First Project – Workbench
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Wow, what can I say …….
I believe the woodworking masterclasses should come with a disclaimer, woodworking is HIGHLY addictive.I have been a member for quite a long time and a couple of years ago I attending one of the 2 day courses in Wales with Paul (which was an experience all of its own). Unfortunately living at home with several brothers as sisters the only space available to work was the garden on an old picnic bench with my grandads old tools. Consequently I never really managed to get into it properly (mainly due to having to dodge rain showers).
Having just moved out into my first house I finally have somewhere to work, its only a single garage in a block but it makes all the difference. Having sharpened my few chisels and planes and my single saw I now find I am spending every minute I can out there. I have started on building a workbench so I have somewhere to work but I am surprised at how much you can get done with a few 2x4s on saw horses and some clamps.
On a pretty tight budget so I bought some pine in Wickes (CLS I think) it has rounded corners but the stock with square corners was terrible, more twisted than a propeller, it just means more planing practice for me. So far I have managed to laminate most of the parts and plane the legs on all four sides and squared off one end. Im just waiting to cut them to length until I have all of the other parts planed up for final sizes. I think the best feeling so far has been squaring off the end and having the knifewalls line up perfectly and knowing I have succeeded in planing them perfectly square.
Looking forward to learning so much more.
I would like to say thanks for all the great posts I have learnt so much from.Matt
I must have missed this post yesterday. Welcome to the group and I hope your bench comes along well. Congratulations on getting more space to work in. It really can be addicting, so make some time to say hello to your friends and family every month or so (just kidding). Hope to see your bench listed in the “projects” sometime soon.
Lucky you, having learned from the master in person. I’d love to take a class in North Wales. A bit far from California, unfortunately.
Thank you, the bench is coming along great. Its taking a while to plane everything down to remove the round edges but I’m getting there.
And yes it will be in projects as soon as I can get a camera to get some pics of it. Some people have said I will get lonely living on my own but out in the workshop / garage time just seems to fly by.
I do have one question tho …. does anyone have some useful ideas as to what to do with the shavings, so far I have two large bin liners full and it seems a waste just to take them down the tip.
Cheers
MHi Matt
I have a fireplace so I can use them as very good firestarters… carefull though, all the heat is released in a matter of minutes.
Incidentally some of my lesser accomplishments have the same fate.
Other uses include packing materials for gifts, imagine you go to a housewarming with a box full of shavings and a full set of spoons and spatulas. When the recipient opens the box, they smell the scent of fresh pine 🙂
I need to go and make some spoons !
Diego
Some people use shavings for animal bedding. If you have any horses near you, maybe the owners would like them. Or maybe pet stores or friends with gerbils or hamsters. My cat loves to play with curled shavings.
Hmmm good ideas, I will see if there are any horses near by, if not it looks like I will have a lot of presents to make to use up all of those shavings.
At the weekend the workshop had its first casualty, one of the plastic saw horses I have been using as a temporary bench collapsed as I was planing the end grain of the benchtop. A spare length of 2 x 4 and some clamps soon had it back in action but I think once the bench is done I will make some wooden ones following the design Paul has blogged about before.
I did manage to get the first few mortices cut though, I’m really happy with them, they are not perfect ( maybe Pauls masters would say a rat chewed them out ) but they line up in the middle of the legs and have no steps in the walls.
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