Thread: Dowelmax workbench

Looks like a good size Delbs. I hadn't heard of the Dowelmax but if you can get ten in a joint like that it is definitely doweled to the max!

Is it just my eyes or does your ash look very like oregon? Whatever it is it will sure look pretty.

I don't envy you the task of hand jointing all those boards for the top!

Originally Posted by Berlin

Looks like a good size Delbs. I hadn't heard of the Dowelmax but if you can get ten in a joint like that it is definitely doweled to the max!

Is it just my eyes or does your ash look very like oregon? Whatever it is it will sure look pretty.

I don't envy you the task of hand jointing all those boards for the top!

Ilya put me onto the Dowelmax, I was after a joining system and it came within my budget at the time, been very happy with it.
Yeah there is one or two pieces in there that resemble Oregon (douglas fir) but its very dense and quite heavy unlike the oregon so it doesnt seem to be. But i am far from a an expert when it comes to identifying wood as i was just told its all Mountain ash when i took ownership of it. I could be wrong

haha yes bit of a task a head but im up for it, feeling strong so ill give it a shot. If i need assistance ill be calling one of the locals here to use their jointers for sure. You know the really annoying thing is that i own a 12" Helical head Hammer combo machine but i havent got the sparky around to wire it up yet and i want the bench done asap. so that is what im left with, a no 7 hand jointer lucky they are dressed pretty well already i wont be taking off a lot of material, just cleaning them up really.

The top looks massive, good stuff! Are you planning to have drawers underneath?

Originally Posted by Ilya

The top looks massive, good stuff! Are you planning to have drawers underneath?

I really wanted to use a lot of the material i had so 1900x600 it has become to be Im not 100% if i need draws there or not as i already have a lot of storage elsewhere in the garage, if the need arises i will look at installing it but for now i dont think i need it

So turns out berlin is on the money. Some of the darker beams that are different colours seem the original owner was playing with some dyes, so out of 6 of the beams for the top 3 of them are oregon.
I noticed the difference in how the no7 was handling the grain on tge lighter weight oregon to the ash.
If I was aware of this before I started docking them I would have made the legs and rails out of oregon and top out of ash but thats a lesson for the next bench I make
The price that I got this timber stash at I cannot complain.


So now I have learnt how to plane a 1900mm board in one minimal strokes things have sped up. I have the triton jaws setup with two roller supports under each end, I then stand in the middle with each foot on the feet of the triton jaws (helps being 6"5 tall) and reach with the jointer facing me on one end and with as much momentum I can generate pull it towards me then push it out the other end. Works great especially once I honed up the blade.

Thats just a dry fitup of the legs also and i still have three lengths left to join the sides of ready for glue up. Once ts dry the hardest part comes when flattening the bench as some of the boards (i think 2 of them) are as much as 4 or 5 mm higher than the others which will require particular attention, im just thankful it isnt burl or something wth crazy grain as the jointer once honed is not too bad at creatig shavings, i can get some good momentum and make some progress


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The exciting part is close but not hre yet, gluing it all up and starting with the dowelmax to put it all together. Will keep posting photos with more progress as it happens.

So made some good progress tonight, finished joining the sides of 3 lengths in the top. After i did that i got the dowelmax into action on one end and drilled a 10mmdowel hole so that the bottom was flat and endgrain was even. Then i realised the other end wasnt complete flat, one of the lengths must have a bit more warp in it than it looks and was sticking out a little, so i drilled a hole in that end also but then because i forced it in i got warp. i figured i could work with an uneven bottom on one end easier post glue up than i could warp with a slab this size so i just left the dowels in at one end and the other end isnt warped but a little uneven, nothing a bit of muscle and a no7 bailey cant resolve (he says hesitantly). Anyway i managed to find every clamp big enough in the garage to use for this glue up and had an old paint brush to lather on the tite bond3. Hopefully i put enough on there so come tomorrow it wont spring out once i remove the clamps

Silly question, does anyone ever flatten both sides of the bench? underneath and on top? just to get it flush for the legs to go on? or is that just asking for more pain? lol

Its weird how i have been able to get at least an hour or more in the garage every night for the past 3 or 4 nights. the two little ones are sleeping wonderfully and wifes keeping herself busy so perfect chance for me to get some progress made, tomorrow ill start planing the top down see how far i can get before i make a router sled. Since the legs are already cut to the length and width i need ill just need to mark up the underside of the top as to where they are going then begin dowelmaxing them together.

More tomrrow!

Cheers,
Delbs

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Ok so that was a fail, i went in today unclamping thinking it had been long enough but wooops, needs a full 24hours or more to cure and it actually had only been around 8 or 9 since i did the glue up last night. Only one beam came bouncing off on the end so i used the dowelmax the whole way along and at the end that was required a bit more pressure put 4 dowels in next to each other and re-glued and clamped. now i wont touch it until tomorrow night. Then ill start flatenning it. off to mark out the legs.

Looking good, Delbs Nice work on the jointing. Once you've flattened the top with plane it could be a good idea to not sand it or at least sand very cautiously because you might find the bits of Oregon dish out while the ash sits up. I'm sure I didn't need to mention that but it's caught me once in the past.
Matt

Good point. Ive noticed that with jointing the ash ive neededto put it on an angle moreso than theoregon as the grain stands up. I just sharpening or hooked some scrapers so ill give that a shot instead of sanding. Thanks for the tip.

It's a workbench, I would just go over it with a smoothing plane, and wouldn't bother with sandpaper/scrapers.

The cut im getting from my jointer/smoother is good enough for me aside from the small parts where the grain stands up on the ash so yeah should be fine

Alright so another night and made some more progress.

I removed all the clamps and the bench top didnt come apart, hoorraayy!!! the dowels at one end worked enough and the tops looking really good, well the topside is anyway, the underside not so pretty or flat, actually the term unflat is an understatement its actually got undulations the size of mountains in it due to one or two of the boards being different sizes to the ones next to it, I thought this was the side i would attack to be the top but no way, i fliped her over and clamped it down and started cleaning up all over, going over the whole top 4 times with the scrub then another 3 times with the jointer i managed to remove any high spots and get it nearly completely flat.

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HAd to come up with a way to hold the little sucker down while i was jointing it as it wanted to move, nothing that clamping a clamp to the router table and bench top wont fix


Its raining at the moment and i still had to wear shorts and t-shirt, man this no spiral headed thicknesser/jointer business builds up a sweat!


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The only downside to deciding to use the other flatter side of the bench is that i put this bad boy on the underside at the time so now ive got this lovely chunk out of one of the beams. IVe decided that ive claned it up as much as i can and going to put clear casting resin in there to flattening it out and just sand it down and enjoy it.

So im pretty happy wth how its come out, still not 100% flat so ill clean up a bit more tomorrow night then glue up the legs and

Tomorrow will be more progress with legs and rails glue up getting there!

Cheers,
Delbs

Mate, it's looking good. How are you going to fit the legs to the top?

Trav

Originally Posted by Trav

Mate, it's looking good. How are you going to fit the legs to the top?

Trav

Im suprised i actually have the patience to build this thing, in the past i didnt have it and just wanted to get a bench so i built what i could and threw it together with bugle head screws, inevitably it comes loose and my best friend racking comes to play.

With the dowelmax of course

Ill post up photos of it tonight but i have tested just a simple butt joint of the 2 beams at 90x90 held with 10 dowels and its a very strong joint for a bench. So for the top of the legs attaching to the underside of the bench top im going to drill in 15 dowels and for the legs and rails 10 each.

Then once its assembled and on its own legs ill finish the final stage of flattening off and finish it with wipe on poly. then the vice

Once its finished im happy to host the next get together for you canberra lot to see in the flesh, see all the flaws up close