Thread: WIP - Kman's Traditional Work Bench

Originally Posted by NCArcher

I considered going all the way through with the leg tennons but i was worried that the long grain top would expand and contract more than the end grain legs and leave the tennons either proud of recessed depending on the weather. Do you think this is likely?

Tony

It is likely, but given the age of this flooring (circa 70 years I beleive) I suspect it will be minimal. I measured the boards when I removed them from the house a few years ago at 108mm, now they're averaging 107.5mm. If they're ever proud I'll plane them flat, but if they're recessed a little I'm not bothered. Worst case I can always route out the tops and glue a little board flat into the top anyway.

I inspected every one of the boards when I restacked them on the weekend and they're all still as flat as a... well, a board!

Attempt No.2

I've cut the lamination from yesterday to remove the bits that didn't meet well and I'm using it as a clamping board for a shorter length which will eventually fit between the legs. I will be assembling the top around the leg tenons rather than cutting mortices from the finished top to save time. The peice behind the lamination is an old rip saw fence from my homemade table saw, now redundant and forgotten about until this afternoon!

For a lamination half the length of the top I can make this work pretty well. Pic 2 shows how well the glue spreader works; a nice consistent bead of glue all the way along the edge. Though I think the 1mm gaps in the spreader are still a little tall, I had to work the spreader on an acute angle to reduce the glue being used. Even now I think I still used a little too much glue.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

Now, if Groggy would be so kind as to let me borrow his incomplete bench top as a clamping aid...

Might be simpler to bring your top over here Kman...

This is in fact the main problem, I don't have anything long and rigid enough to make a proper start. Once I have three or four boards together I can manage the rest, but how to start when the longest length I have is the front stretcher on the bench, which is a full metre too short. Looking around, the only thing I can see that might help is the posts on the pergola. I'm still thinking this one through.

I could have a squiz in the rack out the back if it would help. Or, once you have a couple done you can run them through the jointer and thicknesser to give a reference clamping surface.

Regarding the dovetails, I was initially considering making doubles instead of just the one. But after seeing just how much effort must be going into yours Groggy, I decided to stick with a single. It seems to me that the front facing double dovetail is pretty much the default for benches with a wagon vice. Though I believe most of them are using materials considerably thinner such that movement will be a smaller issue. Mine will have the rely on the bolts for vice tension, but that didn't concern me at all, and it also means I don't have to worry about movement at all. I need only make the dovetails rigid and let the top expand and contract to/from the centre. If the endcaps move a little this doesn't effect the front edge of the bench either.

Must be a thousand ways to go about this, none of them 'wrong' and all offering something to the owner.

Do you remember me asking whether you had considered drawboring the dovetails together? My thinking was to maximise rigidity at the front edge so that expansion would be focused towards the back. This would mean making sure there is room for the tails to grow inside the blind pins.

I thought about that after you left but cooled on the idea. Too much risk of splitting is my gut feel of it.

Looking better with the glue up.

I've finally managed to get the lamination process down to an easily managed system. Remember when I said twice as many clamps would probably fix the problems I had? (See pic 1)

My way around this problem was quite convoluted, but without a decent rigid board long enough to clamp to I had no choice. I'm now able to make full length laminations without regard for regularity, it just works. Because there is a strictly finite number of boards available I can't afford to waste any, so every screw up counts against this project.

A note for anyone looking to laminate boards together like this for a bench top; get some sauce. You heard me! Ok, I'll go back a step or two. In the first place I simply poured the glue from the Titebond gallon bottle then spread it out, which worked well enough. What I later found was that when my laminations weren't working very well I didn't notice because there was glue pushing out of the gaps anyway. In other words, I was using way too much glue.

To remedy this I used a left over Titebond 375ml bottle, which was better. These aren't very well designed in my view because the top tends to glue itself closed making it hard to open. Then of course you end up damaging the top trying to open it. Mine went completely to pieces at the beginning of a glue up... runs to the kitchen and empties the sauce bottle (we have two young children so Tomato Sauce is in ready supply), quick rinse, glue goes in, keep going.

What I found was that it seals better, doesn't get glued shut, pours more easily and it dispenses glue quite evenly and quickly. All qualities that make it invaluable in a lamination process.

I think you need to label this bottle as glue.

What I started doing was getting some containers from the kitchen to store bits and pieces for the project that I would be working on. Problem is that I sometimes eat something in the garage and so forget which was which. So I started to mark the containers that need to stay in the garage so that I would know what to take back to the kitchen.

So far working well.

I have a couple of those with glue in.
Dishwashing liquid bottles work well too.

Originally Posted by Christos

I think you need to label this bottle as glue.

...

Nah

Live dangerously

and anyway what is wrong with glueing the sav to the bun - won't fall out then!

Kman,

Looking good

Is that the bench base you are using for support?

Yes it is. The lower clamping board is infact the front edge of the bench top with half of the mortices cut in, resting on top of the tenons. It's such a close fit I can just sit it on top and the whole thing is stable!

I should be worried that the wife will come and re-claim her sauce bottle though.

I saved you folks the boring part; laminating the majority of the top. So the top is now in six pieces: Front apron, dog row sections, front slab, rear slab and rear apron. All the components are only roughly to size, but you get an idea of just how big this will be.

It's funny, Groggy remarked when I last visited just how useful a bench top 5" wide can be while the top was held vertically for edge work. When I'd joined enough boards to have a 4x4" post I started using this as a support for jointing all the remaining boards, and Groggy was right, this is a very functional bench for jointing. Got a place for the work piece and the planes... done. Once I was able to make a 300mm slab I though 'Awesome, now it's a proper bench top', but little did I realise that I'd be constantly removing shavings and tools to get work done. In short, a really narrow bench is practical and forces you to keep it clean.

Moving on, I've roughed out the joints for the tenons on one side (pic 2), but there's work to do to get the faces jointed up correctly, so more material will have to be removed from the joints here. Also about 3mm has to come off the top to get it all flat, so the break outs will disappear eventually. I've arranged the front and rear apron so that they fit neatly around the tenons and provide an accurate width to work from for the end caps. The result of this is that I learned that the frame ends are slightly difference depths, hence the little lip on the rear right leg (pic 3).

Some of these boards are quite hard for light coloured eucalypt (the No.7 has had quite the work out I can assure you) so I found a relatively soft board to use for the centre of the dog row to save the drill bits (pic 4).

Out of the entire stack of boards I found one that was split too badly to bother repairing, one that had a lot of gum voids and the one in pic 5 which had a small amount of rot. The rest were all but perfect. This one bit of rot has been repaired, but won't be visible anyway as this is on the bottom of the dog row. Being the front of the bench I didn't want to leave it alone, mostly because I've become very good at laminating these large boards and a little pedantic I will confess.

By the time this top is finished I will proclaim myself the worlds for most expert in lamination of recycled Australian light colour hardwood flooring into a bench top.

Once the glue is dry on the dog row I'll finish finessing it to exactly 50mm wide and drill the dog holes with a jig on the drill press. Once the three sections of the front slab are all glued I'll cut the front mortices and begin preparing for the end caps. I'm currently debating the merits of single and double dovetails for the end caps. I was set on the singles, but having seen Groggy's come to life I'm further tempted.

Progress has been slow, but now that the lamination is mostly done there will be a lot more to see. See y'all again soon.

'tis coming along well

It must be workbench season, everyone seems to be into it. Dave, may I suggest you look at the flip-stop design here at Richard Maguire's site. It looks like you could incorporate one at this stage fairly easily. (skip to 2:40 to save time. url courtesy of KevM)

Great looking work so far

Originally Posted by Groggy

It must be workbench season, everyone seems to be into it. Dave, may I suggest you look at the flip-stop design here at Richard Maguire's site. It looks like you could incorporate one at this stage fairly easily. (skip to 2:40 to save time. url courtesy of KevM)

Great looking work so far

Looking good K-Man...

Groggy, that flip stop is a great idea. Have bookmarked that site for later.

regards,

Denim

Good progress Dave.
That top will look sensational.
I really like the 'flip-stop' as well. Worth considering.