My First Workbench Build
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28 December 2014 at 9:17 am #122740
I am currently building a workbench following Paul Seller’s build series on youtube, using radiata pine (Australian construction timber).
I finished the H frame legs first, so that I would have something to work on, and they came together pretty well. In the end the finish isn’t perfect because radiata pine marks easily, and I got sick of ironing out the dents. Once I put a coat of danish oil on, the surface firmed up and it doesn’t appear to be as much of an issue. I will post pics later.
I am posting now because I am working on the aprons, laminating together some more radiata pine. The only lumber I could get my hands on was pretty rough, but picking through the lot I managed to find enough boards without too many defects, or defects only on the ends or edges. I sawed them to length from 8′ to 6′, and used the bandsaw to rip them to remove the bevel/chamfer on the edges (which was pretty excessive) and any bad knots.
The difficulty I am having is in edge planing the boards straight and true. If I can get them within a mile of square, I can joint them in pairs, so that’s not too bad, but with 6′ lengths I am really struggling to get them straight. Even with a very fine set on my no5 I seem to wind up with a very concave joint line. I got my no7 out of storage, but the sole is slightly convex, so I’m not sure if that’s going the be any improvement.
Am I doing something wrong? if I could get the gap down to the point where I could close it by hand it would be ok for gluing up, but right now the gap between boards is about 5mm.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
As Paul points out it is a great learning project. How straight you cut off the chamfer i would think would have big impact on how much ‘straightening’ you need to do with plane. Try and sight down the edges, your eye picks up any hollow or bow and work on the end sections until you get a fairly straight line. You can set a gauge to do the other edges. When i did mine i realized that even though i was only taking a thin shaving, i was applying more pressure along the middle section creating a hollow. Good luck, don’t give up, it’s worth the effort and don’t worry about dents, if its a true workbench it will get cut, dinged and dented in good time.
29 December 2014 at 1:46 am #122748Everyone has trouble planing square when you first get into it. It just takes practice and a bit of understanding that body mechanics really play a major part in how the plane works the board.
There was a great thread here with lots of great advice on this topic, and lots of references to places to look for help including a great video on YouTube by Chris Tribe. If you watch the Tribe YouTube and then watch Paul, you’ll see Paul doing the same thing to get straight boards by starting in the middle of a board, then working the ends.
Here’s the thread:
The book reference is good, too. Very helpful. Good luck!
29 December 2014 at 9:59 am #122754Thanks guys! By the time I’d finished the legs I thought I’d got the planing thing pretty well in hand, but yah, this stuff is a whole different story.
Couldn’t agree more about it being a good learning project, as Paul says, when you work with your hands you can really tell what’s going on with the wood, in a way that you just don’t get with machines. Every cut has been more plumb and square than the last, every mortise faster, easier, more accurate, and every tenon a better fit.
Anyway, I’ll check out those links, and let ya’ll know how I get on.
PS. Great video, and I do actually own the Handtool Essentials book, which does indeed have a really fantastic fundamentals section. Just to be clear though, the issue I have isn’t planing the edges square, it’s planing them straight. The edges wind up too badly concave to join. I will however try using lighter pressure and a longer plane, see if that helps.
29 December 2014 at 4:26 pm #122766I’m also starting a bench Mooncabbage. I’ve got 47x100mm x2.4m lengths. I’ve got a shallow set on a #4Stanley and thought it was going well until I tried to join 2 to get an idea of the effect.They’re definitely not flush.
How square is acceptable?
I’ve tried laying the plane sideways and looking for light.Does it need to be that exact?This is going to be a long night :o(30 December 2014 at 7:53 am #122810Not sure what the issue you’re having is Nick. Is it a problem with straightness along the length, or are your joints out of square? Does the edge twist? Are you working on the aprons or the tops?
The workbench is a big project to tackle all at once I’ve found, better to do it in smaller, manageable chunks. It might take a while, but if you get it right you only have to do it once.
To your question: If you’re making edge joints, you only need to be within about a degree of square. You could probably be sloppier, but the further the joint is from square, the more it wants to slip out of alignment when clamped. The trick is to plane the two adjoining boards together, joining edge up, and faces together. That way, when you glue the joint it should be straight, as the angles should compliment each other.
If the issue is a lack of straightness along the length…. I can’t really help you, since that’s my exact problem. I would suggest testing your joint, and if it’s particularly open in the middle, taking some shavings off the ends of the boards, until the gap is small enough to close by hand. After that, a couple of passes end to end should take out any undulations and you should be good to glue up. That’s my plan anyway.
When I first started woodworking with hand tools, I read a lot of stuff which indicated everything was down to how you set up your planes, and that with perfect setup you’d get a perfect result. Experience has taught me that although setting up the plane is important, it’s a tool, not a machine. It won’t give you a perfect result if you use it mindlessly, you have to constantly be thinking and checking your work. You need to be constantly making small adjustments and adapting to your work to get the best results.
Anyway, just my 2c, I’m not an expert by any stretch.
30 December 2014 at 10:02 am #122814Well 2c’s is sth Mooncabbage. What I’m doing is trying to plane 47×100 mm x 2.4 m lengths for the top.
I’m on the 100mm flat face and trying to prepare it for gluing.Using a 2inch wide iron on a #4 Stanley doesn’t seem a logical choice for a beginner. The lengths I haven’t cut are straighter.30 December 2014 at 3:09 pm #122827Assuming the sole is flat, it could be flex in the plane. If an edge is already concave I have found that too much pressure can flex either the plane or the wood enough to take a full-length shaving, without straightening the edge. This is especially true if the wood is only supported in the middle and when taking heavy shavings.
A convex edge is a more typical complaint. With a light touch on the plane a concave edge generally sorts itself out. You could try working on each end of your boards until they nearly meet, and only then taking full-length shavings.
Good luck,
Matt
2 January 2015 at 11:23 am #122940Regarding a light touch when jointing, this afternoon through experimentation I found that pulling the plane along the edge rather that pushing it, using minimum force and only touching the sole, results in a much smoother, more even cut. Keep an eye on squareness as you go, if your blade is set to one side or you’re planing away from the centre of the wood, it’s very easy to plane out of square. Just keep an eye on it and make adjustments accordingly.
I do have a question for the forum peeps too. How much of a gap is acceptable when jointing 6′ long boards? I have a 1/8″ 3.5mm gap between my boards now, and I can close it with hand pressure, though not without some effort. How close is close enough?
Hmm,
as close as you can get it, which would mean either untill you run out of patience or wood to plane off…
all joking aside
it’s a well learned lesson that you’d never forget. If you can get them closer but not close enough, take a couple of swipes from both ends, then just one light pass along the length. Make sure your pressure is on the heel of the plane (where the tote is). You should get closer or even pass optimal if the ends are now apart and the middle is touching….Really patience is a good thing when working wood. It’s usually a lot more difficult to put it back on if you’ve chopped, planed … a bit too much.
Good luck
Diego3 January 2015 at 6:44 am #122981I will give that a go. Going on holidays day after tomorrow, so I want to get as much as I can done before I have to down tools. I am getting the hang of it though. Watched Paul’s vids on jointing stock again, I feel like I can probably bring the joints a lot closer.
I will let you all know how I go!
I am working on a workbench as well. My planing skills have definitely improved over the course of the project. Here’s a few things I picked up:
Instead of trying to get 2 edges exactly straight I put them together (just as I would glue them) and then plane next to where the gaps are. They might not be straight afterwards, but al least they fit together.
When planing out those gaps I find it works best to start with short strokes and then elongate them. This will create a flatter surface than only attacking the high spots.
Sharpen a lot. I frequently skipped the last stage of sharpening(the strop). It was sharp enough after the 3 diamond stones and it got me back to work faster. When my plane is no longer sharp I notice I start to put more pressure on it and that is when it start cutting unpredictably.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Wesley
3 January 2015 at 9:08 am #122984Sharpening is a big one, but I find it faster to go straight to the strop. Most of the time that’s going to get you back to sharp very quickly. I have a leather belt on my workbench charged with chromium oxide, and when I start to feel the wood fighting back, I whip out the blade and give it a quick 40 strokes.
I managed to get the gap down to a fraction of a millimeter, and I have glued up that pair of boards for a test. Getting them perfectly straight seems beyond my ability, not sure why. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it any better than that.
I used a 1m steel rule and a pencil to guestimate what straight was, and used my no5 jack to hog off the material down to that line. After that it was just a case of reading the high spots and trying to get as close to an even straight line with my no7 as I reasonably could. I did wind up with a slightly wavy edge, but I put that down to a dulling blade and maybe a few too many short strokes. It did come together quite well with clamping pressure, although there is a slight gap at one end on one side that I noticed too late, and I put that down to having to use quick clamps for that part. I ran out of F clamps, because I am using a number of them to hold my temporary workbench together.
One thing I noticed that was quite interesting, is that even though my no7 has a convex sole, I could plane the edge convex with full length, full width strokes as easily as I could plane it concave. What I take from this is that the flex in the plane is sufficient that a perfectly flat sole us pretty much pointless. I think it comes down to skill in working the wood, reading the surface, and knowing how to work the plane, far more than the condition of the plane itself.
Since all my clamps are occupado, I am left with nothing to hold my work with, so I am done for the day. I don’t think I’ll have the aprons done before my holiday, which means I’m going to spend the whole thing dreaming about finishing them.
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