My bench project
Welcome! / Forums / Project Series / Workbench / My bench project
- This topic has 22 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 10 months ago by Daniel Willis.
-
AuthorPosts
-
18 April 2018 at 1:33 am #528135
OK, I picked up 17 8′ 2×4 from HD today and a vise from Lee Valley. The plan is to use some 2x that I have in the shop already and build a 5 or maybe a 5’6″ bench from it. My son is keen on the work as well at this point and I hope I can retain his interest. I plan to finish this bench, use it and then build a larger one, probably the same style once I’ve accustomed myself to working on it. The plan is to use Black Locust for the second bench once I’ve worked out all my mistakes and learning issues on the SPF one. I have a decent shop right now at 40′ long and 30′ wide it’s in the top of my barn so the edges of the 30′ are under the eaves and useless. Let’s say 20″ of useable width. There’s a 32 foot MDF “bench” made of scrap 2x along one of the long faces and a ton of tools. I’ve snuck the 2x purchase past the wife and will claim it’s the “base” to the tool cabinet I plan to build for all the tools. Fingers crossed I’ll be ok with this plan. I’ve already told her I’d be building a cabinet so I can tidy up the shop and put things away. She’s somewhat on board with that plan for now so of course, I need something to put the cabinet on right? 🙂 Anyway, here I go. I’ll update periodically as I make progress on the project. Cheers all.
Daniel18 April 2018 at 6:01 am #528232Not sure how images work on this site. Did that work? If so, it’s the beginnings of my bench. Most of it stacked on top of my TS in the background. I’m not using any power tools on this project. Unless you count my TS come workbench that I’m stacking things on for now.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Hello Daniel,
that photo worked.
In my opinion it ain’t cheating using your TS the way you do – unless you turn it on. 😉
Good luck with your progress. I’m looking forward to your next photos and the story of your workbench.
Will keep my fingers crossed that your son stay with you in that project.E.
18 April 2018 at 4:42 pm #528569Awesome Daniel. That sounds like a great space to work in! I’m in my basement in a space about 15 X 8, and the ceiling is about 6.5′ so I’m constantly bumping into things and putting holes in my insulation. Hah hah! Great picture too. Those little vice benches come in handy.
- This reply was modified 6 years ago by David Cartenuto.
18 April 2018 at 5:09 pm #528606They sure do. I almost forgot I had it last night. My aha moment when I remembered it was in the shop made things move much more quickly. I got the upper rails planed smooth. I think I’ll do the bench top now. I was going to wait on it but it’s the bulkiest part, takes up space, and once done, will provide me with a surface to work on aside from my cluttered workspace and TS top.
20 April 2018 at 2:50 am #529714I laminated the legs tonight. Under those garbage bags are the 8 boards for the bench top. I’ll glue that up tomorrow. Hope to square the legs and maybe start chopping mortices and cutting tenons. Wish me luck. 🙂
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.21 April 2018 at 4:14 am #530407OK, no glue up today. Newborn takes plenty of time. Maybe tomorrow. Legs are looking ok so far though. need cleanup and squaring before I chop mortises and cut tenons on the rails.
17 May 2018 at 11:32 pm #547918In no particular order….
Here’s my recently turned carving mallet. It’s about to go into the bucket of Boiled Linseed Oil with some boat parts (Parral beads, topmast fids, belaying pins, and a few other bits and pieces). There’s a picture of my bench top, planed smooth, another with my mallet, a chisel and one of my mortises, a picture of my legs, nearly all mortised (they’re all done now and ready for tenon work) and finally, a shot inside one of the mortises. I don’t feel great about how they are inside. They’re kind of rough. I hope they’ll be ok. Time to cut the tenons now and see if I can get these legs to assemble neatly enough to support that bench top.
Cheer,
DanielAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.17 May 2018 at 11:41 pm #547925The insides of the mortises are pretty rough looking. I think it might be attributable to the size of bite I took with each cut. I’m trying to take smaller bites now. Hopefully that makes a difference. SPF 2X isn’t the best wood around here and I’m hoping when I move on to harder woods, like my all time favourite Black Locust, it will chop more neatly and result in cleaner mortises and joints. At least there will be something for the glue to grab if it’s rough like this. The work progressed more quickly as I chopped the mortises but they didn’t result in much improvement in the quality I’m afraid. I’ll keep practicing though. I’m sure there are other projects I will need mortises and tenons for so lots more opportunity to practice.
Anybody else make any progress on their bench lately?21 May 2018 at 10:10 am #548007Finished both leg frames. Next task is to glue up my new aprons (the first ones I made have bowed too much, and planing has left them too thin… one of them will instead become my well board). That’ll be it for a while as I’ll be away, but I feel I’m on the home straight now. Will need to chop the recesses in the aprons, but I think all the difficult tasks are done now.
I found that my leg mortises improved as I went on. The biggest thing that caused some of them to be a bit rough was the chisel twisting in the cut, causing it to be driven at an angle. The more I did, the better I got better at driving it straight.
22 May 2018 at 9:30 pm #548043That’s great information Daniel. There’s another lumber dealer nearby that I want to check out because I have a feeling they have more types of wood available than HD. I’ll keep my eye out for some Black Locust next time I do a project. There also happen to be a lot of Locust trees growing in the area. I didn’t think of collecting any of the wood from the downed trees until now. Does it matter what type of Locust?
Tom my mortises were also pretty rough because of chisel twist. I found it challenging to keep that darn thing straight!
25 May 2018 at 3:14 am #548136I like black locust for most of it’s qualities. It does everything. Unless you are building something to be lightweight. It’s heavy. Rot resistant, strong, glues well, bends well, takes oil, paint etc, it takes fasteners well, grows fast, burns hot and is stronger than white oak.
16 June 2018 at 4:06 am #548559So I’ve finally had a few moments to work on my bench again. There’s a picture of my first housing dado for the front left leg of the bench. I then did the second dado and couldn’t help but loosely assemble and see what it will look like. Here’s what the result it. Tomorrow I hope to do the rear apron, bolt them both together. I’m closing in on the end. I have no plough plane so I don’t think I’ll put in grooves for the well board at this point. I’ll just lay it down and fasten it from below. Or maybe I could just put rabbets into the bottom of the bench top and the front top edge of the well board so at least one side is rabbeted.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.