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Thread: (Another) Workbench WIP
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1st September 2008, 12:45 PM #1
(Another) Workbench WIP
Good day all,
After a loooong time of thinking about it, I have finally succumbed to “bench fever”, and am in the middle of a build. To be fair, I have been suffering from the early symptoms for some years, but had always managed to get away with the cure-all remedy of “………some day”.
My trusty current bench was purchased from a colleague of mine back in South Africa 15 years ago, for the princely sum of $10, and followed me here. Despite its steel construction and upgrading it several times over the years, adding various vices, and plywood tops, it has continued to frustrate due to height, (too high), weight (too light), stability (racks and walks all over the place), Size (too small) and scant clamping capabilities (see Pics 1 & 2 below).
Over the past Christmas, I scored some recycled Jarrah/bluegum/brushbox courtesy of forum member Boban, followed by some Oregon roofing beams and rafters from a demolition of the house next door, and spent bits of time denailing and cleaning them up. All this went well, except for the single stub screw I missed, which notched my thicknesser blades. Anyone in Sydney know of a good sharpening service??
The pressure increased with my hall table project, (Pic 3), where the larger pieces were a challenge to handle, and reached a peak with the lowline cabinet I am currently building, when I realized I would probably have to hotmelt glue the top to my bench in order to plane it!
I had toyed with numerous designs and variations, from trade, Web, and this forum, but again and again found myself back at Keith Rucker’s website.
http://pages.friendlycity.net/%7Ekrucker/Bench/index.htm
Finally in early August, I did the material calcs, and decided that with minor adaptations to accommodate materials and abilities to hand, I would build largely to his design.
TBCAlastair
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1st September 2008 12:45 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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1st September 2008, 10:52 PM #2
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4th September 2008, 03:28 PM #3
Good day All,
As Poppa said, no pics—didn’t happen!
However, I have been spending my time doing, not snapping. I’ll try and rectify with some retrospective pics as I bring the build up to date, and document more as I go along, once caught up.
Stock I had was various lengths of 110 X 35 oregon, and 2 off 4 m beams of 170 X 45 oregon, one of which was very knotty. To get the size I wanted for the top and bottom rails, and to simplify the joinery, these were laminated up from the 110x35. I made up dummy tenons to suit, and wrapped them in clingwrap, before aligning by feel, and clamping up. After the clamps came off, and the tenons were knocked out, instant mortices!! One face was then jointed by hand, and the pieces then sized through thicknesser, (110mm for feet, and 85mm for top rails. (pic 1)
The stiles were laminated up from the 45mm stock, using the bits between the knots, ripped down to 85mm. I then drilled out waste for 20mm wide mortices in one of each 2 laminations, before glueing, aligning and clamping up assemblies. Again the laminated edges were hand jointed, and the stiles then machined to size. Tenons were then marked out on both ends of the stiles, a squidgen oversize for the rail mortices, and cut on the bandsaw. (pic 2) These were then individually fitted with the shoulder plane. (Oregon is a b*gger to plane cross grain!). As these joints will be wedged for rigidity, stopper holes were first drilled, and then slots for the wedges cut on the bandsaw. (pic 3). Trial assembly showed something approaching square, at least. (pic 4)
The (previously drilled) mortices in the stiles were then chiseled out to size. It was then time to convert the remaining lengths of 170x45 into the stretchers. (Slightly oversize) full width tenons were “nibbled” out on the tablesaw, and edge cheeks on the bandsaw. The tenons were made shorter than the mortices, to allow them to be drawn up by bolting. This was done to allow future disassembly for moving or storage, and also for strength, and to facilitate “taking up” any slack or racking which might develop with time. The tenons were again fitted for easy insertion in the stiles.
The stiles were then drilled for 5/16” bolts on the drill press. After assembly, I used these as pilot holes to drill the holes into the ends of the stretchers, before disassembling, and deepening the holes to depth.. The 30mm cross clearance holes were drilled on the drill press, and then squared off by chisel, to take the nut and washer. (pic 5)
more to comeAlastair
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4th September 2008, 07:44 PM #4
Looks good Alastair, and as Pops said, realy like the hall table, obviously working on your old bench didn't impair your product too much.
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4th September 2008, 08:30 PM #5
Hi Alastair,
Looking good.... I'll keep my eye on this thread, my bench build is coming up soon.
Also very much like your hall table, I hope you don't mind if I put this in my "one day" folder.
SD
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4th September 2008, 10:15 PM #6
That oregon looks terrific, beautiful straight grain and large sections as well.
Well think about it this way, a chipped blade is all you paid for the timber. I think it was well worth it.
Will you be making draws underneath the bench inorder to increase the weight of the workbench?
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4th September 2008, 11:31 PM #7GOLD MEMBER
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Looking good. Really like the hal table. I use Henry Bros. to sharpen my blades - very happy with them.
Bob
"If a man is after money, he's money mad; if he keeps it, he's a capitalist; if he spends it, he's a playboy; if he doesn't get it, he's a never-do-well; if he doesn't try to get it, he lacks ambition. If he gets it without working for it; he's a parasite; and if he accumulates it after a life time of hard work, people call him a fool who never got anything out of life."
- Vic Oliver
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5th September 2008, 12:53 AM #8
Hi Alastair,
Well,.. That is more like it, lots of photos of workshop activity. I knew you were busy with the 'doing'.
I like Oregon for frames, fairly strong and lightweight. Smells good when worked too. The frames are looking great. Good write-up too.
Thanks again. We will be watching for more.
Cheers,
Pops
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5th September 2008, 10:39 AM #9
Thanks for the compliments, all
I do need to make sure that credit goes where due for the hall table. The design came from the beautiful piece originally by Major Panic, and as adapted by Rocker, who both kindly consented to me doing as a WIP in "General Woodworking" earlier this year.
Thanks Bob; I get BS blades from HB, so am delighted to hear that they can sharpen as well. For the moment, have reversed the blades, so OK.
Timber; No not at this stage, but have planned the stretchers slightly lower, to allow a loose (say 2 drawers high) cabinet to be dropped in on top of them in the future.
regardsAlastair
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8th September 2008, 03:23 PM #10
Next installment, from a number of evening sessions:
Next step was to the bandsaw to cut the radii on the ends of the top and bottom rails, and use the disc sander to fair them off. The recess for the feet was also cut in the bottom rail. (pic 1). I then machined chamfers on the stiles and the exposed edges of the rails.
I cut wedges for the stile tenons using a shim on the bandsaw. (pic 2). I then proceeded to the glue-up of the leg assemblies, which I expected to be a big task, and so it proved. Liberal application of glue, followed by gentle “persuasion” from my mallet got them together. I then found that it took more muscle than I expected to get them up onto a work surface to apply clamps. Two of these snugged up the joints, and then it was time to hammer home the wedges. This was a first for me, and I was impressed with how solidly the joints locked up. (pics 3 & 4) Following glue clean-up, (pic 5) I was pleasantly surprised with the final fit, considering I had not been particularly anal in the final joint adjustment. (pic 6) (some cheating here; I was able to choose the best from 8 for the pic!!!)
After that wrestle, it was time to do it again with the second set.
After these had dried, the wedges were cleaned up by chisel, and it was time for the acid test---- assembly with the stretchers. No problems here, and after bolting together, the final result is VERY solid, with no wind, and a difference of 3mm on the long diagonal, which was better than I usually expect. (pic 7).
More to come.......Alastair
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8th September 2008, 03:33 PM #11
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8th September 2008, 03:40 PM #12
Thanks Groggy!
Slightly different interpretation to your build, which I am following closely as well........
regardsAlastair
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8th September 2008, 03:47 PM #13
Major difference so far is mine connects directly to the top, not to a top rail. The reasoning for this was to minimise under top clutter that may obstruct holdfasts, bench dogs or clamps. Like most things with benches though there are few "rights" or "wrongs" once the basics have been achieved.
It looks like a very stable design, mid-height stretchers and the top to brace it, it won't be moving much at all..
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8th September 2008, 04:19 PM #14
Hi Groggy,
Top will just rest on top rails, located by (large) dowels. If you feel the weight of the (part) top to date, it will not need securing. Only area which will be unavailable will be the area directly over the top rails. That will need some lateral thinking for dogholes, and vice etc.
regardsAlastair
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8th September 2008, 04:28 PM #15
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