Thread: Domino/Assembly Bench

Hi Andy,

I'm heading down a similiar path (assembly table for the Domino). Here are some of the thoughts I've had in the past 24 hours...

I haven't even got as far as to what size it will be, but was thinking of a manufactured top around 1" thick. I will then drill in some 3/4" holes to take some bench dogs. The ones I will likely go with are these from McJing. I'll probably go with 8 of the plastic 'low profile bench dogs' (if anyone has a Black and Decker Workmate they will know these things), and one or two of the Wonderdogs. The 'adjustable hold down clamps' also look good too.

I can't for the life of me find it now, but someone just recently posted about their Domino bench. See if you can find it - it was pretty good. (EDIT: Here 'tis. Waldo's, of course! https://www.woodworkforums.com/f58/buying-domino-121582/). Its in your thread, uses the domino to cut the holes and uses dominos for the dogs - a good idea. I might just do that now!).

I'll put some drawers underneath as I can never have too much storage, and also somewhere for the systainers to go. What I would also like to add to it is a copy of the metal arm which holds the vacuum hose and power cord on the genuine MFT table - but I guess this can be retrofitted at any time.

Good luck with yours.

Nathan.

Hi Andy,
If you want to do it this way to experience the process go right ahead Your steps look OK from a quick look. If you are only lightly dressing the boards you can thickness to the final dimension, but if you are taking a significant amount off it might be prudent to finish them a few mm oversize and let them sit a week or two to see what they do, then finish dressing to final dimensions.
When glueing up the panels, the old up, down, up down trick for arranging the end grain is a bit of a furphy. Since you're attaching the top all the way across with brackets, it will be well supported, I would just arrange the boards for best appearance. Several professional furniture makers/teachers I know actually build with all facing one way. The reasons can best be summed up in the explanation in this link.

However, if you want to build a trouble free assembly bench that is guaranteed to stay flat (always a good thing for glue-ups) you might consider using xanita board for the top. It's a torsion box and bloody strong (you can drive a forklift on it) and is even available in melamine for easy cleanup of glue residue. I used it for my assembly bench and can highly recommend it.

Cheers
Michael

Wow what a beautiful workbench you made Michael - leg vice and all!

I remember Richard Vaughan mentioning the Xantia board at one of the wood shows. Did you drill down into yours? How would the Domino holes go - would they still be a clean cut in the Xantia board, or how about drilling 3/4" holes?

Their site doesn't list where you can buy it, so I've flicked them an email.

Thanks,
Nathan.

Originally Posted by I_wanna_Shed

Wow what a beautiful workbench you made Michael - leg vice and all!

I remember Richard Vaughan mentioning the Xantia board at one of the wood shows. Did you drill down into yours? How would the Domino holes go - would they still be a clean cut in the Xantia board, or how about drilling 3/4" holes?

Their site doesn't list where you can buy it, so I've flicked them an email.

Thanks,
Nathan.

Thanks Nathan The workbench part is in oregon and I did not need to drill any dogholes in the assembly bench part of it so I don't know about that or how dominoes might go. I sort of assumed that the Domino reference was to using the bench to hold and make stuff with the Domino, not make it with the Domino.

Cheers
Michael

Originally Posted by mic-d

Hi Andy,
If you want to do it this way to experience the process go right ahead Your steps look OK from a quick look. If you are only lightly dressing the boards you can thickness to the final dimension, but if you are taking a significant amount off it might be prudent to finish them a few mm oversize and let them sit a week or two to see what they do, then finish dressing to final dimensions.

Cheers
Michael

Nice bench Michael, looks very strong and sturdy
When you say lightly dressing, is their a figure?
Say I got a 50mm thick jarrah piece and I resawed it, then dressed it up a few mm would this also need to sit in the garage for a week or two?
Or is it just when you plan the boards on both faces?

And when you say sit - do you suggest using stickers or jus clamping them all down flat?

Andy

Also if I wanted to put solid wood edging on the top, would I be able to just put it straight on or would I need a floating style panel to allow for movement?

Originally Posted by groeneaj

Nice bench Michael, looks very strong and sturdy
When you say lightly dressing, is their a figure?
Say I got a 50mm thick jarrah piece and I resawed it, then dressed it up a few mm would this also need to sit in the garage for a week or two?
Or is it just when you plan the boards on both faces?

And when you say sit - do you suggest using stickers or jus clamping them all down flat?

Andy

Hi Andy, if you were to just need to dress a 25mm board down to say 22 mm, that would be OK I think, but if you are resawing that 50mm piece into two 23-24mm pieces, you need to let those sit for a couple of weeks til they settle down, then dress them.

Originally Posted by groeneaj

Also if I wanted to put solid wood edging on the top, would I be able to just put it straight on or would I need a floating style panel to allow for movement?

If you mean the xanita board, yes you can just glue the lipping straight on.

Cheers
Michael

Thanks for the reply.
I actually meant the hardwood top with hardwood edging. How can this be achieved to allow for movement?

Andy

On the long grain sides you could glue on a lipping if you want say a different colour, but you have to put the end grain sides on with a floating connection. Look up bread board ends.

Cheers
Michael

Cheers for that - Iv'e since looked them, it's exactly what I want to achieve.

Does anyone know where I can buy those S clips from? Or should I just make my own style ones?


Andy

Are these the ones you want?

cheers
Michael

I think so - can anyone confirm ?

Is there a way of dong a breadboard edge with a domino? Maybe just glue the ends and have dominos every few inches for alligment?

Originally Posted by groeneaj

Is there a way of dong a breadboard edge with a domino? Maybe just glue the ends and have dominos every few inches for alligment?

Yes why not, I think it would look good if the dominoes were a contrasting colour too. You want to glue the middle only, not the ends. The central domino should be a tight fit but the holes for the others need to be oversize to allow for seasonal movement. You should leave the bread board ends a bit longer unless you know for certain that the timber is at its highest moisture content and will only shrink. Otherwise they may grow past the ends which isn't a good look.

CHeers Michael