty straight and square. An initial set of cuts for the sides fit together very well (the fat centre piece is two sections of stock glued together):

Next I started cutting a load of mortices using the Domino. All for 10mm dominos:

Lots of dominos!:

One side being dry fit together:

Horizontal rails and vertical rear support going together:

All dry fit:

 

[sploo]

I wanted to chamfer the inside edges, but that wouldn't be possible once the panels were in place (the bearing of the router cutter wouldn't fit). Fortunately the dominos hold the parts together well enough that most of the chamfering can be done with the dry fit parts:

 

[sploo]

Next I needed to cut dados to take the ply. It's an odd 17mm thick, and as I don't have a cutter of the right size I decided to do it in two passes with a 12.7mm bit.

The sections that have a dado all the way through are simple. The parts that need stopped dados take a bit more work, so some stop blocks clamped to the router table fence work well:

One side with all the dados cut:

Where required, I cleaned up the stopped dados with a chisel:

 

[sploo]

I have a horizontal section that will divide/support the two drawers. To help support that in the cabinet I added a couple of dominos to the rear vertical support piece:

Next I cut the plywood for the sides and back, chamfered the edges with a handplane, and did another dry fit:

My original design was to dye the ply black (assuming it was going to have the very orange surface that's common with hardwood ply). However, as it turned out to be quite light I was thinking of changing to a brown stain. A colleague (who's a designer) has tried to convince me to stick to my original black; which looks a bit like this:

Once I've made a decision on the ply colour I'll dye and glue up the two side panels. I'll then cut the holes to support the lathe extension bed, then glue up the whole cabinet.

Top, bottom, castors, doors and drawers to go. This could take a while...

 

[Brian18741]

Nicely work so far. I like the black but don't think I'd use it in this project.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

[sploo]

Nicely work so far. I like the black but don't think I'd use it in this project.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

It's too late: I've already dyed the side and rear panels :wink:

With a brush it goes on really dark - almost as if it'd been sprayed black. Once dry however the grain comes back and it's more of a charcoal finish.

I'll likely coat it in floor varnish, as that's been my utilitarian finish of choice for garage cabinets - it's always held up pretty well.

 

[sploo]

Progress updates...

I dyed and varnished the panels for the rear and sides of the cabinet:

The sides were glued:

I drilled and countersunk some holes in the sides (this is the outside face):

The insides of the holes were counterbored to take the heads of threaded inserts; which were also put in at this stage:

They are for mounting the lathe bed extension for large diameter turning:

 

[sploo]

Once the main structure of the cabinet was glued together I pinned the Dominos with dowels. A template from some scrap ply ensured accurate, and tearout free, drilling:

The glued dowels were then pared off with a chisel:

I didn't want to rebate/rabbet or dado the timber for the base, so glued and screwed on some scrap to support the base panel:

The base panel was glued in, then castors added once it was dry:

The cabinet progress so far:

 

[sploo]

All the above has happened over the last few weeks (in small chunks). I've got a few days off this week, so it's on to the drawers...

After planing and thicknessing the stock I trimmed them to length:

Marking out the dovetails:

Cutting the tails:

And chopping them out:

Then the pins:

With a bit of tuning the first joint fits OK:

Done for the day. Two joints fit; the other six will be done tomorrow:

 

[Tealeaf]

Looking really nice, interested to see the final completed bench!

 

[sploo]

After a bit (read: a lot) of tuning of the dovetails I did a dry fit:

I then routed a stopped dado into the inside faces for the drawer bottoms, did the glue up (with the already dyed and varnished bottoms), and then planed them smooth:

End result was not too bad (you could only drive a smallish car through some of the gaps :wink:

Full extension drawer slides were fitted:

Then a plywood panel was roughly cut to make doors and cover the drawer fronts:

Next, each door/drawer front was marked up to create an even gap:

I trimmed the excess off each panel using a track saw, then set about ripping some thin strips to edge each of these panels...

...which was going fine until this happened:

I finished the job using the table saw instead, so now I need to plane the strips; but that's a job for another day.

 

[sploo]

Time to make the hand holes in the doors and drawers...

I made a template from some scrap MDF:

Then I used the router with a 30mm guide bush and a 12.7mm (1/2") straight bit to cut out the hand holes:

At this point I realised I'd been visited by the f-up fairy, and had cut the hand holes in the doors horizontally rather then vertically #-o. Not the end of the world, though it might look a little odd.

After finishing swearing, I fitted the router with a dovetail bit, and using the same guide bush and template I put a chamfer on the hand holes so they're easier to pull. Note that the chamfer covers all but about the front 4mm of the drawer/door material thickness:

Then I put a small roundover on the front face of the hand holes, to make them smoother:

Next I cut the top for the bench, and planed the edges so it should give me a night tight fit into the top recess:

Finally, I covered the fronts and the top with the same ebony dye:

Next will be planing the bench smooth, fitting the top, and fitting the pine edging to the door and drawer fronts.

 

[sploo]

Bit of a jump; the bench is now finished, and I do have a few more photos of the steps, but lacking the time to edit and post.

I fitted the top, glued the pine strips onto the edges of the drawer fronts and door frames, and planed them smooth.

I was planning to leave the front of the drawer boxes plain pine (for a light coloured effect behind the handles). However when I tested the combination I didn't think it worked that well, so I used some of the ebony dye to darken the front of the drawer boxes, and also some thin pine panels to fit behind the handles on the doors (to stop dust getting inside).

Once complete I drilled holes in the top to allow the lathe to be bolted to the cabinet, then applied several coats of clear floor varnish.

I'd lost the light today when I got the chance to take some photos, so they're not that great (I had to use a flash). I also mounted the lathe bed extension on the side; which I won't be using it immediately, so it was just to show how it would look.

And a final shot showing some detail of the handles:

Maybe I'll get time to actually turn something now

 

[AndyT]

That looks fantastic. I'm impressed to see such high grade work for a workshop piece - my own little lathe sits on top of an old kitchen cabinet slightly reinforced with some extra chipboard!

I especially like the trad stack of drawer sides with all the dovetails being chopped out together. I think that's the most efficient way, as you do the same cuts over and over, advancing all the joints in parallel.

 

[Alexam]

Superb workmanship. Far too good for a workbench but something to last a lifetime and more. Very well done and thanks for showing the construction so well.
Malcolm

 

[sploo]

Many thanks. The workmanship isn't quite so stunning up close, but it's certainly the best workshop cabinet I've made, and it means the lathe has its first proper home.

I have some extra ideas for using the threaded inserts on the sides, but that'll have to wait behind a few other projects for a while.

 

[Robbo3]

Very nice ... but to my mind you are asking for backache. I would have the lathe as near the front edge as possible as well as a kick space at the bottom for the feet.

 

[sploo]

Very nice ... but to my mind you are asking for backache. I would have the lathe as near the front edge as possible as well as a kick space at the bottom for the feet.

It is actually high enough for (even my big) feet to get underneath - there's a good 4" (10cm) of ground clearance on those large castors. That was part of the design decision/compromise; accepting less internal cabinet space in order to get the floor high enough for feet. They're the same castors I've used for pretty much all my larger benches for years.

As for the location, I was reluctant to mount it forward on the bench (risk of tipping), but with some experiments I realised I wasn't actually getting my body any closer than the front of the current design anyway. In fact, it works out perfectly that I can slide my hip along the flat cabinet front whilst doing a long spindle cut, all with a comfortable and relaxed arm position.

I'd have liked to build the bench a bit deeper for more internal space, but another 10cm depth would probably have been too much (assuming I'd still put the lathe on the centre line).

I probably spent as many elapsed days (though obviously not as many working hours) just doing the ergonomic design (vs the actual build); as I knew I'd have little wiggle room to adjust the lathe position once it was done.