WIP Rolling Bench

[mbartlett99]

For a long time I've been working from the garage; ok but cold in winter and tbh a bit cramped with all the machines, bikes and stuff. I got into the incredibly unproductive habit of using my table saw as a workbench which always meant moving loads of gear to use and moving it back- it was a stupid way to work. Soooo ... it was a bit of a plus when the proper work shop became vacant after the divorce but it was still just an empty box. Time to get amongst it ...

I'd bought some maple worktop a while back for £20 on ebay but it was badly cupped so it had just kind of sat there waiting for use or the fire. It wasn't fit to make a proper workbench out of but I really want a big flat table thingy for finishing/veneering/random thingies. At this point anyone with sense would've made a plan or even a drawing not me though - no plan, little idea, lots of tools (not many skills). To ensure maximum irritation I'd be had a load of new tools that I had no idea about.

Did a bit of maths and chopped that lot down into strips and fired it through the pt so I lengths 90mm x 38mm x 2m

A vague idea popped in to say hello involving lots of half lap joints, castors and mitred legs. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[mbartlett99]

The plan was to have the legs mitred and then half laps joining the rails to the legs. For extra giggles I decided to do it all by hand using my new toys - been stateside for the last 4 months where I bought a load of gear. Also had the new combination to put through its paces a bit.

I was vaguely amazed that the mitre had come out pretty well - never done that before. Now to start cutting the laps.

 

[mbartlett99]

Hadn't done this before especially by hand so I was just a touch shaky to begin with - don't do much sawing.

I found the new saw a bit grabby but it seemed to cut true enough - when I had wandered off the shoulder plane stepped in. Have to say I like the veritas shoulder plane a lot. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the router plane set up I used to level the cheeks - slow going but pretty accurae.

 

[mbartlett99]

After truing up the joints which took a while gluing up the ends was pretty ok.

The long rails were a bit of a pain though - 1.8m long is way bigger than my largest clamps. Took to clamping them across the way then giving a hard thwack to knock it tight.

 

[mbartlett99]

The end result came out well - pretty square - but not perfect, good enough for a workbench I guess. I'd wondered if it would be stiff enough but seems pretty solid.

Gave it all a good sand then added the lower shelf and a double mdf top. Now getting pretty heavy. Hope the castor s will be ok.

I had a bottle of sanding sealer kicking around so gave it all a good two coats of that. Then time to add a little extra functionality.

End result - the worlds biggest router table.

Still got plans to add more but not quite sure; nvr for the router maybe, ordered the mitre track but it hasn't arrived yet and got to knock up a fence too. Anyone got any smart suggetions?