Workbench help please!

[TheTiddles]

Need a bit of advice here...

This is my workbench in progress, the top slab is those iroko benches from Corby, ripped down, planed and laminated together (24 strips about 1" wide and 2.5" thick)

The aprons are beech roughly 6"x2", what is the best way to attach the aprons to the top slab? The ends of the slab will fit into a rabbet in the caps but the aprons I cannot find any information on. My current ideas are on display, cross dowels, various coach screws, dowels or biscuits, what do you folks recommend?

 

[Wanlock Dod]

My bench is constructed similarly, with the front piece of the apron just glued to the front of the main part of the top. The ends are then able to slide in a kind of breadboard end type arrangement and there is a tray at the back, which accomodates any movement in the top.

In conclusion, my advice to you is to stick it with some glue :shock: , although you might find a biscuit helps quite a bit with alignment.

Cheers,

Dod

 

[Paul Chapman]

It's not too clear from your description whether you are proposing to glue on the front and the end pieces of beech. The front piece will be OK to glue on (I'd go with biscuits). However, the grain in the end piece is going in a different direction to that on the rest of the top. If you glue that piece on, you will get problems as the top will expand and contract in one direction while the end piece will expand and contract in another direction. It would probably be best to fit the end piece with bolts and nuts and elongated slots so that the wood can move.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Anonymous]

Tiddles, have a look here

 

[TheTiddles]

Tiddles, have a look here

Thanks Tony

I did have a good long hard look at your design. Am I correct that the aprons are glued to the top slab and located on biscuits, the caps are coach screwed into a rail bolted to the underside of the slab? As my top slab is 2.5" thick, could I bolt into the slab with a couple of mm clearance around the shaft of the bolt in the cap for movement or would it be best to add a rail like you have done?

Thanks

Aidan

 

[Jake]

Mine is very similar to yours, except with legs morticed into the front apron and a single dovetail. Because it is part of the structure of the whole bench and not a separate top, I wanted to be able to get it to pieces again as and when we move, so I just coach-screwed it all together with a (dry) tongue and groove for location. The end-caps are attached the same way, with the holes in the end-cap elongated after the first 1/3rd. I haven't had any problems with it.

 

[Anonymous]

Tiddles, have a look here

Thanks Tony

I did have a good long hard look at your design. Am I correct that the aprons are glued to the top slab and located on biscuits, the caps are coach screwed into a rail bolted to the underside of the slab? As my top slab is 2.5" thick, could I bolt into the slab with a couple of mm clearance around the shaft of the bolt in the cap for movement or would it be best to add a rail like you have done?

Thanks

Aidan

Not quite. I coach screwed the caps onto a huge tenon on the slab and routed a long mortise in the cap to suit. The bolts go right through the centre of the tenon

Here is one side of the tenon being cut (I ran the router on both side, and then ripped off the end piece with a circular saw)

And here the mortise

Sorry, but not sure what you mean by add a rail - my top is around the same thickness as yours, so the same method should work fine