Thread: My First Workbench Build (6' English Style)

Quite a few on here have used various pines for a bench top and they have worked out fine. Mine was a mix of oregon and radiata and even a few small knots. Ok as long as they are not dead knots that will come loose later.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f213/time-propper-bench-165507
Been using it for a year and half and the top is holding up nicely. No problems with the dog or holdfast holes either. Sure there are now a few marks on it but its a work bench not fine furniture.
As for the jointing problems I dont see 3mm over 2m being a big problem as long as the edges are reasonably square they will pull together. Have a look at the Peter Sellars bench build. Glue up in batches is always a good move too. Do a dry clamp up first as a practise to give some idea of how things come together. Mark any bits that still need attention and then just fare those bits up with the plane.
Regards
John

John, do you mean Paul Sellers? Because that's the design of bench I am following.

Managed to get the gap down to a fraction of a millimeter, using my no7 plane and a bit of brain power. What I noticed was that even though my no7 has a convex sole, I could easily plane the edges convex as easily as I could plane them concave, with full length shavings. What this indicates to me is that the sole of the plane has sufficient flex along it's length that a perfectly flat sole is pointless.

I am doing a test glueup with my finished pair, to see how it goes, before I joint the rest. That way any big mistakes I can avoid on the rest.

John, when you say glue up in batches, do you mean do them in pairs or do the whole batch at once?

Originally Posted by Mooncabbage

What this indicates to me is that the sole of the plane has sufficient flex along it's length that a perfectly flat sole is pointless.

Is it the plane that is flexing or is it your stock? Or is it that you are not allowing your number 7 to find its own level? The only other alternative I can see is that you are now using the plane correctly and were not doing so before. The fact that you now have the gap down to a fraction of a millimetre gives me hope that you are now using the plane correctly. I hope that is the case. I do find it a bit of a worry that you are jointing with a number 7 with a sole that is anything but flat. but that is probably just me...

Cheers

Doug

The sole is flattish. Planes do flex. That's why you're not supposed to murder the tote and knob, lest you flex it too much and hollow out your board. I suppose if you put almost no pressure on except to pull it forward and keep it level, you could keep it close to it's natural state, but even then the projection of the blade and the downward force of the wood pulling it to task means it's not truely flat. The key takeaway for me is that the plane is a tool, not a machine, and using it mindlessly won't work.

It is possible that the wood was flexing as I planed, as I clamped it to the side of my makeshift bench. The bottom was unsupported. I would imagine that the resulting depression in the middle would make it harder to plane convex then though.

I tried flattening my jointer a bit, but because the sole is convex rather than concave, I would have to remove an aweful lot of metal to get close. What I did do was flatten the area around the mouth with diamond plates, and as a result the quality of the shaving is much improved.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but for the top I'm looking at using recycled Karri or Kauri, from Gumtree. Depends on the cost and condition of the wood, which seems more or less equivalent to the same amount of big box pine. They are available in 9"x2" boards, so I figured I could rip them down to 3"x2" boards, and laminate them. Laminations I figure give me a thickness closer to what I need, and make it easier to eliminate twist with a minimum of waste. The specific ads I am looking at are here and here, incase anyone in the Perth area is also interested.

I did mean Paul Sellers. The image of Peter Sellers building a bench would make for good entertainment.
Regards
John