workbench build – reclaimed oak
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26 May 2016 at 4:34 am #137444
I got a ton of old oak “tier rails” from someone who takes down old tobacco barns. they are rough cut in the neighborhood of 3″x4″ or so… some bigger, some smaller. If i plane them all with my dealt dw735 can i skip the hand planing step of laminating? It leaves a pretty smooth surface. All my lumber will be dead parallel after planing and i’m worried that the hand planing will be more likely to screw it up than make it better. I have built a sliding dovetail stool, and paul’s corner shelf, but still consider myself a novice. I also don’t have a great set up to do this planing since i don’t have a bench. What are your thoughts? is this a critical step or only necessary if you are going with home store lumber that might have a few more machine marks and imperfections?
26 May 2016 at 5:36 am #137445The powered planer will leave a surface just fine for gluing. And the DW735 has an option for slower feed speed for a finer surface if you are worried about a rougher surface after planing. But keep in mind that a powered planer will not take out a bow. To get things perfectly flat/straight (not parallel) after using a powered planer requires that the surface that goes down on the planer bed be perfectly flat.
However, your boards are very thick. I’m not sure how to handle that. I’ve seen people make sleds that are used to flatten and straighten one side on a powered planer, then flip the board and don’t use the sled for the other side getting it straight and parallel.
1 June 2016 at 3:15 am #137539Thanks for the feedback matt. I have a jointer too, so i jointed and then planed the boards… took a while but it got it done…
I have the aprons and top laminated. They came out pretty good, though the laminations aren’t perfect. Hopefully they will hold.
I tried to mostly flatten the aprons and then ran them through the planer. I must have been a bit careless with one of the aprons because it must not have been truly flat. It has a bit of twist in it. it works out to be about 1/8″ on the two high corners (over 5′) when i lay it on top of the other flat apron. Is that too much twist? Im thinking that if my leg assemblies are true that this twist will work itself out during assembly. Thoughts? It would be a pain to flatten it and would decrease the thickness of the aprons. Am I off base thinking I can clamp this twist out?
2 June 2016 at 2:03 am #137556Hi Troy. I don’t have direct experience since my bench has no aprons. But it would be a shame if a twisted apron caused your leg bearers to be out of parallel. A couple of ideas come to mind. First, can you place the twisted board in a location that would minimize its impact on the overall bench? Second, you could plane the twist out and have one apron a little thinner than the other (assuming that will not affect your overall design). Better safe than sorry.
2 June 2016 at 3:52 am #137559Matt, thanks for the reply. Its the whole apron glued up that is twisted… so 1/8″ across 12″ over a 5′ glued up panel. unfortunately i cant move the piece…
I’m still considering planing it down thinner. I think I will finish cutting everything to length and building the leg assemblies. I can dry fit it and see if it affects the finished product and then plane it at that point. Maybe i will get lucky and it will work out. Thanks for the ideas. i may come back to planing out in the end.
2 June 2016 at 3:56 am #137560Can you press the twisted apron flat by hand? If so, it is doubtful it will have any effect of the bench assembly. Most likely simply installing the apron will draw it out of twist and that will be the last time you give it any thought.
4 June 2016 at 5:26 am #137594AGHHHHH… i broke the edges on the bench top pretty significantly before gluing the aprons on. Thats probably gonna drive me nuts if i don’t plane the edge down so i can get a nice glue line. frustrating
18 June 2016 at 3:26 am #137928So this is slow going, but we have had other stuff going on. I think i planed out the broken edges… at least to the point that flattening the top should hopefully remove the groove. What’s the thought on leg thickness for a 5′-6′ bench? Can a 2-1/4″ by 3-1/4″ leg take the wieght? I am down to 3-1/2″ by 2-1/2″ but they aren’t quite square. I’m nervous about taking too much material off.
It sounds like you are having fun. I think legs of that thickness will work. Keep in mind, the overall design is the strength, not just the thickness of the legs. There will be cross rails between the legs and then the leg assemblies joined to the apron/top assembly. Further, this is a workbench, not a posh dining table and it’s okay to make mistakes as we learn. (I keep telling myself this as I build my first bench.)
Is the thickness of the aprons that important–they still sound pretty stout and I imagine provide plenty of rigidity/stability to the bench. I’ve always found that it’s better to do it right the first time to avoid potential regret down the road. If you set a hand plane pretty aggressively, how long could it really take to square them up?
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