Thread: Mini Workbench - Suggestions for joinery please

37mm hardwood is plenty strong enough to cope with 19/20mm dog holes. The “tail vise” on my outdoor workbench has a 35mm crapiata pine jaw and it copes.

Originally Posted by Cklett

......Now I am co templating what finish I should use. Just BLO or something more protective?...

Benches by their nature get dinged & marked up unless you are far more fastidious than I am. So my preference is a finish that's dead-easy to replenish every now & then, & Danish oil fits that bill for me. I also wax the top occasionally, to prevent glue from sticking to it. Neither prevents liquids from seeping quickly through into the wood, but the only way that I know to preserve a pristine bench top is to never use it....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Cklett

.....My chisel work definately needs practise. Here I decided to fit some hardwood pads and glue them in with epoxy. This covers up the endgrain which I had butchered.
.....

I used to say that until I realised that it was code for "my chisel is not sharp enough".

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

37mm hardwood is plenty strong enough to cope with 19/20mm dog holes. The “tail vise” on my outdoor workbench has a 35mm crapiata pine jaw and it copes.

Agree with the Chief.

I'd urge you to go with 19mm or 19.05mm (3/4 inch) as most over-the-counter stuff is in that dimension - its convenient.

Remembering that a dowel or a 19mm dog is essentially a "round tennon", I recently found some destructive testing of tennons which was illuminating. (Cannot remember the source though - can anyone help?)

Traditionally, mortices are cut to one third of the width of the timber and then the tennon is cut to fit the mortice. Thus for 18mm timber you would cut a 6mm mortice leaving 6mm shoulders on each side. The above (unreferenced website) tested a range of joints and found that a mortice that was half the width of the timber gave a stronger joint than the traditional third. ie in 18mm timber, mortice 9mm wide leaving shoulders only 4.5mm wide.

Comment: Those shoulders do look flimsy but their destructive testing indicated that overall the joint was stronger than the traditional one with 6mm tennon and shoulders.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I used to say that until I realised that it was code for "my chisel is not sharp enough".

Yep, I still need to work on that too [emoji6]

Thanks for the feedback for the dog holes. I will go with the standard size then. Worst can happen is that the front jaw fails and then I just need to make a new one. But it is probably very unlikely it would happen. So I go with that.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Cklett

..... dog holes. I will go with the standard size then. Worst can happen is that the front jaw fails and then I just need to make a new one. ....

Vice jaws are expendable, or are constantly recycled - no big deal.

Ok, it's done. The bench has received one coat of finish so far.

I am fairly happy with it. I embraced the blue masking tape accident and added a few blue features As they say, if you cannot hide it then feature it or as a mentor of mine once said. If something goes wrong then go and look for the gold in the sh*t. And I quite like it now. Won't stay like this as it is a workbench, but I defnately had fun doing it.

20200514_084216.jpg20200514_084120.jpg20200514_084114.jpg

In the Steve Latta plans the feet had the cut outs for the clamps only on one side. I decided to put them on both sides, so I can clamp the bench down any way I like.
For the front vice jaw I went to use elongated holes so that I can also clamp odd shaped pieces. In the Steve Latta bench he has a fronvice with a swivel jaw. So I incorporated that ability this way as well.

The inside jaw faces are still covered in blue masking tape to keep the finish of it as I still want to apply some liner. I like the blue on that as well, but do not know if there would be a suitable liner in blue . In the end I will go with what works best off course.

20200514_085652.jpg20200514_084302.jpg20200514_084542 (2).jpg

I definately have learned a lot:
1. Need to improve chisel sharpening
2. Need to have more patience when working towards a line. I still go beyond it as I want things to go faster.
3. More practise to saw in a straight line

Nothing which would not be fixed with more practise and I am having fun. That's most important.

By the way I forgot to share in earlier post where the material came from. The bench top came from this board which I found in a friend's garden and the base material came from left overs from a former desk build.

PART_1557891976943 (2).jpeg

With the remains from the bench top I am going to make a saw bench, but that's going to be a separate thread.

Thanks for all the comments and tips.

I think you are beating yourself up far too much.

First up, your TEMPORARY workbench will still be used in 10 years time. You will ponder about making another one to "improve" upon things... then get distracted.

I have 100 temporary jigs in a box, every single one of them, absolutely temporary.

Second, as pointed out, gaps are no big deal.

--> Any slop in your dovetails, make a thin wedge of the same material (or some veneer) and hammer it in with glue. On dry, saw/sand it flat. Not visible!
--> Do the same with your M+T's. If they are gapppy....
--> A hand router and length of board as a guide to take out a 2mm line on the join, slip in a wedge of darker wood. Presto, Added Trendiness!
--> Bore the holes with a drill. Whack in a darker dowel. Presto, "wedged" tenons! oooo, ahhhh.....
--> Its a WORK bench, not a museum artefact or the dining room table (used once a fortnight). This WORKBENCH will be used DAILY (yes!)

Im in the process of designing a mini workbench, to be used on my mini balcony, in my mini 2br unit!

Collecting some pictures... here is a nice one from Reddit yesterday


bench mini.jpg

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Veritas make an inlay attachment for their router plane, it’s on my wishlist...

Exactly what i was looking for. Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Exactly what i was looking for. Thanks for the tip!

I gave in and treated myself to it on Monday, along with a pair of Veritas dovetail saddle squares. Now just got to see how long they take to ship from La-la-land...

Originally Posted by woodPixel

I think you are beating yourself up far too much.

First up, your TEMPORARY workbench will still be used in 10 years time. You will ponder about making another one to "improve" upon things... then get distracted.

I have 100 temporary jigs in a box, every single one of them, absolutely temporary.

Second, as pointed out, gaps are no big deal.

--> Any slop in your dovetails, make a thin wedge of the same material (or some veneer) and hammer it in with glue. On dry, saw/sand it flat. Not visible!
--> Do the same with your M+T's. If they are gapppy....
--> A hand router and length of board as a guide to take out a 2mm line on the join, slip in a wedge of darker wood. Presto, Added Trendiness!
--> Bore the holes with a drill. Whack in a darker dowel. Presto, "wedged" tenons! oooo, ahhhh.....
--> Its a WORK bench, not a museum artefact or the dining room table (used once a fortnight). This WORKBENCH will be used DAILY (yes!)

Im in the process of designing a mini workbench, to be used on my mini balcony, in my mini 2br unit!

Collecting some pictures... here is a nice one from Reddit yesterday


bench mini.jpg

Thanks woodPixel for your feedback. I am actually really happy with my result and know it'll serve me well for a long time.

I agree that a lot of thought temporary jigs live much longer than we thought. I also have quite a small collection of those and in the end of the day they are just tools to make other things.

Some good advise for fixing gaps from you. I shall remember them as well.

And that's also one nice looking bench from you. I like it as well.

Thanks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

A bit of fun. First job on the bench.
Sharpening (shaping) Minecraft swords for my sons birthday party. [emoji16]

Not what I thought it'll be uses for first...

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Cklett

.....

In this politically correct era, I am sure that he will need a license for such a wicked weapon.

PS: Great drawer unit under the bench. Lots of shallow drawers are so much more useful than fewer deep drawers.

Yep, a lot of small drawers are often better to keep things tidy and easier accessible without having to rummage through deep ones.
That was also a project to use up material which piled up.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk