Lamination lamentations
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13 April 2016 at 4:23 pm #136369
Greetings fellow wood enthusiasts! I have come seeking your advice on a particularly vexing (for me, at least) issue.
I’m brand spanking shiny new to woodworking and have decided to jump in feet first and build a workbench! Bully for me! I can finally discard my current one, which is 2 plastic sawhorses, a sheet of plyboard I stole from a demolition site, and shame. I’m building the English joiners workbench that Master Sellers was good enough to demonstrate online.
In my work, I have discovered a few things about myself and my skill level. Hooray for self discovery!
1) I should have practiced planing stock flat before starting this. I was using a 5 1/2 jack plane and, as it turns out, I am terrible at it!
2) I should have also bought more clamps, I only had 10 at my disposal to laminate the 2x4s (which are 10′ long)
As a result of my poor preparation, I now have 2 laminated slabs with gaps! Woe is me! So, where do I go from here? Are the gaps structurally problematic? Can they be repaired? If so, what material should I fill them with? I assume sawdust and my own salty tears, but I’m open to suggestions.
The gaps don’t appear to have gone through the entire board. I used the zig zag with the border around the edge that Mr Sellers uses in the video so there’s plenty of glue in there. For the most part they’re between 1/64″ and 3/64″, with one particularly egregious Grand Canyon sized one about 1/16″ wide.
I’ve attached some pictures of the work so far. One has a good lamination on it (the line under the unsightly knot). One has the widest gap. And one is of the endgrain because, one I think it’s very pretty, and two it shows that the glue edges are solid on the edges at least. The gaps are only in the middle.
Thanks in advance for your insights!
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You must be logged in to view attached files.14 April 2016 at 1:32 am #136391Initially, I’d say don’t worry about the gaps. It’s your first workbench and, if you stick with the craft, not your last. If you do think it could be a problem, maybe try filling with a thin epoxy. If it extends all the way through t the other side, then just tape the bottom gap and fill.
Don’t throw away those plastic saw horses just yet – you’ll need them to help build this bench!14 April 2016 at 2:50 pm #136396Just leave it. It makes no difference. We all have seen too many glamour shots of workbenches and believe that is how they should look.
14 April 2016 at 4:36 pm #136408Yep, agree with above. It will be just as is. Once you put the bench to work you will quickly forget about these small issues.
Relax, we all obsessed over our bench builds. Once they are done we all realized how silly it was to do so.
Your bench will be just fine and will be plenty solid.
14 April 2016 at 8:06 pm #136421Seems reasonable. Thanks for the advice fellas! I’ll just leave it be for now and if it bugs me too much, I’ll squirt some epoxy in there.
And a weird side question. I’m fairly certain that the top is not 100% square and slightly twisted (I’m using a couple of 2×3 studs as cheap winding sticks). Is it critical that I plane it perfectly flat and square or can I address some of the unevenness and twist when I build the legs/frame?
And if I do need to get it perfectly flat and not twisted, do you have any advice for doing so (bearing in mind that I have no real bench, just some crummy sawhorses and a plywood sheet)?
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