Thread: Building A Work Table/Bench without a Worktable/Bench to build it on...

Originally Posted by auscab

Or you could use a butt hinge and just build up the door front in two spots next to the butt hinge . A little timber decorative build up in thickness to make it level with left leg on the front when the rest of the door is flush with the rest .
Then the hinge will look right and the door will swing out and around getting out of the way of the interior .

Thanks Rob, have you got any examples of what you mean?.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Thanks Rob, have you got any examples of what you mean?.

No .

Just design a shape and stick of them onto the stile to build the thickness up where its needed . Or make the left stile of the door thicker right through from top to bottom . That'd be a bit strange though.

Or use some other hinge type .

Originally Posted by auscab

No .

Just design a shape and stick of them onto the stile to build the thickness up where its needed . Or make the left stile of the door thicker right through from top to bottom . That'd be a bit strange though.

Or use some other hinge type .

I'll use the same ones I used on the tool cabinet, I just butted up a 7mm piece of wood against the frame to see if there would be an issue, seem to work fine.

For the drawers I decided to use up some 12mm white oak veneer MDF for the drawer boxes, I don't like MDF but thats all I had. At least its HD MDF so hopefully screws will hold a little better than the regular stuff. For the drawer bottoms I used 4mm marine ply. Having cut everything to size I ironed on some oak veneer:

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The joinery I opted for are half lap locking joints, I've used these before on my tool cabinet and I find them almost as strong as dovetails except they dont take as long to make, at least for me anyway!. Here's the tablesaw setup with my dado stack:

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And here's the three drawers going from flat pack to glue up:

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While I was waiting for those to dry I thought I might aswell plod on and make the drawer faces, no MDF from here on, its all plywood. First though I had to glue up some thicker plywood. I laminated 12mm & 7mm ply to make the drawer faces and also the doors. I moved everything off my nearly finished work table and stuffed it all into my vacuum press.

Here's the doors having the life sucked out of them:

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Once they were sufficiently cooked I laminated the top & side edges. Something I've found very useful now is being able to clamp stuff to the sides of my bench legs, like this:

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Assembly of the drawers went very smoothly, mainly because I've done a huge amount before, nothing beats experience. And here are the three drawers sanded and complete:

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I was going to make runners for the drawers and then decided against it for two reasons, firstly I don't want the drawers popping out while moving the bench and secondly I wanted to be able to fully extend the drawers which are almost 500mm deep, so I went with soft close drawer runners. All this was pre-planned and measured before making the drawers of course.

The last thing to do was attach the handles. They came with screws but I wanted something abit more robust like my tool cabinet so I attached them using bolts:

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Luckily I measured everything correctly and it all went together nicely with no hiccups. Here are the drawers completed:

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I'm waiting on a 26mm forsner bit to be delivered tomorrow so I can mortise the holes for the door hinges.

I would have been waiting a month if I wanted a Freud or Fisch brand forstner bit so I decided to go cheap, after all I only needed to cut four 26mm holes!. So I wasn't expecting much from the bit set I ordered off Amazon as I only paid $56 delivered. I must say pleasantly surprised I was by the quality, they're not as good as my Freuds but they're sharp and very good quality indeed for the price!.

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So without further to do I swung the doors on. I made a temporary jig to line up where everything should go and drilled away. I really should make an adjustable jig for fitting doors and drawers, how do you guys go about it?. In the following photo's you can see the left hand door which had to be set back and level with the top and bottom shelf, I was pleased to see the left door opens and closes just fine despite the left leg protruding by 4mm.

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These doors may be small but you open them up and its huge inside!.

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All thats left is to apply a finish. Suggestions would be most appreciated. I have plenty of Hard Shellac and Polyurethane ...

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Ideally I want to add a moxon vice on the end but not sure if it would fit?. Here's the measurements:

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Originally Posted by auscab

I some times do tops with Poly then shellac

Hi Rob,

I just used a rag to wipe on a very thin coat of oil based poly to the whole table, in fact I wiped it on and wiped it off just to see what it looks like. I've changed my mind about using the oil based poly as I think its too dark so is it ok to sand the poly off (baring in mind its just one super thin coat) and apply a coat of shellac over that?.

I plan to have a shellac seal coat and then apply a water based poly coat. Is all this possible and recommended?. I know the object is to just get the whole thing sealed but I don't want it too dark or for it to get darker over time.

Hi Sam. Poly goes yellow with time supposedly. Ive never noticed it going to yellow with time on my things but I have seen it send things to yellow when Ive put to many coats on a pale timber. Ive seen very yellow old stuff as well that other people did. I think its used to thick a lot of the time . I thin it down and cut it back as hard as I can when dry. then I go to shellac on top.
Its only Oil based Poly sanding sealer I use though . Never ever top coat Poly. Top coat Poly in any gloss as a base and shellac over the top doesn't work. The shellac peels off.
So yeah sand your thin coat off. Or if it sanding sealer sand lightly or heavy.

Shellac seal coat then water poly ? You better try it and let us know how it goes. I wouldn't have a clue .
Actually I have tried water poly and shellac on top and it seemed ok . The Water poly I used was a white looking solution that wasn't settling out so smooth in the layers I was putting on. It did keep things light and clear though which was what I was hoping for in that job . Me trying to get away from the oil poly SS and the blonde shellac getting to yellow as it always can do.

Originally Posted by auscab

So yeah sand your thin coat off. Or if it sanding sealer sand lightly or heavy.

No its not sanding sealer.

Originally Posted by auscab

Shellac seal coat then water poly ? You better try it and let us know how it goes. I wouldn't have a clue .

My thinking is that the water based poly will add a stronger layer of protection than oil based poly or shellac, if it has the ability to stick to the shellac then I have the beauty that shellac brings to wood aswell. Will give it a go.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

...is it ok to sand the poly off (baring in mind its just one super thin coat) and apply a coat of shellac over that?

Yes. They say shellac will stick to everything, but while this is an exaggeration the main thing here is that once you've sanded there'll be little or no poly left. The shellac will be almost completely bonding to the sanded wood, not the slick, hard, surface of cured polyurethane varnish.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

I plan to have a shellac seal coat and then apply a water based poly coat. Is all this possible and recommended?

This is a frequently recommended way to get a better colour than using waterbased poly straight on the wood.

Apart from the vice which will go on the end of the table its complete. The finish I used was hard shellac, applied with both a brush and fad. Each coat, of which there was roughly four was cut back using finer sand paper and then ultimately fine steel wool.

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This is my first workbench of sorts, so I've learned alot and not least to measure the final height after you receive casters, going off the measurements as advertised isn't always dead accurate!.

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Opinions and/or criticisms are welcome and much appreciated, its the only way I can improve!.

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Designed and Built by Sam

Accomplished

Nice Sam .
The only thing I think it needs now is the top cover. A false top. A thin ply or MDF top with a rim of solid wood to keep it in place. It keeps the solid top fresh and clean from when your doing Glue jobs , Paint stripping or messy colour jobs. I give my false top a coat of watered down Black acrylic paint every now and then . I also use it as a place to draw things up in pencil . Like when I'm working calculations or small round cricket tables diameters and angles. They can be drawn up full size. The pencil on black acrylic works good.

That is way too good to be used as a work bench!!!, now make another one out of crapiata pine and use it as a daily work bench

Originally Posted by auscab

... The only thing I think it needs now is the top cover. A false top. A thin ply or MDF top with a rim of solid wood to keep it in place. ...

I beg to differ, Rob.

I had one and it drove me mad. It was 3 mm MDF with an 18 mm square rim in Tas oak. Even had a bunch of little felt pads from Bunnings on the back to leave an air space between the bench top and cover. It was great in situ, but when I wanted to use the bench, where did I put the top where it is out of the way? Anywhere in the shed is awkward, really no room, and outside - its probably raining or windy or both.

For a while, after I ditched the bench cover, I used a painters drop cloth. That practice did not last.

Now, I am quite happy in not covering my bench. And if my bench was as pretty as Sam's then I would not want to hide it!